The last decade has seen a rapid expansion of research on the health implications of neighborhood environment features such as aesthetics, physical disorder, social activities, and pedestrian safety. Studies have found associations between specific neighborhood characteristics and cardiovascular disease, 1 self-rated health, 2 walking and other forms of physical activity, 3 obesity, 4 – 8 lower-body functional limitations, 9, 10 symptoms of depression, anxiety, and conduct disorders. 11 – 13, asthma, 14, 15 and crime and violence. Neighborhood environment studies present practical challenges, especially in studies using large and geographically dispersed samples. The Streetview Ruler tool can be used to get 3D measurements of trees, building heights, obstructions, and roof pitches that are visible in Streetview. Neighborhood features are commonly inventoried using survey respondent self-report, administrative data, or observer audits, and each of these strategies has benefits and limitations. Survey-based measures can be useful for assessing how residents perceive their neighborhoods however, using respondent reports of neighborhood conditions can introduce bias because outcomes may be correlated with measurement error on the independent variable (i.e., the “same source bias” problem). 18 One way to address same source bias is to field a parallel survey, administered to an independent sample, to measure neighborhood conditions. 19, 20 However, the additional sample increases survey costs substantially.Īlternatively, some researchers use administrative data and GIS tools to characterize urban environments. While spatially referenced administrative data are becoming more widely available and are clearly useful for neighborhood health studies, 21 such data are usually collected to meet local administrative priorities, such as needs assessment and evaluation of service quality. Even in areas with rich administrative geospatial data resources, the data often do not include many neighborhood features of interest to researchers.Īlthough some cities are making administrative data publicly available, data are often inconsistently available or collected using different methodologies across jurisdictions. Street view ruler tool download for free Individuals can download the software for free and can easily browse, carry out inquiry, create new knowledge and data, and can save and share information using KMZ data files, or can easily output the content as image files for incorporation into presentations or reports. 22īecause of these disadvantages, many researchers have relied on neighborhood audits, also called systematic social observation. 17, 23 – 26 Neighborhood audits enable researchers to define theoretically relevant measures and allow assessment of reliability and validity.
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