accessory dwelling unit (ADU): A smaller dwelling unit on the property of a primary house; also called in-law or granny unit.
active intervention: An intervention that requires an action by the host to be effective, such as fastening a seat belt.
active recreation: Physical activity that is done for recreation, enjoyment, sports, hobbies, health, or exercise during leisure time.
active transportation: Physical activity that is done primarily for the purpose of moving from one destination to another, usually by walking or bicycling; also called humanpowered transportation or active travel.
adaptation: In the context of climate change, the process of adjustment to current or expected climate and its effects so as to reduce harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.
adaptive behavior: Behavior or response toward new environments, tasks, objects, and people that is beneficial to the individual’s well-being and allows them to apply new skills to those new situations.
adaptive capacity: The ability of systems, institutions, humans, and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences.
affordable housing: Housing that a household can pay for while retaining enough money to pay for other necessities such as food, transportation, and health care; affordable is sometimes defined as not exceeding 30 percent of a household’s income.
age-friendly (world, community, city): Places that foster healthy and active aging for all ages, with an emphasis on the needs of older populations.
agency: An individual’s or community’s ability to find solutions to the issues it faces.
aging in community: Being able to remain and live independently in one’s community as one grows older and as one’s needs change because of city- or community-level initiatives; community-centric focus.
aging in place: Being able to remain and live independently in one’s home and thus community because of building-level retrofits as one grows older and as one’s needs change; dwelling-centric focus.
air pollution: Contamination of air by physical, chemical, or biological agents, including solids (particulates), gases (ozone, oxides of nitrogen, and others), and toxins (for example, formaldehyde). May be indoors (“household air pollution”) or outdoors (“ambient air pollution”).
air quality index (AQI): The US Environmental Protection Agency tool for communicating air pollution levels for each of five individual pollutants—ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide—and the associated health risks.
AQI ranges from 0 to 500, with values below 50 designated “good” and values above 100 increasingly unhealthy.
all-hazards approach: In emergency preparedness, an approach that focuses on building critical capacities for preparing for and managing a full spectrum of natural and humancaused disasters; also called multihazards approach.
American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE): An American professional association of engineers who work on heating, cooling, and ventilation systems.
Anthropocene: A proposed new geological epoch named for the significant humandriven changes to the structure and functioning of planetary systems.
anthropogenic: Resulting from or produced by human activities.
anxiety: A feeling of nervousness or fear in response to an upcoming event, potential danger, or another trigger.
application programming interface: The interface or ability for multiple parties, apps, or end users to interact with data. It is through APIs that an individual can call, or access, data from sites such as Google Maps and Twitter.
architecture: The art and science of designing buildings.
artificial intelligence: The use of computer systems to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as speech recognition and decision making.
assessment: A systematic framework for the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, often to inform decision-making.
attention restoration: Return of attention and reduction of distraction, irritability, and impatience; thought to be promoted by contact with nature.
augmented reality: The reality as seen through a camera lens is augmented, or changed with digital technologies, such as adding a digital bike lane to a real-time video capture of a streetscape.
awe: A transcendent emotional state that may be triggered by contact with nature and may be associated with health benefits.
bias: In epidemiology, any systematic error (for example, in selection of subjects or collection of data) that results in an incorrect estimate of the association between an exposure and an outcome.
big data: Large amount of data often collected by urban technologies. The five V’s of big data are volume, velocity, veracity, variety, and value.
biophilia hypothesis: The theory that humans have an inherent need to affiliate with nature.
biophilic city: See biophilic design
biophilic design: A design strategy that fosters beneficial contact between humans and the natural world.
blue space: Visible, outdoor, natural surface waters, including coastlines, riverfronts, and lakeshores, with potential for the promotion of human health and well-being.
body mass index (BMI): A weight-to-height ratio, calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of the person’s height in meters, used as a measure of obesity.
bonding social capital: See social capital.
bridging social capital: See social capital.
broken windows theory: The theory that features of the built environment such as litter and vandalism are demoralizing to residents, can trigger disengagement and further neglect of a place, and can adversely affect mental health, social capital, and well-being.
brownfield: A former industrial or commercial site with residual environmental contamination, typically by toxic chemicals.
Build Back Better: A slogan coined after the 2004 Asian tsunami, invoked after many disasters and most recently used in the context of COVID-19, conveying the aspiration that postdisaster recovery should achieve not a return to predisaster “normal,” but improved levels of resilience, equity, environmental performance, healthfulness, and functionality.
building codes: Regulations established by a government agency describing design, building procedures, and construction details for new buildings or those undergoing remodeling, including houses and commercial buildings.
built environment: Settings designed, created, modified, and maintained by people, such as homes, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, parks, roadways, and transit systems.
bus rapid transit (BRT): A high-quality busbased transit system that delivers fast, cost-effective services through the provision of dedicated lanes, with busways and stations typically aligned to the center of the road, off-board fare collection, and frequent operation.
carbon footprint: A measure of total carbon emissions attributable to a person, product, place, or system.
carbon neutral: A feature of buildings or communities that entails producing zero net carbon emissions. Carbon emissions are minimized through energy conservation and the use of renewable energy sources, and carbon that is released is balanced by carbon sequestration or offsets.
carbon sequestration: The process of storing carbon in a natural or artificial carbon pool (for example, forests, grasslands, coastal ecosystems; landfills, geological or mineral sequestration).
carbon sink: A reservoir (natural or human, in soil, ocean, and plants) where a greenhouse gas, an aerosol, or a precursor of a greenhouse gas is stored.
case-control study: An epidemiologic study that compares people with a condition of interest to people free of that condition to assess whether certain exposures are associated with the condition.
causation: The creation or production of an effect. In epidemiology, causation is defined in many ways, from deterministic to probabilistic. Causation is often evaluated using formal criteria (Bradford Hill criteria).
certification: The action or process of assessing and communicating a level of standard or achievement.
charrette: A planning workshop at which government staff, community residents, and developers collectively engage in a visioning process regarding a plan, project, or proposal.
chronic diseases: Conditions that persist over time and require ongoing medical attention, limit activities of daily living, or both. Examples include heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, which are leading causes of death and disability. Also called noncommunicable diseases.
citizen jury: A group of community members who deliberate and make recommendations to decision-makers on a particular issue.
