Our first phase of data collection for the River Wards Environmental Health Project has concluded. Our survey team spent 11 weeks in the field and visited 3,392 households. We completed 331 surveys and collected data for 223 blocks in the survey area. In our weekly project meetings, the survey team consistently reported that residents were […]
This week the River Wards survey team began training for the field. Our team is a mix of undergraduate and graduate students from Drexel University, myself, and Russell Zerbo from the Clean Air Council. The team will be conducting our door-to-door survey four to five days a week in the study area – Port Richmond, […]
The EnviroHealthSense team is gearing up to start fieldwork in the River Wards. This past month we have been sketching out residential areas where we would like to conduct our survey. We’ve been focused on Kensington and Port Richmond, but later this week we’ll head up to Bridesburg to map out the survey zone in that community […]
Civic engagement is an area of focus for Drexel University. The Dornsife Center speaks to this focus. An urban extension center, Dornsife’s mission is to build relationships between West Philadelphia residents and students, faculty, and staff at Drexel. Having a physical space to develop community-university relationships is key, and the Center’s complex offers ample and diverse […]
More and more green technologies enter the market every year in an attempt to remediate climate change. Biowalls are among them. But there’s something different about this product. More than just a consumer good, biowalls encourage the user to engage in sensing their environment differently. As one of the biggest challenges in both sustainability and […]
Last Saturday (July 12th) I went to NKCDC’s soil testing day with Dawn McDougall. The plan was for me to give a presentation on environmental hazards and soil contamination, but there was so much else going on that we tabled it for another event. At NKCDC’s Frankford Ave lot, residents not only screened soil from their yards, but could […]
My research for EnviroHealthSense has primarily focused on collecting and categorizing asthma research between 2003 and 2014. I have focused on mapping and organizing articles in an “Asthma and Obesity” Zotero collection to create a visual representation of the locations of the data collected. With over two hundred articles from multiple journals, the goal is […]
How do we get people to slow down and interact where you wouldn’t normally be able to? How can spaces be redefined and repurposed to provide opportunities that increase social interactions. How might we make Philly slower? These questions come from the brainstorming session led by artist Hunter Franks, the creator of the “League of Creative […]
On May 15 2014 the EPA released a proposal that would significantly decrease the emissions released, in tons per year (TPY), by petroleum refineries. Their goals include lowering the total tons of toxic air pollutants (SOx, NOx, CO and other pollutants) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 5,600 tpy and 52,000 tpy, respectively. These reductions […]
One of the things I absolutely love about Philadelphia is that there are so many organizations and projects to learn about. It’s mind boggling really. From civic associations and community development corporations, to science and tech education groups, environmental nonprofits, and public health agencies. I sometimes wonder how there can be so much going on […]