Foundation Corporate Partner: Centre Funded by: Land Development Agency Sponsor:

POSitive Places: new data, tools and

approaches for examining the role of public

open space in health and planning research

by

Professor Fiona Bull and Associate Professor Bryan Boruff Centre for Built Environment and Health School of Population Health

Outline

• Role of Public Open Space

• ANDS and Positive Places

• Data and Methods

• POSDat

• POS GIS

• POS Tool

• Example Applications

The Centre for the Built

Environment and Health

Mission

To undertake research to understand the positive

and negative influences of the built environment on

physical, social and mental health outcomes and

influences planning and urban design policy and

practice to create healthy and sustainable

communities

The Role of POS

Project Aims

1. Develop a georeferenced POS data layer (including

information on amenity) for integration with other geo-

spatial build environment information and demographic

and socio-economic status data for wider application

supporting research and planning practice

2. Develop a web based geospatial analytic and

visualisation tool to support new opportunities in:

• research

• urban planning practice

Australian National Data

Service (ANDS)

ANDS aims to:

• make better use of Australia's research outputs

• enable Australian researchers to easily discover, access, use

and re-use data

• enable new and more efficient research

ANDS function is to:

• manage, connect, enable discovery and support the reuse of

data enable richer research, more accountable research;

• more efficient use of research data;

• and improved provision of data to support policy development

Collaboration between:

ANDS Structure

Defining POS

Identifying POS

Delineating POS

Classifying POS

Edwards, N., Hooper, P., Trapp, G., Bull, F., Boruff. B and Giles-Corti, B. 2013. Development of a

Desktop Auditing Public Open Space Tool (POST): POSDAT. Applied Geography, 38:22-30.

Attributing POS

The POSDAT tool can be found here: http://www.sph.uwa.edu.au/research/cbeh/projects/?a=2147379

POSTool Architecture

Web Server Components:

• Python

• Django/GeoDjango

• PostgreSQL/PostGIS

Front End:

• OpenLayers

• Jquery/JQuery UI

Code:

• Google Code Repository

License:

• Creative Commons

Attribution

- Developed through a series of workshops with government agencies, developers and researchers

POSTool Search Functions

POSTool Search Functions

POSTool Search Functions

POSTool Stats.

POSTool User Defined Areas

POSTool Network Distances

POSTool Scenario Modelling

Total Population 1527 Park Area All (ha) 154.4 Facilities 4

0-4 552 Pocket Park 10.2 Tennis 6

May-14 142 S. Nbourhood Park 5.2 Baseball 2

15-19 162 M. Nbourhood Park 14.6 Fitness Circuit 2

20-24 132 L Nbourhood Park 1 25.9 Hockey 0

25-34 125 L Nbourhood Park 2 53.1 Athletics 6

35-44 144 District Park 1 0 Rugby 1

45-54 114 District Park 2 0 Skate Park 5

55-64 56 Regional Park 45.4 Playground 15

65-74 41 Playground Shade 10

75-84 32 Playground Fenced 8

Over 85 27 Paid Sporting Facility 5

POSTool in Research I

• To assess what features of the built environment are associated with:

- protective behavioural lifestyles factors (e.g., physical activity, diet etc)

- self-reported health status (e.g., chronic conditions, mental health)

- objectively-measured health outcomes (e.g., CVD, cancer, mental

health )

Key Objective

• To explore the impact of the built environment on health across the life

stages (i.e., in children, young adults, adults and older adults).

Key Output

• Recommendations on the design of local communities that support

“active-living” and “Livability” and meet the needs of all ages

LIFECOURSE Project

LIFECOURSE Project

Health & Wellbeing Survey

(WA Department of Health)

• Self-reported:

• Demographics

• Physical activity

• Child Development

• Mental health

• Physical health etc.

Hospital Morbidity Data

(WA Data Linkage System)

• Objective measure of clinical health outcomes related to hospital admissions.

Mental Health Data

(WA Data Linkage System)

• Objective measure of mental health presentation and contacts for depression, anxiety etc.

Environmental & Destinations Data

(CBEH GIS Platform)

• Environment variables

• Calculated at 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m around participants’ homes.

• Different types of destinations

• Cross-sectional study of ≈16,000 participants

• Metropolitan & Peel regions of Perth, Western Australia.