City Beautiful movement: A movement in North American architecture and urban planning around the turn of the twentieth century that advocated elite culture and monumental grandeur in cities.
citymaking: Comprehensive approach to designing, managing, and evaluating urban life and public spaces.
civil engineering: The field of engineering focused on the design, construction, and maintenance of built environment elements such as bridges, roads, canals, and dams.
Clean Water Act (CWA): A US federal law enacted in 1972 that establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into water and quality standards for surface waters.
climate change: A change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.
climate gentrification: Climate-protective investments or decisions that contribute to increased social and ecological vulnerability for working-class, minority, and immigrant communities, either because of concentrated environmental investment in highincome communities or the displacement of marginalized groups to less protected neighborhoods.
climate justice: Justice that links development and human rights to achieve a humancentered approach to addressing climate change, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly.
co-benefit: The positive effect that a policy or measure aimed at one objective might have on other objectives, thereby increasing the total benefits for society or the environment.
cognitive functioning: The ability to learn, reason, make decisions, solve problems, remember, and, importantly, pay attention.
cohor t study: A type of epidemiological study in which a well-defined group of people who have had a common experience or exposure are followed to determine the incidence of health outcomes of interest.
collective efficacy: People’s ability to mobilize to undertake collaborative action.
combined sewer overflow: When excess liquid from a combined sewer system is diverted to overflow and discharged into designated water bodies.
combined sewer system: A network of sewer pipes that collects both sewage and stormwater and moves it via gravity to be treated. Used extensively in older cities and now being replaced by separate systems.
community gardens/allotments: Land with allocated patches where individuals and groups can grow food and other plants.
complete streets: Streets designed and operated so that all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities, can safely move along and across the streets.
comprehensive plan: An official document adopted by a local government that serves as a guide for making land use changes, preparing capital improvement programs, and determining the rate, timing, and location of future growth; also called master plan or general plan.
confounding: In epidemiology, a source of systematic error that arises when the association between an exposure and a health outcome is distorted by a third variable (the confounder).
connectivity: The directness or ease of travel on sidewalks, paths, and streets between two points; a facilitator of active transportation.
conservation zoning: Zoning that aims to preserve natural resources by regulating or limiting development in natural areas.
construct: Hypothesized cause of an observed behavior.
consumption-based emissions: Greenhouse gas emissions arising from goods and services consumed by residents of a particular place, whether produced within the boundaries of that place or elsewhere. See also sector-based emissions.
cost-benefit analysis: A systematic way of assessing the costs and benefits of various policy options, usually expressing both costs and benefits in monetary terms. Used to assess whether costs outweigh benefits and to inform decisions among different policies.
cost-effectiveness: See cost-effectiveness analysis.
cost-effectiveness analysis: A systematic way of assessing the costs and benefits, especially health outcomes, of interventions. Used to compare interventions in terms of the cost of gaining a unit of a health outcome and to inform decisions among different interventions.
crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED): An approach to reducing aggressive and criminal behavior by adjusting characteristics of the built environment.
cross-sectional study: An epidemiologic study design in which data on exposures and health outcomes are collected at the same time.
crowding: A physical phenomenon referring to a high number of people in a space such as an apartment or a classroom (measured by density) and a perceptual phenomenon referring to the felt experience of excess proximity to other people such that one’s personal space is violated.
cumulative exposures: The concept that multiple exposures—chemical, physical, psychological, and social—acting over a person’s entire life span combine to define a person’s level of risk.
decarbonization: The process of eliminating the carbon emissions associated with electricity generation, industry, and transport.
deliberative polling: Polling that engages community members in dialogue on current issues, a proposed project, or policy changes to generate more informed and representative public opinions.
density: The number of people, jobs, or dwellings per unit area.
depression: A common ailment featuring sadness, sleep disturbance, low energy, low self-esteem, reduced feelings of pleasure, and loss of interest in things. Affects most people at some point and may be serious and persistent in some.
desalination: The process of removing salt from seawater.
design: The act of imagining and specifying how things are made.
design safety review: In occupational health, a formal proactive process to evaluate and then reduce or remove workplace hazards.
digital divide: Unequal access to hardware (smartphones, laptop computers) and the internet (5G, fiber, broadband).
disability: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; it is a feature of person-environment fit that results from a mismatch between the goals and abilities of an individual and the demands of both the social and physical environment.
disability-adjusted life year (DALY): A measure of overall disease burden; one DALY is the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health. DALYs for a disease or health condition are the sum of the years of life lost due to premature death and the years lived with a disability due to the disease or health condition.
disaster risk reduction: The process of preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, which contributes to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development.
dose-response relationship: An association between an exposure and health outcome in which the health outcome increases or decreases directly or inversely as the amount of exposure (dose) increases or decreases.
e-bike: Bicycle with an electrical motor that assists riders in climbing hills, taking longer trips, and overcoming limited mobility.
ecological footprint: A measure of the quantity of biologically productive land area required to produce the resources consumed and absorb the wastes generated by human activities.
