Projects per year
Personal profile
Particulars
Dr. Adlakha is an interdisciplinary scientist with a varied educational background including degrees in architecture, urban design and public health. She completed her undergraduate degree at the School of Architecture and Planning (India), studied urban design as a Fulbright Scholar (USA), and obtained a Ph.D. at the Prevention Research Centre, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis (USA) where she worked on cross-cutting solutions to environmental health problems.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Prevention Research Centre, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, United States, 2016
Master of Urban Design (M.UD) - Fulbright Fellow, Washington University in St. Louis, United States, 2011
Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.), School of Architecture and Planning, Chennai, India, 2007
Research Statement
Dr. Adlakha's research focuses on generating, translating and scaling up evidence for reducing environmental health and social disparities, particularly factors affecting prevention, control and mitigation of chronic and acute non-communicable diseases in populations. Her interests lie in understanding relationships between the built environment and health, documenting and improving geospatial health disparities, and using and improving measures to quantify obesity-related behaviours (physical activity, diet) and relevant exposures (social and built environment) using GIS, accelerometry, GPS, geostatistical approaches, and other new technologies.
Dr. Adlakha serves as Associate Editor for ‘Cities and Health’, a new journal encouraging cross-disciplinary understanding and research for city development to support human health. Her research has been featured in a TED talk, a BBC series on urban health, Scientific American, The Conversation (UK and Indonesia), and other media outlets. She has been interviewed by international news agencies and published op-eds in leading daily newspapers.
Dr. Adlakha's existing programme of research goes beyond purely descriptive research to work that develops, models, and tests potential solutions to improve the quality of urban living for people across all age groups, with a particular emphasis on low-and-middle-income countries. Consistent with her teaching, she has been most interested in projects with real dissemination, implementation, and translation opportunities. Her work as PI and Co-I on externally funded, multi-year grants exploring healthy cities across study sites in the UK, Brazil, Colombia, India, and Malaysia highlights this research theme and translation. Much of this work has been transnational in nature, working with academics, practitioners, policymakers and community groups in the developed and developing world. Her methodologies are largely participatory, working with participants as co-researchers and co-creators of knowledge, and undertaking community mapping, participatory research, and other visual methods to address aspects of health and well-being, social sustainability, and age-friendly cities.
Current research
Dr. Adlakha's current research examines the implications of COVID-19 on cities, and how the agendas of public health and urbanism can be shaped together for the future. One of her recent publications outlines an international public health research agenda (COVID-19 Special Issue of the Journal of Sport and Health Science), establishes a registry of COVID-19 studies, and was summarised in a research brief. A second manuscript addresses common concerns that high-density walkable communities increase risk of COVID-19 infections (COVID-19 Special Issue of Cities and Health), with a companion commentary in The Conversation (UK) and a TEDx talk on designing for health and equity. Moving forward, she has two projects titled, ‘Re-imagining street design for COVID-19 recovery’, and ‘Healthy and active ageing: Environmental and social supports for older adults in Colombia’.
Teaching
Dr. Adlakha delivers a range of interdisciplinary courses spanning urban design, environmental planning and public health. Her list of taught courses includes Transdisciplinary Problem-Solving—From the Inside-Out: Public Health and the Built Environment, Foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Grassroots Approaches to Designing Healthy Communities and Neighbourhoods.
She currently teaches the following courses:
- Design Principles in the Built Environment (BSc Planning, Environment and Development)
- Comparative Planning Studies (BSc Planning, Environment and Development)
- Spatial Literacy in Design (MSc City Planning and Design)
- Independent Research Projects/ Work-based Studies in European Planning Practice (MPlan European Planning)
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Projects
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R8467NBE: Transit Oriented Development (TOD): Developing an Integrated Housing and Transport Model
11/11/2019 → …
Project: Research
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R3145NBE: Ageing in the Global South: Participatory approaches to designing equitable cities ‘with’ older adults
21/05/2019 → …
Project: Research
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R2566NBE: All Eyes on Us: Big Data and Emerging Technologies for Surveillance in Society
21/03/2019 → …
Project: Research
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R3889CPH: Healthy Environments and Active Living in India (HEAL-India)
Adlakha, D., Ellis, G., Hunter, R., Kee, F. & Tully, M.
15/02/2017 → 31/07/2017
Project: Research
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R1593EVP: Healthy Urban Living and Ageing in Place: Physical Activity, Built Environment and Knowledge Exchange in Brazilian Cities
Ellis, G., Adlakha, D., Hunter, R., Kee, F., Melo, S., Murtagh, B., Sengupta, U. & Tully, M.
05/01/2016 → 30/04/2019
Project: Research
Research Output
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Activity-friendly neighbourhoods can benefit non-communicable and infectious diseases
Adlakha, D. & Sallis, J., 24 Jul 2020, In : Cities and Health.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
An international physical activity and public health research agenda to inform Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 policies and practices.
Sallis, J., Adlakha, D., Oyeyemi, A. & Salvo, D., 14 Aug 2020, GP RED.Research output: Other contribution
Open AccessFile8 Downloads (Pure) -
An international physical activity and public health research agenda to inform COVID-19 policies and practices
Sallis, J., Adlakha, D., Oyeyemi, A. & Salvo, D., 22 May 2020, In : Journal of Sport and Health Science (JSHS).Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access11 Citations (Scopus) -
Built environment correlates of overweight and obesity among adults in Chennai, India
Adlakha, D., Brownson, R. C. & Hipp, J. A., 12 Aug 2020, In : Cities and Health.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Built environment correlates of physical activity in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review
Elshahat, S., O'Rorke, M. & Adlakha, D., 17 Mar 2020, In : PLoS ONE. 15, 3, 19 p., e0230454.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile3 Citations (Scopus)28 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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Brown School International Dissertation Grant
Adlakha, Deepti (Recipient), 2014
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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Fulbright-Nehru Masters Fellowship for Leadership Development 2009-2011
Adlakha, Deepti (Recipient), 2009
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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Open Space Graduate Research Scholarship, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Adlakha, Deepti (Recipient), 2012
Prize: Fellowship awarded competitively
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STAR Recognition Award - School of Natural and Built Environment
Adlakha, Deepti (Recipient), 22 Feb 2019
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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It takes a healthy village - Good practices for promoting physical activity through city/rural planning
Deepti Adlakha (Invited speaker)
11 Jan 2021Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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Effective use of voice: Free your voice - Find Your Voice
Deepti Adlakha (Participant)
27 Nov 2020Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Turbocharge Your Writing
Deepti Adlakha (Participant)
11 Nov 2020Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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ISPAH Early Career Network Workshop 2020
Deepti Adlakha (Invited speaker)
27 Oct 2020Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited or keynote talk at national or international conference
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International Society For Physical Activity And Health (ISPAH) - Low- and Middle-Income Country (LMIC) Research Council (External organisation)
Deepti Adlakha (Board Member)
01 Jan 2020 → 31 Dec 2021Activity: Membership types › Membership of national or international committees and working groups
Press / Media
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Population Density Does Not Doom Cities to Pandemic Dangers
16/09/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Indonesian language translation - Why urban density is good for health – even during a pandemic
29/07/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Changing city density is not necessarily going to have positive benefits on public health
27/07/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Why urban density is good for health – even during a pandemic
Deepti Adlakha & James Sallis
24/07/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Post Pandemic Cities: Design Factors for Health and Equity
10/06/2020
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment