Environmental health is an emerging and evermore prominent branch of public health dealing with the integral relationship between people and their environments. Moreover, environmental health seeks to foster human well being by influencing policy changes in both urban and rural living environments. Emerging research has shown that the simple fact of knowing where someone lives can accurately predict their likely health status, as neighborhoods have been shown time and time again to be a key determinant of a wide variety of health outcomes from increased stress to increased risks of obesity and heart disease.

Through environmental health research, health risks among various demographics are not only measured, but can be predicted based off of the location of which one lives. Access to health care, risk for disease, and access to healthy food options, for example, are common avenues for study in environmental health, including many more. From natural disasters such as hurricanes or tsunamis to disease outbreaks, environmental health research aims to determine the motivators for poor health in relation to location, particularly focusing on underprivileged and low-income communities. By understand the relationships people hold with their environments and the health risks associated with them, researchers can better impact public policy for the sake of benefiting human health outcomes.

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