ecological gentrification: See green gentrification.
ecological study: In epidemiology, a study that assesses the overall frequency of a health outcome in a population in relation to a population exposure, based not on individual data, but on average levels of exposure and health outcome across a population.
ecosystem services: Benefits people obtain from the ecosystem categorized into four major services: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.
efficacy: In the context of health, the ability of an intervention (such as a medication or an environmental change) to improve health.
embodied carbon: The greenhouse gas emissions associated with extracting, processing, manufacturing, transporting, and disposing of materials, which represents the climate change impact of materials across their life cycle; also called embodied emissions.
embodied water: The water consumed in producing food or other products, which is typically “hidden” from sight at the point of consumption; also called virtual water, embedded water.
emergent property: A property of a complex system that is meaningful only at the level of the entire system and that can neither be predicted from nor reduced to its component activities or structures. Emergent properties of resilience emerge from the interactions between infrastructure, behavior, and policy.
empirical evidence: The results of experimental or observational research conducted within a rigorous and reproducible scientific study design.
environmental determinism: Behavioral characteristics are largely or completely the result of environmental conditions.
environmental engineering: The field of engineering that focuses on the environmental performance of built environment elements, ranging from buildings to large-scale public works.
environmental health: The field of public health concerned with how human health, disease, and injury are affected by environmental factors, including direct negative (chemical, physical, and biological agents) and positive (nature contact) effects and the health effects of the broad physical and social environments, such as housing, urban development, land use, and transportation.
environmental impact assessment (EIA):
The process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account interrelated socioeconomic, cultural, and human health impacts, both beneficial and adverse.
environmental injustice: Disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards (such as pollution sources) or amenities (such as parks) and unequal distribution of power, political voice, legal protection, and resources needed to secure safe, healthy conditions, typically affecting low-income communities or communities of color; also called environmental inequity. Referred to as environmental racism when directed at racial and ethnic minorities.
environmental justice (EJ): Fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to environmental laws, regulations, policies, and conditions; also a grassroots movement that began in the 1980s and that promotes these goals.
environmental privilege: Disproportionate access to parks and green space, fresh food, healthy housing, transit, legal protection, and other environmental amenities, benefiting wealthier and majority ethnic and racial groups while excluding marginalized groups.
environmental racism: See environmental injustice.
epidemiological transition: A change in the patterns of health, accompanying economic development, from communicable to noncommunicable diseases as the primary causes of morbidity and mortality.
epidemiology: The study of the distribution and determinants of health conditions or events among populations and the application of that study to improving health.
equigenic effect: Attenuation of health disparities between social classes by an environmental or social circumstance such as green space.
equity: Fairness or justice in the rights, opportunities, protections, and treatment of different groups of people.
evaluation: A systematic assessment of the effectiveness and consequences of an intervention.
evidence-based design: Design in which decisions about the built environment are based on credible research to achieve the best possible health outcomes.
evidence-based practice: The idea that empirical evidence should be systematically collected, evaluated, and used as the basis for decisions.
evidence synthesis: Systematic efforts to identify and aggregate evidence from different studies to reach robust conclusions.
exposure: In toxicology, contact with a substance by swallowing, breathing, or touching the skin or eyes. May be short term (acute) or long term (chronic). In disaster management, the presence of people; livelihoods; species or ecosystems; environmental functions, services, and resources; infrastructure; or economic, social, or cultural assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected.
facility life cycle: A consideration of workplace hazards throughout the life of a facility, including early occupants (construction workers) and supporting occupants (operations and maintenance workers), as well as subsequent renovation and demolition workers.
fifteen-minute city: A city in which residents have access to the goods and services they need on a regular basis within a short distance of home, close enough for walking or bicycling.
floor area ratio (FAR): The ratio of the gross building area to the parcel’s land area. Regulations about FAR influence the shape, size, and mass of a building.
food apartheid: Areas of inequitable food access where limited options exist and the policies and practices, current and historic, come from a place of anti-Blackness.
food desert: A place that has little or no access to the foods needed to maintain a healthy diet and that is served instead by fast-food establishments or convenience stores.
food environment: The availability and selection of foods in a particular setting, such as a school or a neighborhood.
food swamp: A place with abundant caloriedense, low-quality food options (i.e., fast food).
form-based zoning: Zoning that focuses on required features and performance of buildings rather than on prohibitions and specifications of land uses.
fractal patterns: A common pattern occurring in nature in which each part of an object (such as a snowflake or tree branches) has the same form as the whole.
fresh food access: The ongoing opportunity to procure fresh fruits and vegetables and other nutritious foods within one’s community.
Garden City movement: An urban planning approach introduced by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom at the turn of the twentieth century that envisioned cities as planned, self-contained communities with defined mixes of housing, industry, and agriculture and surrounded by “greenbelts.”
gentrification: A sociocultural phenomenon in which older, declining neighborhoods are renovated, property taxes rise, and lower-income residents may be displaced because they can no longer afford to live there.
geographic information systems (GIS): A computer system designed for storing, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying data in a geographic context.
graywater: Wastewater generated from domestic activities such as showers and bathtubs and washing dishes and clothes, but not including wastewater from toilets. Graywater is potentially reusable.
