How Walkability and Nature are Shaping Health at Lehigh

What if your daily walk across the university campus could not only get you to class, but also boost your mood, lower stress, and even connect you more deeply with your community? How can the integration of technology enhance the walking experience for everyone, regardless of physical ability or location? That’s the vision guiding Jong Cheol Shin, an assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at Lehigh’s College of Health.

Shin is leading two complementary research projects which study walkability, or the extent to which an area enables and encourages the movement of its citizens by walking, in both nature and urban spaces. According to Shin, emphasizing walkability and accessibility on university campuses promotes physical and mental wellness, reduces transportation barriers, ensures social inclusion, and cultivates a better experience for individuals with disabilities. His projects support walkability not only within Lehigh but also in Southside Bethlehem.

Shin is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work focuses on how our surroundings—both the people and the ways in which the area is built around us—impact our daily habits, including sleep and physical activity. These habits, in turn, greatly impact our health. He has a special interest in leveraging emerging health technologies for health research and intervention such as mHealth (the practice of public health supported by mobile devices), wearable technologies (such as smartwatches) and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), immersive technologies that enable users to experience digitally rendered content in both physical and virtual space.

Throughout 2025, Shin has been mentoring students in a Creative Inquiry project entitled “Mapping for Change–Rethinking Walkability and Accessibility in Southside Bethlehem for All Residents.” Shin and the team are developing a map of the Lehigh University campus which will suggest the best, most walkable route for the user based on their location and ability. If users would like to increase their activity level or reach a certain step count, the tool will suggest the most appropriate route, he explained. “Currently, we are working on a physical map of the campus with all the walkability scores, and also providing an online, website version with an interactive map to use for walkability in the community as well,” Shin said.

For this project, they have developed a new walkability index, which tracks information about which areas of campus are more or less walkable. The team is using GIS technology—a technology designed to capture, store, and analyze geographical data—to score each segment of the route. They have identified more than 20 indicators to evaluate and measure the walkability of the area, such as sidewalk conditions, road conditions, and access to amenities like restaurants and other food resources. 

Shin’s index complements the national, census-based walkability index by expanding the scope and amount of detail at the street level to better support local decision-making. Importantly, his index considers walkability for all populations, with the inclusion of disability-relevant features, such as sidewalk surfaces and slopes.

Separately, Shin is mentoring a second Creative Inquiry team to explore how nature and technology can merge to improve mental health and wellbeing. In “Mindful Steps into the Forest: Developing Forest Walking Programs for Real-World and Virtual Environments,” the team is exploring the health benefits of forest therapy, mindfulness and forest walking, which has been linked to stress reduction, improved mood and enhanced immune function. They are developing forest walking programs for both real-world and virtual reality settings.

As the first step, they are identifying which natural areas on Lehigh’s campus are both accessible and restorative. “We try to figure out which route or which forest walking route might be the best for the community member,” he said. “At the same time, we are collecting data about the different features of nature,” such as sights and sounds, and then working to embed them into the setting as well. 

“Everyone knows the nature experience is really great, but not all people are able to access natural resources, especially for people with disability or mobility issues,” he said, adding that college students often have limited time to access those kinds of natural experiences as well. 

“I tried to figure out what kind of features of the natural experience might feel like the real experience,” he said. “Based on the study, we try to examine what is the true impact of the real nature experience compared to the virtual experience.” Jong also shared that the student team received an award last spring at the Changemakers: The Power to Shape a Sustainable Future event, organized by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lehigh’s College of Arts & Sciences and Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG).

Through both initiatives, Shin is opening new pathways for improving wellbeing. By advancing walkability in our community and harnessing the therapeutic power of nature, his work advances innovative technologies to positively impact the health of our community.