While working for IECAM, Dr. Nesse would interact with policy-makers in small places in Illinois looking for information about characteristics of people in a particular area that does not fit into predefined boundaries. There are several difficulties with making reliable, timely estimates for places like this based on the American Community Survey 1. the place is small so the sample is small and the results may vary a lot year to year, 2. the boundary may be significant to the policy but it is not recognized at the state or federal level, and 3. the estimates cannot be updated as frequently as the policy-maker would like.

It is certainly possible to survey a small area and estimate demographic characteristics reliably but this is expensive and usually beyond the means of a small local government or policy organization. However, informally we make assessments about the population based on the built environment all the time. When we are looking for a new house we walk around and see if it seems like there will be other families like ours. Kids assess trick-or-treating potential of their friends neighborhoods' to figure out where they will get the most candy. The only problem is that we do not know what the link is between the built environment and the demographic characteristic.

Dr. Nesse has been working on figuring out what these links are. If the link is known then it would be relatively inexpensive to do an environmental survey of a neighborhood to estimate a demographic characteristic of interest. She has done some preliminary testing to figure out the mechanics of how to do an environmental survey and which demographic characteristics to focus on. Below are some publications related to this project with links to the papers where available.

Nesse, K. 2017. How Useful Is GSV As an Environmental Observation Tool? An Analysis of the Evidence So Far. 57th Annual ACSP Conference. Denver, Colo. Read More →

Nesse, K. 2013. What election campaign lawn signs indicate: Estimating demographic characteristics from publicly observable neighborhood phenomena. 4th Joint AESOP/ACSP Congress. Dublin, Ire. Read More →