Built Environment Assessment
PLAN4Health - Miami Valley Initiative
PLAN4Health - Miami Valley
A healthy community does not happen by accident. It requires a comprehensive approach covering all aspects of social, physical, and economic environments. Creating environments that promote healthy behaviors and improve health outcomes in our communities requires collaboration and partnerships between planning and health professionals.
MVRPC’s PLAN4Health – Miami Valley Initiative, launched in spring of 2021, explores how planning can impact health outcomes and seeks to achieve the goal of healthy people and communities in the Dayton Metro Region.
The PLAN4Health - Miami Valley Initiative is a multi-year effort with a focus on projects and programs intended to:
The PLAN4Health - Miami Valley Initiative does not seek to develop a regional health plan or duplicate activities undertaken by local public health departments. Rather, projects and programs are geared towards information sharing, capacity building, and generating collaborative solutions.
Click the button below to learn more about MVRPC's PLAN4Health - Miami Valley Initiative.
Keep scrolling to learn more about the Built Environment Assessment. The Built Environment Assessment is the second project from the PLAN4Health - Miami Valley Initiative.
Establishing a Baseline
The Health Environment Assessment , the first project from the PLAN4Health - Miami Valley Initiative, examined a range of factors that are commonly known as the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) to establish a broad existing conditions baseline in the Region.
The Built Environment Assessment, the second project of the PLAN4Health - Miami Valley Initiative, shifts the focus to how the health and well-being of residents could be improved through planning. Using the Active Community Index, the Built Environment Assessment establishes a baseline for active living conditions in the Miami Valley. The baseline established from the Built Environment Assessment will be used to:
- Understand the current conditions for active living in our neighborhoods and communities.
- Identify locations where the built environment could be improved to make active living an easy choice for residents.
- Start a conversation between planners and other stakeholders involved in designing and developing our communities on how to create environments that promote healthy behaviors and improve health outcomes in our communities.
Planning for Healthy Communities
Planning for healthy communities is an effective way to reduce illness and promote quality of life.
The American Planning Association (APA) defines healthy communities as "places where all individuals have access to healthy built, social, economic, and natural environments that give them the opportunity to live to their fullest potential regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, income, age, abilities, or other socially defined circumstances."[1]
Healthy communities are made up of more than just medical offices and hospitals. A healthy community includes a number of elements that impact the places where people live, work, and play.
Click the button below to learn more about APA's Planning for Healthy Communities.
Planning shapes the environments in which people live, work, and play. These environments impact health in a variety of ways.
Planning improves health when we:
- Design communities to increase physical activity
- Design communities with places and considerations for children
- Design communities with mental health in mind
- Design communities for environmental justice
Decisions made regarding land use, transportation, and urban design greatly influence the environments where we spend our time and influence our health outcomes.
What is Active Living?
Active living isn't just about getting to the gym or going for a run. Active living is a way of life that integrates physical activity into everyday routines, such as walking to the store or biking to work.
Despite the known benefits of an active lifestyle, many adults in the Miami Valley fail to reach suggested targets for physical activity.
In our Region, 82% of people have adequate access to locations for physical activity. Despite this, 28% of adults report having no leisure-time physical activity region wide.
The physical and mental health outcomes reflect a lack of physical activity in the Region.
In the Miami Valley, more than a third of adults are obese, nearly a third have high blood pressure, and one in nine adults has been diagnosed with diabetes. In addition, 1in 6 adults report having 14 or more poor mental health days in a month. These outcomes are all worse than the national rates.
With the provision of a physical environment that promotes and supports active living, these health outcomes can be improved.
Active Community
The Built Environment Assessment uses a comprehensive Active Community Index (ACI) to examine the Region's current built environments for their ability to support active living conditions.
Here are some important facts and features about the Built Environment Assessment:
- Examines three (3) Active Community domains that influence active living: Land Use; Pedestrian Friendly Environment; and Activity Infrastructure
- Provides interactive maps for each domain
- Shares domain level physical environment trends and highlights findings for the populations of interest
- Presents a composite map of the domains as an Active Community Index
- Shares findings from the in-depth analysis of the Active Community Index including physical environment trends, general population analysis, populations of interest analysis, and population of interest by neighborhood types, and more.
Continue to the next section for a brief overview and important considerations that were employed during the assessment.
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Land Use
Land use tells us what function, activity, and form shape a given area. The way in which land is used shapes our physical environments and influences our daily activities. In the Built Environment Assessment, the Land Use domain examines:
- Residential density
- Non-residential intensity
- Land use diversity
An area with higher land use density and diversity is more conducive to active living. The Built Environment Assessment seeks to understand the level of land use density and diversity to gauge the level of active living conditions in our communities.
Keep scrolling to see information related to the Land Use domain.
Across the Region, land use is most dense and diverse in older and established communities. This reflects more traditional development patterns where more dense development was common and there was greater mixing of land uses.