Great Acceleration: The dramatic, continuous, and roughly synchronous surge in growth of numerous forms of human activity, beginning with the Industrial Revolution, accelerating in the mid-twentieth century, and continuing to the present.
green building: An approach to designing, building, and operating buildings that emphasizes energy efficiency and environmental performance.
green gentrification: A form of gentrification (see above) triggered by the provision of parks and other green infrastructure—an undesirable outcome of actions that purportedly advance environmental goals and social welfare.
greenhouse gases (GHGs): Naturally and anthropogenically derived gases in the atmosphere that absorb and emit radiant energy, trapping solar energy at the earth’s surface (“greenhouse effect”). Includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases, and others.
green infrastructure: The range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement, or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or surface waters.
green space: Land that is partly or completely covered with grass, trees, shrubs, or other vegetation, including parks, community gardens, and forests, with the potential to support ecosystem services and human health.
growth management: A combination of techniques used to determine the amount, type, and rate of community growth to be directed to designated areas.
Haddon matrix: An injury prevention model developed by Dr. William Haddon that related the phases of injury prevention (preinjury, injury, postinjury) with the main components of injury mechanisms (host, vehicle/ vector, sociocultural environment, and built environment).
happiness: A term that refers to positive emotions, which may be a momentary feeling, a general feeling of well-being, or a positive subjective assessment of one’s life.
hazard: A naturally occurring or human-induced situation that poses a threat to life, health, property, or environment.
healing garden: A garden intended to promote recovery and recuperation from illness or injury through either passive use or purposeful activity.
health: “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” according to the World Health Organization. This broad definition goes well beyond a narrowly biomedical view to include many dimensions of thriving, including comfort, happiness, and well-being. However, some people who have adapted to disabilities or limitations (such as a chronic disease or a mobility limitation) object to this definition because they consider themselves to be healthy.
health care: Clinical and preventive services, administered by trained and licensed professionals, that aim to cure or manage diseases and injuries and promote health.
health disparities: Differences among specific population groups in their burden of adverse
health conditions and their access to health protective factors.
health equity: A social condition in which everyone has the right, and a fair and just opportunity, to be as healthy as possible.
health impact assessment (HIA): A combination of procedures, methods, and tools that systematically assesses the potential effects of a proposed policy, plan, program, or project on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within the population; HIA identifies appropriate actions to manage those effects.
Health in All Policies (HiAP): A collaborative approach for integrating and articulating health considerations into policymaking and programming across sectors and levels of government with the goal of improving the health of all communities and people.
health inequity: When individuals and groups of people experience differing levels of disease, disability, death, and medical care because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.
Healthy Cities movement: A movement originating in the 1980s and now led by the World Health Organization that advocates a health-promoting approach to urban governance, environmental design, and service delivery.
Hierarchy of Controls: A sequence of ways to control exposures to workplace hazards that is arranged in order of effectiveness, beginning with the most effective: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, warnings, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment.
horticultural therapy: A treatment approach utilizing plants and horticultural activities to promote healing or to improve peoples’ social, educational, psychological, or physical well-being.
hospital-associated infections: Infections acquired by patients in hospitals or other health care facilities while they are receiving health care for another medical condition.
housing codes: Federal, state, or local government ordinances that set minimum standards of safety, sanitation, and habitability for existing residential buildings, as opposed to building codes that govern new construction.
implementation research: The scientific study of methods and strategies to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based practice and research by practitioners and policymakers; also called implementation science.
incidence: The rate of onset of new cases of a disease per unit of time.
incivilities: Unpleasant elements in neighborhoods or streets, such as abandoned buildings, broken windows, trash, litter, and graffiti.
inclusionary zoning: A method of incorporating affordable housing into development projects by requiring the developer to build some affordable units or contribute to a trust fund devoted to affordable housing construction.
inclusive design: Design incorporating all abilities and adaptations.
infill development: Building in existing developed areas on vacant lots and underutilized parcels, thereby increasing density.
informal settlement: An urban settlement that develops outside of the legal systems intended to record land ownership, provide basic services, and regulate planning, land use, buildings, and public health and safety.
injury: Unintentional or intentional damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to kinetic, thermal, mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen.
intentional injury: Injury caused by a person with intent to do harm, such as homicide, assault, child maltreatment, elder abuse, or suicide.
integrated mobility platforms: Information systems with user interfaces (apps) that integrate different modes of transport and facilitate route planning, travel, and payment
(for example, Lyft, Lime, local transit apps, Google Maps).
integrated pest management: An approach to pest control that prevents entry of pests into homes; deprives pests of access to shelter, food, and water; and minimizes use of pesticides.
intergenerational equity: In the context of climate change, equity between present and future generations, acknowledging that past and present emissions, vulnerabilities, and policies impose costs and benefits for people in the future and of different age groups.
Internet of Things (IoT): The network of internet-connected devices and technologies.
interpersonal violence: Acts of aggression and assault against children, elders, intimate partners, acquaintances, and strangers.
intersection density: A measure of the number of intersections in an area; higher intersection densities correspond to shorter block lengths and contribute to walkability.
joint use: Formal arrangements between two government entities, such as a school district and a park department, providing for shared use of a venue, such as a schoolyard doubling as a public park.
landscape architecture: The design profession focused on exterior spaces, including interior courtyards, gardens, campuses, public spaces, river corridors, and entire ecological regions.
land use: The totality of arrangements, activities, and inputs in a certain land cover type.
land use change: A change from one land use category to another, such as the conversion of forest to farmland or to urban development.
land use mix: The ways in which different land uses—residential, office, retail/commercial, public space, and others—are commingled.
land use plan: A document that guides the use of land in a county or city, based on local needs and goals.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED): An internationally recognized green building certification system, developed by the US Green Building Council, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance in energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
legibility: In the context of a building or a neighborhood, the ease with which people can orient to where they are and find their way to where they want to go. Legibility is enhanced by such features as clear signage, recognizable landmarks, and simple layouts and routes.
