Optimizing Scoring and Sampling Methods for Assessing Built Neighborhood Environment Quality in Residential Areas

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Urban Planning
• Public Health

Background:

• Assessing the built environment's impact on health requires optimized measurement tools.
• Virtual audits offer a scalable approach to neighborhood assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a scoring method for virtual neighborhood audits using the Active Neighborhood Checklist (ANC).
• To assess the representativeness of street segments in low-income neighborhoods.
• To correlate ANC scores with Walk Score®.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Google Street View imagery and the ANC for virtual audits of 82 neighborhoods.
• Assessed 12 street segments per address across five ANC sections.
• Developed a combinations algorithm for street segment representativeness and calculated Spearman correlations.

Main Results:

• Neighborhood quality scores showed significant positive correlations with Walk Score® (r = 0.62, p < 0.001).
• The ANC scoring method demonstrated adequate capture of neighborhood features in low-income residential areas.
• Street segment combination correlations ranged from 0.75-1.0.

Conclusions:

• The validated scoring method supports research linking built environments to health behaviors.
• This approach is suitable for analyzing health impacts in diverse urban settings.
• Further research can utilize this method to delineate specific built environment influences on health outcomes.