• Data linkage of the following data sources:

Influences Behaviours (self-reported measures)

Intermediate

outcomes (self-reported measures)

Health outcomes (self-reported and objective

measures)

Diabetes

Neighbourhood destinations

Alcohol outlets

Food outlets

Recreation venues

Community infrastructure

Crime

Parks & Park Quality

Neighbourhood greenness

Asthma

Walking (not available for children)

MVPA

Nutrition

Neighbourhood walkability

Group membership

Sitting/Screen time

Density

Residential density

Gross density

Lot density

Land use mix

Overweight & Obesity

High cholesterol

High blood pressure

General health status (not available for children)

Mental health

Road exposure

Road connectivity

Children 0-15 yrs Alcohol consumption

Young adults 16-24 yrs

Adults 25-64 yrs

Older adults ≥65 yrs

Cardiovascular

disease

LIFECOURSE Conceptual Model

POSTool in Research II

Evaluate the impact of the government planning policy “Liveable

Neighbourhoods Community Design Guidelines” on health behaviours

and outcomes in adults who have moved into new suburban

neighbourhoods

One adult from households that purchased land in 73 new suburban

housing estates across Perth

RESIDential Environments Project (RESIDE)

Participants

Key Output

Inform on the implementation and impact of the Govermment’s Liveable

Neighbourhoods Design Guidelines – specifically next editions

RESIDE Project

Longitudinal study – households surveyed 4 times:

T1 (2003 - 2005) - Baseline in their old home [n=1813]

T2 (2004 - 2006) - 1 year after moving into their new house [n=1466]

T3 (2006 - 2008) - 2 years later (i.e. 3 years after moving) [n=1229]

T4 (2011 - 2012) - 5-6 years later (i.e. 8 years after moving) (n=563)

T2

Estates

T3 T4 T1

Community Design & Activity

Centres

Activity Centres

(type & location)

Destination diversity within activity centres

Accessibility to activity centres

Integrated Development

(access points)

Public Transport provision

Movement Networks

Road hierarchy (walkable roads

ratio)

Street Connectivity

Street Permeability (walkable blocks)

Cul-de-sacs

Footpath Networks

Cycling Networks

On- & off-road)

Streetscapes

(tree canopy)

Lot Layout

Residential Density

Residential Lot Sizes

Lot dwelling density

Block density

Residential Dwelling Diversity

Street Frontage

Public Parkland

Amount of parkland

Number of parks

Distribution of parkland types

Park accessibility

Park surveillance – lot orientation

Park surveillance – bordering roads

Public Transport

Bus Stops + 400m catchments

Train Stations + 800m catchments

Accessibility to Public Transit

Schools

Location

School grounds

Street Networks

Public Transit

+ + + + ∑ = +

Evaluation: Across ALL 7 elements of Policy

Conclusions

- Developed a robust analytic web-based tool providing access a

unique data set and integrated built environment information

- The tool was built through consultation with relevant stakeholders

using a sound methodology

- Relevance of the tools functionality provided through research outputs

- Identification of research output through metadata deposited in the

Australian Data Commons

- All code is open source and available in the Google Code Repository

This project is supported by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS)

ANDS is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy Program and the

Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science Initiative

Villanueva, K., Pereira, G., Knuiman, M., Bull, F., Wood, L., Christian, H.,

Foster, S., Boruff, B., Beesley, B., Hickey, S., Joyce, S., Nathan, A.,

Saarloos, D., Giles-Corti, B., 2013. The impact of the built environment

on health across the life course: design of a cross-sectional data

linkage study. BMJ Open 3.

Giles-Corti, B., Knuiman, M., Timperio, A., Van Niel, K., Pikora, T.J., Bull,

F.C.L., Shilton, T., Bulsara, M., 2008. Evaluation of the implementation of

a State Government community design policy aimed at increasing

local walking: design issues and baseline results from RESIDE,

Perth Western Australia. Preventive Medicine 46, 46-54.

Giles-Corti, B., Bull, F., Knuiman, M., McCormack, G., Van Niel, K.,

Timperio, A., Christian, H., Foster, S., Divitini, M., Middleton, N., Boruff,

B., 2013. The influence of urban design on neighbourhood walking

following residential relocation: Longitudinal results from the

RESIDE study. Social Science & Medicine 77, 20-30.

Key References