leisure-time physical activity: Physical activity engaged in by choice by individuals during nonwork time and not required to perform essential activities of daily living.
level of service: The speed, convenience, comfort, and security of transportation facilities and services as experienced by users.
life cycle assessment: A technique for assessing the potential environmental and health impacts associated with a product, process, or system from its origins through production and use to its final disposition.
locally unwanted land use (LULU): A land use with negative consequences for those who live nearby, such as a hazardous waste site or a polluting industry.
loneliness: The subjective experience of feeling disconnected from other people. See also social isolation.
loss and damage: Broadly, harm from (observed) impacts and (projected) risks; in the context of the 2013 Warsaw Mechanism on Loss and Damage, harms from climate change.
low-emission zone (LEZ): A defined area within a city from which vehicles that do not meet certain emission standards are barred.
machine learning: A branch of artificial intelligence using data and analysis to automate decisions by identifying patterns.
macroscale pedestrian environment: Characteristics of the urban form related to walkability (see below), typically measured at the level of administrative districts such as census tracts. Examples include residential density, land use diversity, distance to destinations, and street connectivity.
maladaptive behavior: Behavior or response to an environment, policy, or situation that is damaging or counterproductive to the individual and to their health, safety, or quality of life.
measurement: The process of obtaining quantitative metrics of specific activities and conditions.
mental health: A state of well-being in which people realize their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and make contributions to their community.
meta-analysis: The process of synthesizing, using statistical methodologies, research results from similar independent studies that have addressed a shared hypothesis.
metropolitan planning organization (MPO): A federally required organization of local officials and other interested parties that provides oversight to transportation planning on the regional rather than the singlecity level in areas with a population more than 50,000.
micromobility: The use of small, lightweight vehicles typically at speeds below 15 miles per hour, including bicycles, e-bikes, electric scooters, and electric skateboards.
microscale pedestrian environment: Elements of urban form at the small scale, such as transit stops, sidewalks, and crossing infrastructure, as well as other aesthetic elements such as street trees, lighting, and building design, that influence walkability (see below).
mitigation: In the context of climate change, a human intervention to reduce emissions or enhance sequestration of greenhouse gases.
Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS): Platforms that enable users to plan and access multiple types of transportation based on personal travel needs, such as an app that arranges a taxi ride to the train station together with a train journey.
mobility justice: Relates to equitable investment in and access to transportation infrastructure, especially for low-income persons and communities of color; also called transportation justice.
moderate-to-vigorous physical activity: Moving your body fast enough or at a high enough level of intensity to burn off three to six times or more than six times as much energy per minute as you do when you are sitting quietly (3 to 6 or 6+ metabolic equivalents, or METs).
morbidity: Nonfatal illness or injury affecting physical or mental health and well-being.
mortality: Death.
multihazard approach: See all-hazards approach.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): US federal agency focused on research on occupational safety and health issues.
nationally determined contributions (NDCs): Under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, a country’s plans for reducing its emissions. Some countries’ NDCs also address how they will adapt to climate change impacts and what support they need from, or will provide to, other countries to adopt low-carbon pathways and to build climate resilience.
natural experiment: An observational study in which events or interventions affect defined subpopulations but are not under the control of the researcher.
naturally occurring retirement community (NORC): Neighborhood with a majority of older adults who remain in place, but not designed to meet their needs as they continue to live independently in their homes.
nature-based solutions: Solutions to challenges such as stormwater management that are inspired and supported by nature and that are designed to be cost-effective to provide joint environmental, social, and economic benefits and to build resilience.
net zero (emissions): A state of balance between anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and removal of these gases such that there is no net addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
neurodiversity: The concept that brain function and behavior vary across a population. In the context of the built environment, typically cited to acknowledge that settings such as schools should be designed to accommodate this diversity.
New Urbanism: An urban design movement that promotes walkable neighborhoods, mixed land use, connectivity, and vibrant public spaces and activity centers.
NIMBY: An acronym for “not in my backyard,” referring to resistance by local residents to locating a project near their homes based on financial, social, or other reasons.
nitrogen oxide (NOx): A gas consisting of nitrogen and oxygen formed through combustion of fossil fuels and in other ways and representing an important air pollutant.
nonpoint-source pollution: Pollution coming from widely distributed processes, such as when rainfall over a large area picks up and conveys natural and human-made pollutants into surface waters and groundwater. See also point-source pollution.
obesity: Excessive body weight, defined for adults as a body mass index (see above) of 30 to 40 (with a BMI above 40 defined as severe obesity) and defined for children and adolescents (two to nineteen years old) as a BMI at or above the age- and sex-specific ninety-fifth percentile on CDC growth charts.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): US federal agency that regulates workplace safety and health issues.
on-site wastewater treatment systems (OWTSs): An alternative to a municipal sewage system, such as a septic tank, that manages wastewater at the point of generation and typically serves individual houses or a small number of households.
ozone: A highly reactive toxic gas with powerful oxidizing properties, consisting of molecules with three oxygen atoms. In the stratosphere, formed from ultraviolet (UV) action on oxygen molecules and blocks incoming UV radiation (a health benefit). At ground level, formed as a secondary air pollutant from precursors (hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides), contributing to “smog” and threatening health.
participatory budgeting: A democratic process that enables community members to decide how to spend part of a public budget.
participatory democracy: A concept that emphasizes broad participation of constituents in directing and operating the political systems and decisions impacting their lives.
particulate matter (PM): Small solid or liquid particles (also called aerosols) formed via combustion or friction that remain suspended in the air long enough to affect air quality. Often followed by a subscript number (10 or 2.5) to indicate particle size; smaller particles (“fine PM”) have greater health effects.
