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Seeking to determine effective relationships between the built environment and health and well-being, a transdisciplinary team of architects, behavioral and health scientists developed a built environment coding system (UMBECS) and examined the relationship of resulting streetscape features to social science data at the block level. The research team conducted studies of the validity of the UMBECS that focused upon children, through school conduct grades; and elders, through a longitudinal cognitive functioning study. Contrary to popularly held views, a commercial-residential mix was as effective as a high proportion of residential use in predicting children’s school outcomes (i.e. better conduct, achievement, effort grades). Modest but statistically significant relationships exist between block level features and elders’ neighboring behaviors and social support, which in turn were significantly associated with cognitive and affective functioning. These preliminary findings suggest the utility of this built environment coding system for examining the relationship of built environment features to residents’ health and well-being. The UMBECS offers a useful tool for developing a viable transdisciplinary model of the role of the built environment in behavior and health can be further developed
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