The ACT will participate in a major study to measure the liveability of Australian cities and what planning measures have the best impact on the health of residents.
The National Liveability Study will measure “liveability” from a health perspective and will look at five indicators such as access to transport, public open spaces, “walkability” as well as access to food and alcohol outlets.
A team from the University of Canberra will contribute to the national two-year study.
Working groups from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia will also be involved.
Lead author Professor Billie Giles-Corti from the University of Melbourne said the study aimed to create Australia’s first set of national “health liveability indicators”.
“We’re looking at liveability through a health lens so we’re thinking about how do you create conditions for good health and what are the factors that are important,” she said.
“We want to look at areas which might be less liveable from a chronic disease perspective and what the implications are for the health and wellbeing of people who live there.”
The team will look at urban planning policies of Australian states and territories across the five areas of liveability, map it against health information and create and compare a set of indicators based on the policies.
“It’s important because these are sort of nudge principles. We know that if we create the conditions for good health, it’s easier for people to act on good intentions,” Professor Giles-Corti said.
“This (study) is really important to provide an evidence-base about why, if it’s necessary to create the conditions for good health. Perhaps it’s not and maybe we won’t find that there’s an association between these factors and people’s physical activity or their dietary behaviour. It’s really important because it’s a way of engaging the sectors that create the built environment.”
OECD rankings earlier this year declared Canberra the best place in the world to live, but this home-grown research should provide evidence on whether the territory should keep that title when health factors are taken into account.
Professor Giles-Corti said it would interesting to see how the ACT fared in the national liveability study.
“I know you’ve got a fantastic network of cycle paths and that sort of thing in the ACT which would encourage people to be physically active but you’ve also got lots of little shopping centres within suburban development. It’s quite unusual in that sense, the way it’s designed,” she said.
“It’s going to be very interesting to see which cities come out better than others and what the implications are for residents.”
Heart Foundation physical activity spokesman Trevor Shilton said good design and people-friendly spaces and places all contributed to how liveable a community was.
“Our urban environment is so central to our lifestyles that our postcode has become a key determinant of our prospect for living a healthy life,” he said.
The study has buy-in from government and non-government organisations and is a project of The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre.