Reestablishing Public Health and Land Use Planning to Protect Public Water Supplies

Abstract

In New Jersey, government and purveyor action is being taken as a result of, and in support of, these findings.

Policy and Programmatic Importance of Spatial Alignment of Data Sources

“…( GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION systems (GIS) have proven instrumental in assessing environmental impacts on individual and community health. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Recent studies have begun to systematically address technological limitations associated with GIS by enhancing accuracy of positional, attribute, and temporal data; by tracking demographics and disease as geographic boundaries change over time; by identifying the best household and area measures of socioeconomic status; and by determining appropriate scales for studying links between environmental exposures and health outcomes. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Improved data and advances in techniques have enabled epidemiological and atmospheric researchers to apply GIS to highly localized problems, but such analyses present numerous methodological challenges, especially when data of different pedigrees are not collocated at small geographic scales.…”

Association of West Nile virus illness and urban landscapes in Chicago and Detroit

“…In this seminal work, it was noted that mental disorders in Chicago were associated with more decrepit urban areas and posited that this was due to like individuals living in similar situations and the contribution of physical and social conditions, especially anonymity and high mobility, to mental health. More recently, ecological studies in the United States have considered urban sprawl and increased obesity and the host of chronic diseases that accompanies it [13-15], urban water quality [16], pedestrian-vehicle accidents [17] and mental health [18]. Urban ecologists have also contributed to methods for analyzing urban form and its relationship to ecosystem health [19].…”

Physical Activity Correlates for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the Mainland United States

“…14,16–18 Neighborhood environment variables such as having recreational facilities within close proximity and highly walkable neighborhoods are also consistently related to activity levels. 19,20 …”