# Routes to Environmental Justice: Assessment of Ambient Environmental Exposures for Safe Routes to School Programs

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · 2022 · $157,622

## Abstract

Less than one-half of U.S. children age 6–11 are reaching recommended levels of physical activity, a health
behavior that tracks into adulthood and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Significant investment has been directed towards creating healthy environments for school-age children
including Safe Routes to School (SRTS), a national program that includes improvements to sidewalks,
crosswalks, and bicycle lanes. SRTS has been shown to increase the percentage of children active commuting
to school; however, high ambient temperatures may serve as a barrier to engaging in outdoor physical activity
due to thermal discomfort. Understanding the impact of SRTS on children's heat stress as measured by wet
bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and physical activity levels is critical for health equity, especially in Texas
where children in low-income communities and communities of color live in areas less supportive of physical
activity and disproportionately higher ambient temperatures due to discriminatory policies and ongoing
disinvestment. The proposed research leverages the STREETS study—a pre- and post-assessment of SRTS
in Austin, Texas, on child physical activity—to propose three specific aims: 1) construct ambient exposure
estimates of WBGT on school routes pre- and post-intervention and in home neighborhoods using spatially-
and temporally-refined modeling and GPS units; 2) determine how ambient temperatures and the built
environment are associated with active school commuting; and 3) identify methods to measure and document
how children and their parents experience and perceive ambient environmental exposures. Using
spatiotemporal modeling within GIS and formulae in the literature, WBGT will be estimated for all school routes
taken by 462 students enrolled in the STREETS cohort (320 students from 23 schools receiving SRTS; 142
students from 10 schools not receiving SRTS) who were tasked with wearing accelerometers and GPS units
for seven consecutive days over four periods (2018–2022) before and after SRTS implementation. Linear
mixed-effects modeling will be used to determine the relations between WBGT, built environment, and child
physical activity. To learn how children and their parents experience and perceive ambient environmental
exposures, participatory methods (surveys, mapping, sensors) will be tested with 40 third grade students and
their parents recruited by purposive sampling from schools enrolled in the STREETS study. To become an
independent investigator specializing in climate equity, the candidate developed a career development plan
with three training objectives: 1) to become proficient in working with ambient environmental data, in particular
downscaled model outputs; 2) to develop expertise in conducting advanced statistical analyses commonly
applied in exposure and health studies; and 3) to acquire familiarity with the design and techniques of
community-based participatory research. Career development ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10507655
- **Project number:** 1K01ES034382-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Kevin Lai Lanza
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $157,622
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10507655

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10507655, Routes to Environmental Justice: Assessment of Ambient Environmental Exposures for Safe Routes to School Programs (1K01ES034382-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10507655. Licensed CC0.

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