Active and completed research across built environment, green infrastructure, climate adaptation, and social vulnerability.
Ongoing projects currently being conducted by the lab.
Examines whether walkable environments — typically associated with health benefits — may inadvertently increase heat exposure for vulnerable populations. Uses GIS-based spatial analysis across San Antonio neighborhoods.
Reviews existing literature on how vacant lot interventions — greening, development, and maintenance — affect public health and safety outcomes in urban neighborhoods.
Sponsored by the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department. Studies barriers and motivations to participation in a free tree planting program targeting vulnerable communities, building on Phase 1 findings.
Digitizes urban imageability concepts using Kevin Lynch's five elements — paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks — to assess how residents perceive and navigate San Antonio's urban landscape.
Examines how arts and cultural community-based organizations help preserve local identity and resist displacement amid gentrification pressures in San Antonio neighborhoods.
Investigates the relationship between neighborhood walkability metrics and measured heat exposure, with attention to how this relationship varies across socioeconomic groups.
Completed studies that have contributed to peer-reviewed publications and policy discussions.
Sponsored by the City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department. Identified spatial patterns of participation and analyzed causes of low response rates in vulnerable communities targeted by the free tree program.
Examined how residents' perceptions of their neighborhood environment affect household disaster preparedness behaviors, with implications for resilience planning in vulnerable communities.
Used restricted Census data from the Federal Statistical Research Data Center to examine how urban form characteristics relate to community resilience outcomes across metropolitan areas.
Sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Measured the effects of flood buyout programs and subsequent green infrastructure conversion on nearby property values. Findings published as a working paper.