About Us

URBAN FORM LAB (UFL), UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE

The Urban Form Lab (UFL) is directed by Anne Vernez Moudon, Dr es Sc, a leading researcher and educator in quantifying the properties of the built environment as related to health and transportation behaviors. Philip M. Hurvitz, PhD, a veteran of geographic information science and data processing, leads data management and GIS work.

UFL research aims to affect policy and to support approaches to the design and planning of more livable environments. The UFL specializes in geospatial analyses of the built environment using multiple micro-scale data in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Current research includes the development of novel GIS routines for performing spatial inventories and analyses of the built environment, and of spatially explicit sampling techniques. Projects address such topics as land monitoring, neighborhood and street design, active transportation, non-motorized transportation safety, physical activity, and access to food environments. The research has been supported by the U.S. and Washington State Departments of Transportation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and local agencies.

The UFL is also a teaching lab and the research group includes Doctoral Students enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Program for the PhD in Urban Design and Planning and other doctoral programs at the University of Washington and elsewhere.

Close collaborators

David E Arterburn, MD, PhD, Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, Physician, Washington Permanente Medical Group, Internal Medicine
Xuegang (Jeff) Ban, PhD, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sofia Dermisi,
PhD, Professor of Urban Design and Planning, Runstad Endowed Professor in Real Estate, University of Washington
Mark Doescher, MD, PhD, Professor of Family Medicine, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine
Adam Drewnowski, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, Director, University of Washington Nutritional Sciences Program
Glen E Duncan, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, Washington State University
Mark Hallenbeck, Director of the University of Washington Washington State Transportation Center
Stephen J Mooney, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Washington
Qing Shen,
PhD, Professor of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington 
Brian E Saelens
, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington and Seattle Children Research Institute
Edmund Y W Seto, PhDAssociate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Washington
Health Promotion Research Center, University of Washington

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