Source: Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
Over the years, the Miami Valley Region experienced expansion of developed areas in the outlying areas, away from the central city to the suburban areas.
The chart to the left details how dense and diverse land use was for each decade of development. These values are not cumulative, but instead reflect development trends from decade-to-decade.
Over time, land use density and diversity in the Miami Valley's developed areas has declined. In 1950, 64% of the developed area had a very high level of land use density and diversity. This value dropped to just 25% for 2010. This indicates that land uses have become increasingly separated which resulted in environments that are less conducive for active living.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
In the Miami Valley's developed areas, children and older adults live in areas with similar land use density and diversity characteristics compared to the general population. People with disabilities are identified to live in areas with more land use density and diversity compared to the general population. It is important to note that more than 1 in 3 children, older adults, and people with disabilities live in areas with low to very low land use density and diversity.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016-2020 5-Year American Community Survey
Pedestrian Friendly Environment
The pedestrian friendly environment examines to what degree the built environment is welcoming to the presence of people living, shopping, visiting, working, enjoying, or spending time in the area. In the Built Environment Assessment, the Pedestrian Friendly Environment domain examines:
- Employment and housing mix
- Employment mix
- Street intersection density
- Commute mode split
The Built Environment Assessment seeks to understand the level of how our communities are amenable to pedestrians. The data for the Pedestrian Friendly Environment domain was derived from the U.S. EPA Smart Location Database National Walkability Index.
Keep scrolling to see information related to the Pedestrian Friendly Environment domain.
Across the Region, areas with a greater mix of housing and employment, grid street development patterns, and more transportation options are more likely to create a pedestrian friendly environment. These areas tend to be more present in older, established communities that developed before automobile oriented travel was common place.
Source: Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
Over the years, the Miami Valley Region experienced expansion of developed areas in the outlying areas, away from the central city to the suburban areas.
The chart to the right details how pedestrian friendly areas were for each decade of development. These values are not cumulative, but instead reflect development trends from decade-to-decade.
Over time, the Region's development has become less and less welcoming for pedestrians. In 1950, 39% of the developed area had a very good environment for pedestrians. By 2010, only 2% of new development was classified this way. Throughout the Region, development that is unwelcoming to pedestrians has become common place which hinders active living for residents.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
In the Miami Valley's developed areas, nearly half of all children and older adults live in areas where pedestrian friendliness is either low or very low. People with disabilities live in areas with slightly better outcomes - only 45% live in areas where pedestrian friendliness is low or very low. Since many people in these groups may be unable to drive a vehicle, having pedestrian friendly environments are essential to meet their daily needs and maintain a good quality of life.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016-2020 5-Year American Community Survey
Activity Infrastructure
Activity infrastructure examines the Region's activity centers and infrastructure and the level of accessibility to those facilities. In the Built Environment Assessment the Activity Infrastructure domain examines:
- Recreational area intensity and accessibility
- School intensity and accessibility
- Transit intensity and accessibility
- Bikeway intensity and accessibility
The Built Environment Assessment seeks to understand the level of how our communities are connected to activity centers and infrastructure, making an active choice an easy choice.
Keep scrolling to see information related to the Activity Infrastructure domain.
Activity infrastructure is widely available region-wide but more prevalent in older and established communities. This reflects a concentration of these facilities in more densely populated areas accessible to more population.
Source: Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
Over the years, the Miami Valley Region experienced expansion of developed areas in the outlying areas, away from the central city to the suburban areas.
The chart to the left details how available activity infrastructure was for each decade of development. These values are not cumulative, but instead reflect development trends from decade-to-decade.
Like the other domains, over time the availability of activity infrastructure within new development has declined. In 1950, 79% of the developed area had a very high prevalence and accessibility of activity infrastructure. For developed areas in 2010, only 25% had the same condition. This reflects trends that many activity destinations such as recreational facilities and schools have become less accessible and are now located beyond walking or biking distances.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
In the Miami Valley's developed areas, more than 30% of children, older adults, and people with disabilities live in areas with low to very low prevalence of activity infrastructure. While this is consistent with the general population, it leaves many people without access to these beneficial facilities that are key to supporting an active lifestyle.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016-2020 5-Year American Community Survey
Baseline: Pulling It All Together
The Active Community Index
The Built Environment Assessment examined man-made physical environmental conditions that influence active living and developed an Active Community Index (ACI) for the purpose of establishing a comprehensive baseline of how amenable an area's built environment is to active living.
The ACI incorporates critical dimensions of density, intensity, diversity, and accessibility of the built environment and is a composite of three domains: Land Use; Pedestrian Friendly Environment; and Activity Infrastructure. The ACI scores are divided into 5 classes where "Very High" indicates an environment with good active living conditions while "Very Low" indicates poor active living conditions.
