INTERACT: A comprehensive approach to assess urban form interventions through natural experiments

Area of Science:

• Urban planning and public health research.
• Environmental psychology and behavioral science.
• Geospatial analysis and big data analytics.

Background:

• Urban form interventions significantly impact physical activity, social engagement, and well-being, often with inequitable outcomes.
• Natural experiment studies are crucial for understanding causal relationships between urban design and health.
• The INTErventions, Research, and Action in Cities Team (INTERACT) is a collaborative initiative focused on creating healthier, sustainable urban environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To generate timely evidence on the health effects of urban form interventions using natural experiments.
• To develop and refine methodologies for conducting natural experiment studies in urban settings.
• To advance the understanding of how urban design influences population health and well-being across diverse populations.

Main Methods:

• Evaluating natural experiments across four Canadian cities with diverse urban interventions.
• Recruiting cohorts of 300-3000 adult participants per city, collecting data over multiple time points.
• Utilizing sensor-based data, surveys, qualitative interviews, machine learning, and temporal GIS for comprehensive analysis.

Main Results:

• The study is designed to yield significant insights into the complex interplay between urban environments and human health.
• Anticipated findings will inform evidence-based urban planning and public health policies.
• The project will establish new benchmarks for data collection and analysis in urban health research.

Conclusions:

• INTERACT aims to enhance the evidence base for population health intervention research.
• The project will address challenges in big data, knowledge mobilization, ethics, and causality in urban health studies.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration and advanced methodologies, including the use of 100 TB of sensor data, are key to the project's success.