passive intervention: An intervention designed into the built environment that requires no action by the host to be effective, such as a highway guard rail.
passive survivability: The ability of a building to maintain critical life-support conditions for its occupants if services such as power, heating fuel, and water are lost for an extended period.
people-oriented design: An approach that puts people at the center of planning, emphasizing practices that prioritize people’s aspirations and ordinary experiences when imagining and implementing complex systems, services, or products; also called human-centered design.
person-environment fit theory: Explains how a person’s individual characteristics influence and are influenced by the social and built environment in which the person lives, works, and plays.
physical activity: Voluntary bodily movement that requires energy expenditure.
place attachment: The emotional bonds that people develop for places that are the sites of positive experiences and memories.
planetary boundaries: The concept, proposed in 2009, that certain Earth systems have limits that, if transgressed, risk tipping the planet into irreversible and potentially catastrophic change.
planetary health: The health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which civilization depends.
planned unit development: A preplanned development with subdivision and zoning rules that are applied to the project as a whole rather than to individual lots or areas.
planning commission: A group of citizens, either elected or appointed by the mayor or city or county commissioners, that functions as a fact-finding and advisory board to elected officials in areas of planning and development.
point-source pollution: Any single identifiable source of pollution from which pollutants are discharged, such as a pipe, ditch, ship, or factory smokestack. See also nonpoint-source pollution.
policy research: Social scientific research related to policies that may be descriptive or analytical or may deal with causal processes and explanations for policies.
polycentricity: In urban planning, a metropolitan area configuration with multiple centers of commercial and residential activity. In governance, vesting decision-making power in more than one place to better respond to local needs and avoid bottlenecks or system failures during crises.
postoccupancy evaluation: The process of analyzing how functional and comfortable a building is after users have been occupying it for six months or longer.
potable water: Water that is safe to drink. precautionary principle: “When an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically” (1998 Wingspread Statement). predictive analytics: Use of data, statistics, and algorithms to predict future outcomes.
preemption: The act of a higher level of government (state or federal), by legislative or regulatory action, eliminating or reducing the authority of a “lower” level over a given issue. preparedness: A state of readiness, often used in relation to natural or human-induced disasters.
prevalence: The proportion of a population suffering from a condition at a given point in time, defined as the number of cases of disease per unit of population.
prevention, primary: Interventions to stop disease or injury from occurring.
prevention, secondary: Interventions to stop or delay the onset of adverse symptoms or effects once disease has started or an injury is occurring.
prevention, tertiary: Reducing the harm or suffering once a disease has occurred or providing rehabilitation after an injury to minimize long-term health damage.
prevention through design: In occupational health, a design approach aimed at preventing or minimizing risks associated with construction, manufacture, use, maintenance, and disposal of facilities, materials, and equipment.
prior appropriation doctrine: Legal entitlement to water rights based on earliest use of the water (“first in time, first in right”). See also riparian rights.
program evaluation: A structured effort to assess the performance and outcomes of a program according to defined criteria. prosocial behavior: Behavior that benefits other people, either individually or on a societal scale, such as sharing among children and volunteerism among adults.
public health: The science and art of promoting health and preventing disease, injury, and disability in populations.
public water systems (PWS): Systems that provide water through pipes or other conveyances to at least twenty-five people or fifteen service connections for at least sixty days per year.
racial capitalism: Capitalist structures that inequitably exploit particular groups through culturally and socially constructed differences such as race, gender, region, and nationality.
Radiant City: An influential Utopian design concept championed by the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier in 1930 but never built, featuring linear layout, high-rise housing blocks, and plentiful green space.
rain harvesting: The collection and storage of rainwater.
randomized controlled trial (RCT): In epidemiology, a clinical trial in which people are randomly assigned to different treatment groups (sometimes including a placebo group); commonly used to test new treatments.
reciprocity: The practice of exchanging goods, services, or other assistance with others for mutual benefit.
recovery: In the context of disasters, the regaining of function following a disaster, including restoration of basic services and rebuilding of infrastructure.
recreational physical activity: Physical activity that is done for recreation, enjoyment, sports, hobbies, health, or exercise during leisure time; also called active recreation or leisure-time physical activity. See also utilitarian physical activity.
redlining: The practice of designating certain neighborhoods as ineligible for credit based on race or ethnicity. This equates to a denial of financial services (mortgages, insurance, loans), most often to residents of minority neighborhoods.
redundancy: In engineering and disaster planning, the duplication of critical components or functions so that one failing element does not lead to system failure.
regional plan: Planning on a larger spatial scale than a town or city, extending to “any geographic area that possesses a certain unity of climate, soil, vegetation, industry, and culture“ (Lewis Mumford). Typically considers land use, infrastructure, ecosystem services, and economic development.
reparability: The capability of a system or structure of being restored to partial or full functionality.
residential density: The number of residential dwelling units per unit of land area.
resilience: The ability of a person, structure, or system to withstand shocks or stressors while maintaining or recovering function and continuing to adapt and improve.
retrofitting: The process of modifying something after it has been created. Retrofitting a building involves changing its systems or structure after its initial construction and occupation, and retrofitting a suburb involves changing land uses, transport infrastructure, and other features.
reverberation: In acoustics, the length of time a sound lingers in a room.
riparian rights: Legal entitlement to water use based on ownership of land that contacts a waterway. See also prior appropriation doctrine.
risk: The potential for adverse consequences where something of value is at stake and where the occurrence and degree of an outcome is uncertain. Risk results from the interaction of vulnerability (of the affected system), its exposure over time (to the hazard), and the hazard and the likelihood of its occurrence.
road diet: The narrowing of a road or calming of traffic on a road by various means, including removing traffic lanes, reducing traffic speed, widening sidewalks, and adding bike lanes.
routine activities theory: A theory that suggests that crime and violence occur due to the convergence in space and time of motivated offenders, suitable targets, and absence of capable guardians.
