Biositu, LLC, Houston, TX, United States.
Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jul 27;11:1090725. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1090725. eCollection 2023.
Institutions of higher education are feeling increasing pressure from both students and the international climate community to offer more courses and joint degrees on the role of the built environment in advancing climate action, population health, and social equity. The built environment plays a leading role in this new, transdisciplinary approach. Thoughtfully designed buildings, neighborhoods, and communities can simultaneously lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduce population exposure to dangerous climate-sensitive extreme weather events, reduce disparities in climate-related health outcomes, and advance social equity goals. This mixed-methods study explored the extent to which post-secondary courses and joint degree programs teach students the research methods and technical skills they will need to design and implement built environment interventions addressing the effects of climate change on population health and social equity. The study found that the number of universities offering courses addressing climate, health, and equity in the built environment grew from 2018 to 2022. The number of joint planning/public health degree programs rose from four in 2005 to 15 in 2022. No joint architecture/public health degree programs were identified. A detailed review of 99 course descriptions from three universities found that 17 courses (roughly 1/5 of the total) covered population health, built environment, and climate change; and, 2/3 of the set ( = 60) covered two out of the three topics. Schools of public health were more likely to offer courses covering all three topics, whereas schools of architecture were more likely to include the building scale in relevant courses. Exposure pathways and social equity/vulnerable populations were the most common methods included in relevant courses. Professors and administrators at institutions identified by the study as "transdisciplinary-ready" reported that accreditation requirements and university rules governing the allocation of student tuition had slowed efforts to offer cross-listed courses. However, faculty in these institutions regularly collaborate informally with their peers - both on transdisciplinary research and by offering guest lectures in each other's courses. The results of this study show that, while universities have made great strides over the past 18 years in beginning to support transdisciplinary research and pedagogy, institutional barriers and gaps in key content areas remain.
高等教育机构面临着来自学生和国际气候界的越来越大的压力，要求它们提供更多关于建筑环境在推动气候行动、人口健康和社会公平方面作用的课程和联合学位。建筑环境在这种新的跨学科方法中发挥着主导作用。经过深思熟虑设计的建筑、社区和社区可以同时降低温室气体排放，减少人口暴露于危险的气候敏感极端天气事件的风险，减少与气候相关的健康结果的差距，并推进社会公平目标。这项混合方法研究探讨了高等教育课程和联合学位课程在多大程度上向学生传授他们设计和实施针对气候变化对人口健康和社会公平影响的建筑环境干预措施所需的研究方法和技术技能。研究发现，2018 年至 2022 年期间，提供有关建筑环境中的气候、健康和公平问题的课程的大学数量有所增加。联合规划/公共卫生学位课程的数量从 2005 年的 4 个增加到 2022 年的 15 个。没有发现联合建筑/公共卫生学位课程。对三所大学的 99 门课程描述进行了详细审查，发现 17 门课程（约占总数的 1/5）涵盖了人口健康、建筑环境和气候变化；并且，三分之二的课程（=60）涵盖了三个主题中的两个。公共卫生学院更有可能提供涵盖所有三个主题的课程，而建筑学院更有可能在相关课程中纳入建筑规模。暴露途径和社会公平/弱势群体是相关课程中最常见的方法。研究中确定为“跨学科准备就绪”的机构的教授和管理人员报告称，认证要求和管理学生学费分配的大学规定减缓了开设交叉列出课程的努力。然而，这些机构的教师经常与同行进行非正式合作——无论是在跨学科研究方面，还是在相互课程中提供客座讲座。这项研究的结果表明，尽管过去 18 年来，大学在支持跨学科研究和教学方面取得了长足的进步，但在体制障碍和关键内容领域仍存在差距。
