ComDisp: Community-Centered Modeling of Housing-Related Health Disparities

The ComDisp project of the Belmont Forum brings together universities from six countries to find solutions for health disparities in polluted cities through research based in community participation and computer simulation methods.

My work focuses on studying the complexities of Hanoi, Vietnam, how air pollution creates and restricts the behavior of its citizens, how social standards and norms play a role in the emergence of health inequality across social classes, and what is the effectiveness of potential policy interventions in mitigating these issues.

Hanoi is a city with high housing density, high vehicular pollution, frequent climate hazards and an ever growing population of over eight million people. We utilize system dynamics to capture the processes commanding decisionmaking and personal health demand of individuals, and implement agent-based modelling to track the daily behaviors of these individuals, from which these observations emerge. Combined with policy analysis of the governmental policymakers, we hope to uncover the main drivers of behavior to better understand the complex systems of urban health disparity.