Student Research

Creating shade: building sun-safe communities in Denver

Sierra Brown — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:33:57 +0000

Creating shade: building sun-safe communities in Denver Sierra Brown Tue, 12/17/2024 - 10:33

Sierra Brown

The allure of Denver's 300 days of sunshine is hard to resist. But this cherished sunny climate comes with a tradeoff: increased UV radiation levels in a city lacking robust shade design infrastructure.

According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, in the U.S., more people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year than all other cancers combined. In Colorado, it’s the sixth most diagnosed cancer in the state. And while city planners and public health organizations have worked to enhance human health initiatives through advancing neighborhood walkability and bikeability in urban spaces, sun safety considerations, which increase with outdoor activity, have often fallen short.

Last summer, the Community Engagement Design and Research Center (CEDaR) partnered with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to explore the connection between sun exposure, skin cancer and the built environment, and work towards building sun-safe communities in the Mile High City.

Assistant Teaching Professor and CEDaR Research Associate Sara Tabatabaie has been involved with this work for nearly ten years and first conducted shade audits for neighborhoods in Denver as a PhD student. “At that time, it was part of my dissertation and research,” she said. “We did it for the CDPHE, but it was a small version. They contacted us again a year and a half ago, and they asked whether we could do it for the whole city.”

The project team, which consisted of Tabatabaie, Associate Professor and CEDaR Co-Director Jota Samper and four ENVD student interns: Logan Shockey, Cameron Cooper, Carl Eberly and Theodore Johnson Mencimer, worked to develop a methodology to assess sun exposure levels across the city. This required completing extensive shade audits within neighborhoods that varied across socio-economic level and built environment amenities.

To complete the audits, the team surveyed public areas like sidewalks, trails and urban parks at different times of day. Audits specifically noted and mapped both walkability of the blocks as well as objects that cast shade, whether from a cluster of trees or from a built structure. They also noted the physical activity within each neighborhood to better understand how often people use outdoor, sun-exposed spaces.

The shade audits evolved into comprehensive shade models for the entire city. The team used ArcGIS to map shade from both trees and buildings, combining these into a shade factor for each neighborhood and block group. Through integrating shade, walkability scores and socio-economic status information, the team calculated the sun risk index for each neighborhood and block group within neighborhoods to help prioritize areas for shade improvement.

According to the resulting maps, neighborhoods with high physical activity coupled with insufficient shade structure, which heightened risk of UV exposure, fell mainly to marginalized communities. In many cases, these at-risk neighborhoods also had higher percentages of children, a group that is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of radiation.

“Maybe not surprising, but disheartening, is this idea that the poorest neighborhoods are the ones who need the most intervention in these areas,” Samper said. “It's the ones who actually need the most shade that get the most exposure.”

Currently, Denver does not have a shade auditing component embedded within its Health Impact Assessment, a process that helps identify built environment impacts on community health. The CEDaR team hopes that the results of this study can be a first step in conducting comprehensive health assessments across Denver. They also believe that the CDPHE can use this research and the team’s recommendations as a policy leverage to support existing urban forestry initiatives, enhance streetscaping guidelines and direct more funding to the neighborhoods that need it.

“We know that what we are doing has a positive impact for the city,” Tabatabaie said.

Samper and Tabatabaie also recognized the positive impact the project had on the team’s student interns. The students were given the opportunity to gain field experience, learn and apply GIS mapping, support data analysis, provide input into the final report’s design and create connections within a government entity. CEDaR hopes to hire more student interns in the future to continue the next phases of the project.

“This is just the first phase of the project, it was about assessing,” Samper said. “The others will be about changing policy. And in the future, it will be about developing prototypes, designing and building things. It’s the entire spectrum of environmental design experience.”

Sun Risk Index for neighborhoods in Denver. The circles represent the percentage of children in each neighborhood.

Shade Score for neighborhoods in Denver.

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ENVD students exhibit work at CU Climate Expo

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 20:35:12 +0000

ENVD students exhibit work at CU Climate Expo Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2023 - 14:35

Last week, CU ��«��Ƶ hosted the 2023 Climate Action Expo, where students from various schools and colleges showcased climate solution projects. Environmental Design senior Julia Rodrguez and the ENVD Diversee Scholars Executive Board exhibited their work "The Unseen Effects of Climate Change," a research-based installation to spread awareness on environmental injustice. The panel installation was handcrafted at the ENVD Creative Labs Center (CLC). Rodriguez led the month's worth of research covering climate change, it's effects on marginalized communities and how urbanization leaves rural America with the deepest impacts.

Work from ENVD first year student Quinn Jacobson was also exhibited. Jacobson's "Gateway Park," redesigned a site located on the CU campus. The vision for the design is to create a space that makes it feel like you're in a more natural, Rocky Mountain forest environment just a few steps off of Broadway.

Last week, CU ��«��Ƶ hosted the 2023 Climate Action Expo, where students from various schools and colleges showcased climate solution projects.

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ENVD Scholarship Committee Announces 2023-2024 Research Award Recipients

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:15:06 +0000

ENVD Scholarship Committee Announces 2023-2024 Research Award Recipients Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/13/2023 - 13:15

The Environmental Design Scholarship Committee is proud to announce the 2023-2024 winners of the ENVD Research Award. The ENVD Research Award financially assists with senior-level ENVD honors and capstone projects. Congratulations to ENVD students Ellie Muncy and Ainsley McElwee!

