Application Context. The Greater Nashville Regional Council (GNRC), formerly known as the Nashville Area MPO, serves as the administrator of the federally-mandated MPO for the Nashville area, which consists of 19 counties and 52 cities in middle Tennessee, in accordance with federal regulations and supervisions by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, and Federal Transit Administration (GNRC, 2020). The MPO region of GNRC has experienced rapid growth in the last two decades. The region’s population grew from 1.14 million in 2000 to 1.98 million in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 3.8% (GNRC, 2016). Because of rapid population growth, traffic congestion had become an important issue in the region. According to a report from Texas A&M Transportation Institute (Schrank, Eisele, and Xxxxx, 2019), Nashville currently ranks as the 24th most congested city in the U.S., with an average daily commuter spending 58 hours in traffic every year. In addition to traffic problems, residents in the region have also been dealing with a significant public health challenge in high prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity. According to data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (CDC, 2019a), more than 35% of adults in the state of Tennessee rated themselves as obese (see Figure 9). Tennessee also has more than 30% of adults who are physically inactive (CDC, 2019b). It was reported that more than half of the residents in the greater Nashville region never walked for transportation and only one in five walked for transportation for more than four days per week (Westat, 2013).
Application Context. Health benefits associated with active transportation can vary greatly across subgroups of the population as well as small geographic areas within a region. For example, age is an important factor determining a person’s ability of walking and/or bicycling for transportation. Low- income neighborhoods ridden with crime can also deter residents from walking to stores. Understanding differential health outcomes by population subgroups and subareas can help design policies and interventions that bring health to every citizen in every neighborhood. Existing ITHIM applications are based on aggregate zones (e.g., counties), which do not distinguish health risks and benefits by subgroups of the study population. Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxxx, Xx, Xxxxxxxxxx, and London (2017) created a version of ITHIM that disaggregated health outcomes by race, ethnicity, and income levels. This research project was sponsored by the National Centers for Sustainable Transportation (NCST), funded by the University Transportation Center program of the U.S. Department of Transportation (NCST, 2020). Although this research was based on the Sacramento Area Council of Governments’ (SACOG) Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (SACOG, 2017), SACOG was not involved in the research other than providing data. Technical details of this ITHIM Sacramento implementation are described in chapter 2 literature review. In 2019, building on the ITHIM Sacramento implementation, the same research team produced another version of ITHIM that is disaggregated by ZIP code areas within the SACOG region (Rowangould, Karner, Wu, Igbinedion, and London, 2017). The purpose of this project was to demonstrate how ITHIM can be adapted to model demographically explicit health outcomes at the neighborhood scale based on transportation plan scenarios. The regional transportation plan for the six-county SACOG region was used as the basis for this project.
Application Context. The U.S. state of California was once the 15th largest emitter of greenhouse gas worldwide (CARB, 2008). California’s transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), accounting for 38% of the state’s total GHGE, of which passenger vehicles represent the largest source of emissions. In 2008, California enacted the Climate Change Scoping Plan, setting the goal of reducing GHGE to 80% below its 1990 level (CARB, 2008). In addition to transitioning to technologies for lower carbon fuels and alternative-fuel vehicles (i.e., electric, fuel cell, and gas/electric hybrids), reducing total vehicle miles traveled is another important means of achieving the GHGE reduction goal. It was recognized that a large proportion of urban automobile trips could be made by combinations of walking, bicycling, and public transit, which also provide opportunities for increasing physical activity in the public and reducing GHGE (Xxxxxxxx et al., 2013). In conjunction with the Climate Change Scoping Plan, California enacted the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (CARB, 2020c) that obligates MPOs in California to meet specific GHGE reduction goals through land use strategies, which may include increasing development density, land use mix, job-housing balance, street network connectivity, and accessibility via all relevant modes (i.e., walking, bicycling, and transit). Each MPO in California is required to submit a Preferred Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) that specifies strategies for meeting regional GHGE reduction goals. To justify the effectiveness of the SCSs, MPOs in California use regional travel demand models to quantify GHGE reductions that could be achieved by land use strategies proposed in the SCS. The preferred SCSs is reviewed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which examines the outputs of the MPO models for the reasonableness of assumptions regarding achievable GHGE reductions from the proposed land use strategies (). Vehicular GHGE and other toxic contaminants had been the focus of these reviews (Xxxxxx, Xxxxxx, and Xxxxxxx, 2013), but the health benefits of active transportation, which is the underlying mechanism for automobile trip reduction by increasing land use densities and diversities, had not been adequately addressed in the land use plans (Maizlish, Linesch, and Xxxxxxxx, 2017). Xxxxxxxx et al. (2013) conducted the first ITHIM implementation in California to quantify potential health ben...
Application Context. Migrations and international protection. Goals: Train and sensitise professionals and authorities involved in the process of integration of vulnerable groups (children, trafficking and LGTBI+ people) potential beneficiaries of International Protection from an approach of childhood, gender diversity and human rights: o On the need for key methodologies of solidarity of responsibilities between the different administrations, defenders, prosecutors and other social agents responsible for the protection of children, foreigners, asylum and International Protection, through seminars and discussion groups that facilitate reflection spaces for the identification and development of good practices. o On the need for proper identification, offering seminars and workshops that complement the knowledge about childhood, trafficking, LGTBI+ and International Protection of the different agents involved from a general context of psychosocial intervention and legal support with refugees. Duration: Since 2019. Accessibility Requirements / Issues: no information provided. Performance procedures, ways of carrying it out: La Merced Migraciones Foundation coined and defined the term “solidarity of responsibilities” in 2009 to try to collect commitments related to training, training, cooperation, and networking in a single idea, very recognisable and transferable. From this project we believe the acceptance and evaluation of each professional of the social responsibility that we have regarding people in need of international protection is necessary. Aware of the complexity of the task, we believe that it can only be done from the complementarity of visions. Therefore, in the face of competency competition, we propose “solidarity of responsibilities.” This project aims to train professionals and key agents in the field of international protection with vulnerable groups, refugee children, women victims of trafficking or at risk of exploitation, and LGTBIQ+ in need of this protection to improve practices in reception, identification, intervention, and networking. We believe that the improvement of reception is to improve the implementation of measures that respond better to the specific needs of people requesting international protection, raising the standards of rights and intervention, and that among these measures it is essential to provide tools for correct identification of these profiles in need of international protection and intervene from a childhood, gender, and Human Righ...