Source: Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
Throughout the Miami Valley, older established communities are found to have higher ACI scores indicating that these areas have built environments that support active living. This is likely because of how development approaches have changed over time. In older communities, more dense and mixed use development patterns and grid transportation networks with better connectivity are observed. As suburban development patterns become more prominent beginning in the 1960s, built environments were designed with priority for automobiles and with separation of land uses. As a result, development became less dense and diverse and transportation networks became less connected, negatively impacting active living conditions.
Click on the map to explore data for a given area.
Over the years, the Miami Valley Region experienced expansion of developed areas in the outlying areas, away from the central city to the suburban areas.
The chart to the right details how supportive development was to active living in each decade. These values are not cumulative, but instead reflect development trends from decade-to-decade.
It is clear that development patterns have become less supportive of active living over the years. In 1950, 58% of the Region's developed areas are found to have a very high ACI score, indicating good conditions for active living. For the developed area in 2010 on the other hand, only 2% had a very high ACI score.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
In terms of population in the Miami Valley, more than 77% of the Region's population live within the developed area. Within those areas, however, not everyone is residing in an area with good active living conditions.
While over 40% of the population lives in communities with high to very high ACI scores (25.6% and 16.7% respectively), there are about the same number of people living in communities with low to very low ACI scores (27.5% and 14.5% respectively). Additionally, when examined amongst populations of different characteristics some interesting outcomes are observed.
Click below to explore the Built Environment Assessment Equity Analysis findings.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016-2020 5-YearAmerican Community Survey; Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
In the Miami Valley's developed areas, only 21% of the Region's older adults live in communities with very high ACI scores. Comparatively more than a quarter of children and people with disabilities live in communities with very high ACI scores. While this is encouraging, it still means that the vast majority of the Region's residents are living in communities with less than ideal conditions for active living.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016-2020 5-Year American Community Survey
While the Built Environment Assessment focuses on the Region's developed areas, further examination by neighborhood type revealed very profound differences between urban and suburban communities with regard to their active living conditions.
For the populations of interest, urban neighborhoods have better built environments for active living than suburban neighborhoods. For example, 59% of children living in urban neighborhoods have very high ACI conditions compared to just 14% of their suburban counterparts. Similarly drastic differences are shown for urban and suburban older adults and people with disabilities.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2016-2020 5-Year American Community Survey
Looking into the future, how is our Region expected to change in terms of population and community make up?
Between now and 2050, the overall population in the Miami Valley is expected to remain stable. However, our Region is expected to have a larger number of older adults by 2050 compared to 2020.
In addition, our Region is expected to experience shifts in where people live. Darke, Montgomery, and Preble counties are expected to see a population decline, while Greene, Miami, and Warren counties will see growth. This is important because, as the maps shows, populations are shifting away from areas of the Region that have better active living outcomes to ones that have lower active living outcomes.
Sources: Ohio Department of Development; Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
How do active living conditions relate to livability in a community? AARP has developed a Livability Index that considers a number of factors including: housing, transportation, neighborhood characteristics, environment, health, opportunity, and civic and social engagement. [3]
Comparing AARP's Livability Index with the ACI reveals that there is a strong connection between livable communities and active communities. Communities with higher ACI scores are also communities with higher livability index scores as illustrated below.
Improving built environment conditions to support active living is essential, especially when planning for the future. These environments have the capacity to improve quality of life for the Region's future residents, further sustaining livable communities.
The Built Environment Assessment reveals that current conditions for active living in our neighborhoods and communities vary. Generally, older communities are found to have built environments that better support active living than newly developed areas. The trend has been that development patterns have become less supportive of active living over the years. Further, the assessment identified that there are a significant number of people living in an areas where choosing an active living lifestyle is not an easy choice.
The baseline established from the Built Environment Assessment should serve as a foundation as our communities and Region make efforts to improve health outcomes for residents. Planning is the means by which communities shape their physical space and provide environments in which people live, work, and play. These environments impact health and well-being of our residents in a variety of ways. Planners and other stakeholders involved in designing and developing our communities, in collaboration and partnership health professionals, will need to advance planning efforts aimed at creating environments that promote healthy behaviors, improve health outcomes, and achieve healthy people and communities.
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About Us
Established in 1964, the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission promotes collaboration among communities, stakeholders, and residents to advance regional priorities. MVRPC is a forum and resource where the Board of Directors identifies priorities and develops public policy and collaborative strategies to improve quality of life throughout the Miami Valley Region.
MVRPC performs planning and research functions for our Region that ensure livable and equitable communities; clean air and water; robust roadway, transit, and active transportation options; and strategic community plans that chart the course for member communities and partners. MVRPC’s Regional Transportation Planning Organization (RTPO) involves Preble, Darke, and Shelby Counties. As the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), MVRPC is responsible for transportation planning in Greene, Miami and Montgomery Counties and parts of northern Warren County. MVRPC's areawide water quality planning designation encompasses five (5) counties: Darke, Preble plus the three MPO counties.
Contact Information
For more information, contact: Martin Kim, Director of Community and Regional Planning at mkim@mvrpc.org.
