Pillar 3
Resilient/adaptive built environments
Need
COVID-19 has illuminated the deep relationship between health and the built environment in a variety of ways, whether through the instant need for hospital beds and critical care units, developing strategies for isolating coworkers within work environments, or developing rapid and safe cleaning processes to deal with the necessary parade of potentially infected persons through mass transportation, hospitality, or service environments. It has become increasingly clear the built environment can be part of the solution or part of the problem when considering the challenges of the pandemic.
Proposed Solution
In general, the amount of built environment research available as a resource pales in comparison to most other areas of medicine and science, paralyzing decision-making in this context. Our researchers are expanding our understanding of built environment solutions as they relate to crises such as a pandemic. By considering the built environment through a continuum of cost, impact, and time, we can begin to appreciate that, during a crisis, it is particularly challenging to change major infrastructure such as roads or utilities. It is less challenging to make minor modifications to interior partitions and furniture, and even less time consuming and costly to address space immediately around each individual, typically with PPE but also with devices, sanitizers, and testers.
Statement of Work
Understanding and optimizing the built environment during a pandemic requires a transdisciplinary approach which addresses not only technical solutions but behavior, systems, and policy solutions. UArizona’s partnership between RESTRUCT and CGAPS provides the opportunity to address this issue comprehensively, effectively, and impactfully to assist leaders making decisions regarding pandemics in the future.