Muncy, a sustainable planning and urban design major, is working to better understand, document and problem-solve equality in downtown ��«��Ƶ, through the lens of women’s safety. McElwee, also a sustainable planning and urban design major, is revisiting ��«��Ƶ and its historic districts to consider and present new opportunities in telling a comprehensive narrative that weaves both the historical past and the present day. Both Muncy’s and McElwee’s work, while focused and originating in ��«��Ƶ, could have influence and impact beyond the city limits.

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ENVD 4361 Dissent by Design mini-exhibit "Situating Dissent"

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 16:24:17 +0000

ENVD 4361 Dissent by Design mini-exhibit "Situating Dissent" Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/12/2019 - 10:24

The ENVD 4361 Dissent by Design mini-exhibit "Situating Dissent" will be housed in the environmental design gallery, located in the front entrance of the building, from September 12 to September 19.

In this mini-exhibit, students explore definitions for hegemony, injustice, dissent and equity. Students look to the words of activists, scholars, artists and designers, and seek manifestations in the built environment.

This exploration is a response to a question all designers are wondering a bit about: “why should environmental designers understand dissent?”

The set of definitions and images considers dissent as a precursor to equity and situates dissent in response to injustices that arise from hegemonic ideologies.

The ENVD 4361 Dissent by Design mini-exhibit "Situating Dissent" will be housed in the environmental design gallery, located in the front entrance of the building, from September 12 to September 19.

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Environmental Design Honors Symposium 2019

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 00:36:23 +0000

Environmental Design Honors Symposium 2019 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/01/2019 - 17:36

Next Friday, March 8, 2019, Environmental Design will host its annual Honors Symposium. This event gives ENVD honors students the opportunity to present their honors projects to an audience, and open the floor for questions and discussions.

This year, ten students will be presenting honors projects. See them present on March 8, from 12 - 1:30 p.m. in ENVD 134. Learn more about their topics below.

Adam Bunce
A Retrofit Design that Hybridizes Conventional and Low Impact Stormwater Infrastructure

Stella Coble
Fascist Icon to Fashion Headquarters: An Examination of the Palazzo della Civiltá Italiana

Abe Proffitt
Patterns of Disparity in Cycling Infrastructure: A Comparison of Neighborhood Access in Denver

Winter Roybal
Engaging Youth in Interpretive Education at Historic Sites in ��«��Ƶ

Kate Sector
Inspired by Nature: Mutually Beneficial Design Metrics for ��«��Ƶ, Colorado

Emily Sherman
Increasing Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change Through Design

Erick Sherwood
Achieving a Successful Olympic Games and an Enduring Host City Legacy through Architecture and Planning

Sara Taketatsu
Initiating Affordable Housing Design through a Community Based Process

Cale Wagner
Denver’s Waiting Spaces: Designing Data-Responsive and Modular Public Spaces

Brooke Williams
Innovation Districts: Evaluating Equity within the Knowledge Economy Paradigm

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ENVD senior selected for 2019 AIAS CRIT Scholars Program

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 18:37:11 +0000

ENVD senior selected for 2019 AIAS CRIT Scholars Program Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/09/2019 - 11:37

Kate Sector, a senior in architecture and co-president of AIAS at CU ��«��Ƶ, was selected to participate in this year’s CRIT Scholar research program. CRIT Scholar is a research-based program that is supported by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in partnership with several prominent architecture firms.

As a recipient, Sector will receive a $1,000 grant for her research project and will be matched with a mentor involved in conducting research at an architectural firm. Learn more

Kate Sector, a senior in architecture and co-president of AIAS at CU ��«��Ƶ, was selected to participate in this year’s CRIT Scholar research program.

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Social Justice and Activism in Design

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:43:28 +0000

Social Justice and Activism in Design Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/24/2017 - 15:43

In January, Assistant Professor Shawhin Roudbari traveled to Santiago, Chile with ENVD undergraduate research assistants Alicia Gonzales and Kristina Lu. The trio conducted fieldwork on social justice and activism in design through visual experience and interviews with various architects, planners and professors.

A month before the trip, the team identified a list of people to interview. This allowed them the opportunity to meet with ArchDaily Founder and Editor in Chief, David Basulto.

“They have a huge influence and responsibility to help shape the architecture world, but I had no idea that the global impact was so great,” Lu said about ArchDaily.

Roudbari, Gonzales and Lu made their way to Valparaíso, the second largest metropolitan area in Chile, known as a global hotbed of community activism.

“I think the context is the first part of understanding social justice and activism,” Gonzales said. “The city itself is already telling you with graffiti and murals that there is something here people want to say, and they’re saying it through drawings and pictures, etc…”

For Roudbari, the context of Santiago is much different from what’s available in ��«��Ƶ. The experience allowed for a better understanding of global perspectives, culture and societies.

“Trips like this, I think are valuable, because not only do we see it and feel it… but, we also take a little bit of that culture back to our program and share with each other.” Roudbari said.

The larger, overall project will last 3-5 years for Roudbari. His ultimate goal is in the works and will showcase the global perspectives on political engagement in design. But for now, he believes the trip was most successful in other ways.

“Part of the thing I’m excited about and that I value is that it lives on in their [Gonzales and Lu] lives, and they take those lessons with them,” Roudbari said.

After the trip, Gonzales and Lu enrolled in an independent study with Roudbari to code, analyze and find notable themes in their data. The findings will be used in, what Roudbari categorized in three different areas, “teaching, research and student’s lives.”

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