The Contribution of Neighborhood Tree and Greenspace to Asthma Emergency Room Visits: An Application of Advanced Spatial Data in Los Angeles County

Dohyung Kim and Yongjin Ahn
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Dohyung Kim: Department of Urban and Regional Planning, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, 3801 W Temple Ave., Pomona, CA 91768, USA
Yongjin Ahn: School of Architecture, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the role of neighborhood tree and greenspace on asthma morbidity, especially asthma emergency room visits. We employed advanced spatial data which allow for precisely capturing both the quantity and the features of tree and greenspace within a neighborhood environment. The results from the spatial regression models in Los Angeles County revealed that the features of trees and greenspace, such as the configuration of the tree canopy, the level of tree clustering, and private neighborhood greenspaces contribute to decreasing asthma morbidity, in addition to the quantity of tree and greenspace acreages. Notably, however, large scale greenspace, such as golf courses, school playgrounds, and parks fails to reduce the number of asthma emergency room visits at the statistically significant level. These findings imply that the creation of dense or clustered tree patches and small-scale neighborhood greenspaces might play a substantial role in mitigating air quality and consequently reducing asthma emergency room visits.

Keywords: asthma; public health; neighborhood tree; open/greenspace; spatial regression; Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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