Definitions

 
 

Active Design

Active Design is a planning strategy promoting physical and mental well-being to influence the health probability of a community. Incorporating physical activity into daily life is a placemaking priority, as is ensuring equitable access to spaces that support everyday livability.


Common Humanity

Common humanity is a shared state of being, linked with basic ethics of altruism derived from the human condition, symbolizing physical care, social intelligence and compassion towards each other and self.


Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

CPTED is a multi-disciplinary approach of crime prevention that uses urban and architectural design and the management of built and natural environments as strategies that aim to reduce victimization, deter offender decisions that precede criminal acts, and build a sense of community among inhabitants so they can gain territorial control of areas, reduce crime, and minimize fear of crime.


Environmental Design

Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products that connect people, nature, and our built world. It is inherently place-based and supports innovation of and intervention in places. Part scientist, part artist, the environmental designer understands how natural systems interact with human-made systems, and applies this knowledge in the creation of healthy and sustainable communities with attention to social justice and economic vitality.


Epigenetics

Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.


Health Probability

Health probability sums up systemic influences on physical and mental well-being and the likelihood of their impacts.


Livability

Livability describes the conditions that create a community’s quality of life—including the built and natural environments, economic prosperity, social stability and equity, health probability, educational opportunity, and cultural, entertainment and recreation possibilities.


Personal Health

Personal health is the ability to take charge of your health by making conscious decisions to be healthy. It not only refers to the physical well-being of an individual but it also comprises the wellness of emotional, intellectual, social, economic, spiritual and other areas of life.


Physical Activity

Physical activity is defined as any voluntary bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. Physical activity encompasses all activities, and includes both exercise and incidental activity integrated into daily routine.


Placemaking

Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Both a process and a philosophy, how public spaces are designed is key to the success of the physical and social experience.


Public Health

Public health represents the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals.


Runnability

Runnability is a measure of how friendly an area is to running.