Does Land Use and Landscape Contribute to Self-Harm? A Sustainability Cities Framework

Eric Vaz, Richard Ross Shaker, Michael D. Cusimano, Luis Loures and Jamal Jokar Arsanjani
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Eric Vaz: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
Richard Ross Shaker: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
Michael D. Cusimano: Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada
Luis Loures: Research Center for Endogenous Resource Valorization, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP), 7300-110 Portalegre, Portugal
Jamal Jokar Arsanjani: Geoinformatics Research Group, Department of Planning and Development, Aalborg University Copenhagen, A.C. Meyers Vænge 15, DK-2450 Copenhagen, Denmark

Data, 2020, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Self-harm has become one of the leading causes of mortality in developed countries. The overall rate for suicide in Canada is 11.3 per 100,000 according to Statistics Canada in 2015. Between 2000 and 2007 the lowest rates of suicide in Canada were in Ontario, one of the most urbanized regions in Canada. However, the interaction between land use, landscape and self-harm has not been significantly studied for urban cores. It is thus of relevance to understand the impacts of land-use and landscape on suicidal behavior. This paper takes a spatial analytical approach to assess the occurrence of self-harm along one of the densest urban cores in the country: Toronto. Individual self-harm data was gathered by the National Ambulatory Care System (NACRS) and geocoded into census tract divisions. Toronto’s urban landscape is quantified at spatial level through the calculation of its land use at different levels: (i) land use type, (ii) sprawl metrics relating to (a) dispersion and (b) sprawl/mix incidence; (iii) fragmentation metrics of (a) urban fragmentation and (b) density and (iv) demographics of (a) income and (b) age. A stepwise regression is built to understand the most influential factors leading to self-harm from this selection generating an explanatory model.

Keywords: self-harm; spatial analysis; landscape impacts; Canada (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C8 C80 C81 C82 C83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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