Yuan Meng

Mapping the place-based exposome

I am a population health scientist studying how the places people live shape their health. My research develops artificial intelligence and geospatial methods to measure environmental and social exposures, including air pollution, built and food environments, green space, and neighborhood conditions, and applies them to population health outcomes from adolescence through older age.

Exposure measurement is a major challenge in environmental health because the environments people actually experience are rarely the ones our data describe. Questionnaires and fixed monitoring stations record coarse averages, not the greenery people see, the food outlets they pass, or the air they breathe as they move through a city. My sensing research develops these measures through two complementary projects. Sensing Place — Mapping the Physical Environment measures land cover and land-use change using crowdsourced geographic data and geo-tagged imagery. Sensing Place — Measuring Urban Function & Deprivation uses landscape form, social media, and human activity data to understand how places are used and how neighborhood disadvantage is distributed.

I apply these methods across three areas of population health. Place & Mental Health examines how social and digital environments shape mental health and suicide risk. Place & COVID-19 Mortality studies how air pollution, urban form, and human mobility influenced mortality during the pandemic. Place & Cognitive Health investigates how long-term environmental exposures relate to cognitive decline and dementia in older adults.