What are Healthy Neighborhoods?

We’re interested in how place drives, interacts with, and influences health for different people, in different ways. To explore this further, we look at neighborhoods as complex systems with spatial signals that help decode their stories.

Our Mission

What Drives Disparities?

We look at multiple dimensions of social vulnerability, differences in built and physical environments, and historical context to better measure and understand disparities in the communities we work with. To address this intersectional challenge, we partner with multidisciplinary teams.

Projects

Extending 'Metrics with Spatial Effects

We model spatial effects explicitly to uncover new understanding, and are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in evaluation research and social-spatial network analysis, as well as design-driven infrastructures.

Join our Seminar Series to learn about the latest work in the field.

Seminar Series

Welcome to HeRoP

The Healthy Regions & Policy Lab is housed at the Center for Spatial Data Science and integrates innovative GIScience, public health, and statistical approaches to explore, understand, and promote healthy regions and policies.

Spatial Data Science For Good

For each project we take on, we commit to both research and translation for policy & public use. We’ve collaborated with health departments, community organizations, and national healthcare groups to translate research for good.

We likewise maintain a commitment to Open Science.

News

ChiVes Data Collaborative: Uncovering the Nature of Chicago’s Environment

Chicago's urban environment has profound impacts on the health of communities and individuals. A handful of key metrics―tree cover, air pollution estimates, heat island effects, traffic volumes, and social vulnerability index― help to reveal where in the city people...

Does Access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Match Community Vulnerability?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the disruption and shortage of treatment options for people with opioid use disorder (OUD) has been linked to significantly higher rates of overdose deaths across the country. How might an improved understanding of current community-level...

Listen: Marketplace highlights new research on internet access

Cross-posted from Atlas Insights: The US Covid Atlas blog. The nationally syndicated radio show and podcast Marketplace Tech interviewed postdoctoral scholar and US Covid Atlas co-lead Dr. Qinyun Lin (pictured above) this week on our latest research exploring the...

« Older Entries

Facilitating STEM Research Experiences

Graduate Students 56% 56%
Undergraduate Students 37% 37%
High School Students 7% 7%

Research Experiences Since 2016

%

Healthy Regions + Policies Lab