Safe Routes to School: A transportation agency program that supports infrastructure improvements, education, and enforcement efforts to enable and encourage children to walk or bicycle to school.
safety: In general, a low risk of injury or other harm. In the context of health interventions, a low risk of causing adverse effects (such as medication side effects).
sanitary sewer overflow: See combined sewer overflow.
sanitary sewer system: An underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage (as opposed to stormwater) from residential and commercial buildings to treatment facilities or disposal.
sanitation: A set of technologies, practices, and policies that promote health through provision of clean water, management of sewage and solid waste, food safety, and rodent control.
sector-based emissions: Greenhouse gas emissions arising within the boundaries of a particular place; also called territorial emissions. See also consumption-based emissions. self-selection: Assignment of oneself to a particular condition, as when people with particular needs or preferences choose to live in places that facilitate their preferred behaviors.
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: A framework adopted by the United Nations in 2015 for actions by member states to reduce disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, and health and in economic, physical, social, cultural, and environmental assets.
sense of belonging: A sense, among members of a group, of solidarity, trust, and attachment toward one another.
sense of place: The way people perceive and relate to a place or the features of a place,
often with a sense of belonging and affinity See also place attachment.
sensors: Devices that sense or record a variety of data passing the sensors lens or intake, including pedestrians on a greenway or nitrogen dioxide in the air.
setback: The distance that must be provided between a building and a street or other feature, as specified by a municipal code.
shared economy: Peer-to-peer interaction and sharing of resources such as vehicles (Lyft) and homes (Airbnb).
sick building syndrome: A set of symptoms reported by people with shared exposure through living or working in a building, including irritation of the nose, eyes, and mucous membranes; fatigue; dry skin; and headaches.
site plan: A scale drawing showing proposed uses for a parcel of land reflecting the development program and applicable regulations.
Slow Streets: A program that uses signage and temporary barriers to slow speed and limit vehicle traffic and to promote socially distanced walking, biking, and running activities.
slum: See informal settlement.
Smart City: An urban area that features systematic collection and use of data, using Internet of Things sensors and technologies, to manage operations and resources efficiently.
smart growth: An urban planning approach that aims to manage the growth and land use of a community so as to minimize damage to the environment, reduce sprawl, and build livable, walkable, mixed-use communities.
social capital: The networks, relationships, and social trust shared among people that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. Bonding social capital refers to ties between community members who are similar to each other with respect to socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, religious affiliation, or other dimensions of social identity; bridging social capital refers
to ties between community members that cut across these dimensions.
social cohesion: The perception of trust and feelings of solidarity associated with belonging to a group.
social contagion: The social transmission of attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, propelled by such mechanisms as imitation, conformity, universality, and mimicry.
social-ecological model: A health behavior model that explains the complex and overlapping interplay across individual, relationship, community, societal, and environmental factors that puts people at risk or promotes their health and well-being.
social-ecological system: An integrated system that includes human societies and ecosystems in which humans are viewed as part of nature.
social infrastructure: Institutions and facilities such as schools, libraries, and churches that shape the ways in which people interact.
social isolation: The objective experience of being alone. See also loneliness.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): The hosting and provision of apps by third parties and individuals across the internet.
spatial injustice: Unequal allocation of socially valued resources (i.e., jobs, political power, social status, income, social services, environmental goods) in space, as well as unequal opportunities to make use of these resources over time.
spatial scale: A concept of geographic extent, ranging from small (such as a room or building) to intermediate (such as a neighborhood or city) to large (such as a region, nation, or planet).
special or conditional use permit: In zoning, a permit issued after public review that allows a previously excluded use or activity in a specific zone.
spillover: The process by which a pathogen is transmitted from a reservoir host species to a recipient host species. Zoonotic spillover is transmission from wildlife or domestic animals to humans.
stormwater: Surface water resulting from heavy falls of rain or snow.
stress: The feeling of not having the resources to meet the demands of the moment. Stress can trigger endocrine and neurologic responses that, if prolonged, may be unhealthy.
structural inequality: A system of privilege created by organizations, institutions, governments, or social networks that advantages some people and marginalizes or disadvantages other people.
structural violence: Acts of neglect or harm by formal or informal institutions, including racism, police violence, and other biases.
subdivision ordinances: Local ordinances that outline specific requirements for the conversion of undivided land into building lots for residential or other purposes.
subdivision regulations: See subdivision ordinances.
subjective well-being: A positive assessment of one’s circumstances, comprised of affective (emotional) and cognitive (evaluative) components, usually assessed through self-evaluations of satisfaction with work, family and social relations, levels of interest and engagement, and general fulfillment in life.
substandard housing: A house or apartment that does not have a safe, working kitchen, bathroom, or plumbing or electrical service or that lacks an adequate source of heat and that may have leaks, moisture damage, pest portals of entry, and inadequate lighting.
suburban sprawl: The unplanned and often haphazard growth of an urban area across a larger geographic area. See also urban sprawl.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): An antihunger program through the US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service that provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of low-wage working families, low-income seniors, people with disabilities living on fixed incomes, and other households with low incomes.
surveillance: In epidemiology, the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data essential to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice.
sustainability: A dynamic process that assures the persistence of natural and human systems in an equitable manner.
sustainability native: Someone who has grown up immersed in the language and practice of sustainability and for whom sustainability comes naturally.
sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and that balances social, economic, and environmental concerns.
Sustainable Development Goals: The seventeen global goals for development for all countries established by the United Nations through a participatory process and elaborated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
systematic review: A structured approach to evidence synthesis that identifies and combines available studies according to formal procedures designed to minimize bias.
system safety: The application of engineering and management principles, criteria, and techniques to achieve acceptable risk within the constraints of operational effectiveness and suitability, schedule, and cost throughout the system’s life cycle.
taking: An appropriation of private property by government action, typically through the exercise of eminent domain. The private owner is generally entitled to compensation.
telehealth: The use of information and communications technologies to support remote health care services, health education, public health, and health administration; also called telemedicine.
telework: A work arrangement under which an employee performs work duties from home or another location rather than at the usual workplace; also called telecommuting or working from home.
tenement house: A house or low-rise (five to seven stories) apartment building carved into separate residences and rented to individuals and families in overcrowded US cities in the nineteenth century. Residents experienced cramped quarters, poor lighting and ventilation, and no or limited indoor plumbing conditions.
third place: A social place that is neither home (first place) nor workplace (second place), such as parks, pubs, barbershops, churches, and libraries. Popularized by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, who emphasized the role of third places in civil society and social capital.
tight building: A building designed to minimize the exchange of indoor and outdoor air as an energy-saving strategy but that thereby risks accumulating contaminants in indoor air.
traditional neighborhood design: An approach to planning neighborhoods that features human scale, diversity of land uses, walkability, connectivity, and public spaces, drawing inspiration from historical approaches to city planning.
transdisciplinary: Integrating formal evidence from multiple research disciplines with nonresearch evidence in a way that fosters engagement and creates new knowledge and theory to achieve a common goal. Transdisciplinary approaches contrast with multidisciplinary approaches, in which research disciplines work in parallel while following their individual precepts and ways of working, and with interdisciplinary approaches, in which they integrate to create new knowledge and theory, but without transcending the boundaries of the research community.
transit death spiral: A vicious cycle of reduced public transit use leading to reduced revenues and in turn to reduced service, deferred maintenance, and staffing shortfalls, which lead to further decreased ridership.
transit-oriented development (TOD): A pedestrian-oriented, walkable, high-density, high-quality, mixed-use development near a rail or bus station with limited parking,
thereby integrating mass transit into land use planning.
transportation planning: The profession and the process that assess transportation needs in a defined geographic area, project future needs, design transportation solutions, and allocate transportation investments.
ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI): The use of ultraviolet energy to kill viral, bacterial, and fungal organisms in a building or on a surface.
unintentional injury: Inadvertent injury resulting from events such as motor vehicle crashes, falls, drowning, and poisoning.
universal design (UD): The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
upzoning: The process of increasing the zoning density in a neighborhood, often allowing multifamily units on lots that were previously limited to single-family houses.
urban design: The art and science of designing the physical features of cities and towns.
urban growth boundary: A line drawn around a metropolitan area, designating the limits of allowable growth. Land outside the boundary is protected from new development.
urban heat island: Urban areas that are warmer than surrounding suburban and rural areas due to the concentration of heat-retaining artificial surfaces, the emission of waste heat, and other factors, posing increased risk to residents during hot weather.
urban planning: The profession dedicated to envisioning, planning, and monitoring the development and redevelopment of towns, cities, and entire regions, especially for land use, transportation, and environmental decisions; also called urban and regional planning, town planning.
urban renewal: The process used by local governments to redevelop land deemed blighted, generally in inner cities, to create opportunities for new housing, businesses, and other economic development.
urban sprawl: The unplanned and often haphazard growth of an urban area across a larger geographic area, characterized by low-density land use, low connectivity, and dependence on the automobile for transportation.
utilitarian physical activity: Physical activity that is done for the purpose of work or of moving from one destination to another, usually by walking or bicycling.
vehicle miles traveled (VMT): The total number of miles traveled by motor vehicles in a given geographic area and specific time period.
virtual water: See embodied water.
visitability: An affordable, sustainable, and inclusive design approach for integrating basic accessibility features as a routine construction practice into all newly built homes.
vulnerability: The propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected. Vulnerability encompasses a variety of concepts and elements, including sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt.
walkability: A feature of urban form reflecting the ease and convenience of walking to common destinations; areas with greater walkability have mixed land use, connected streets, sidewalks that are in good condition, features that protect pedestrians from traffic, and pleasant scenery.
walkability audit: See walkability checklist.
walkability checklist: A systematic assessment of pedestrian infrastructure in a neighborhood used to identify sites where improvements are needed.
walkable community: A community in which it is easy and safe for all people to walk to get goods and services or for recreation or employment.
Walk Score: An index based on Google Maps that incorporates distances from a specific location to stores, parks, schools, and other destinations to provide a walkability score ranging from 0 (car-dependent) to 100 (“walker’s paradise”).
wastewater: Water that has been used in the home, in a business, or as part of an industrial process.
water footprint: The amount of freshwater consumed or polluted in the production or supply of goods and services.
water paradox: The complex relationship humankind has with water because it is essential to life and is perceived as abundant and accessible, yet water shortages are increasingly plaguing all nations.
water stress: A situation in which the water resources in a region or country are insufficient for its needs.
weatherization: The process of upgrading features on an older home to improve energy efficiency.
zero-step entrance: A building entrance with no steps, a maximum one-to-twelve slope, and a minimum three-foot door width to facilitate wheelchair access.
zoning: The legal regulation of the allowable use of property and the physical configuration of property development for the protection of public health, safety, and welfare.
zoning code: See zoning ordinance.
zoning ordinance: Legislation and regulation that specifies allowable land uses.