What Cost-effective Built Environment Interventions Would Create Healthy, Liveable And Equitable Communities In Australia, And What Would Facilitate These Being Translated Into Policy And Practice?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,658,832.00
Summary
This CRE involves collaboration between a multi-disciplinary research team across Australia working with policy-makers covering planning, urban design, transport planning and health. It will identify the most cost-effective built environment interventions required to create healthy, liveable, and equitable communities. Factors that influence research findings being translated into urban planning policy and practice will be examined and tools to assist changes to policy and practice developed.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101613
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$319,996.00
Summary
Creating The Australian environmental quality index for children. This project aims to provide new evidence on trajectories of child development and wellbeing. The project’s analysis will link national cohort data with area-level attributes describing physical, built and social environments and explore effects on children’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, and overall wellbeing. The project findings will be used to create a new spatial index, area typology and interactive m ....Creating The Australian environmental quality index for children. This project aims to provide new evidence on trajectories of child development and wellbeing. The project’s analysis will link national cohort data with area-level attributes describing physical, built and social environments and explore effects on children’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, and overall wellbeing. The project findings will be used to create a new spatial index, area typology and interactive map for understanding spatial aspects of child development and wellbeing. It is anticipated that these outputs will be useful for supporting targeted resource allocations and interventions.Read moreRead less
The development and application of an evaluation framework to assess transport, health and economic impacts of new urban cycling infrastructure. This project will develop and apply a more accurate and simpler approach to measure the impacts of new cycling infrastructure, than is currently available. This methodology will be applied to a new bicycle path to be built by the City of Sydney, demonstrating the full transport, environmental, health, and economic impacts on the community.
Complex and nonlinear pattern analysis in architectural space, form and program: developing computational tools to support social and cultural design. In a country that is experiencing increasing urban density there is an urgent need for the development of tools and models for the production of socially and culturally responsive environments. The Fellowship develops a new quantitative and qualitative understanding of the experiential and semiotic characteristics of buildings. The project, assis ....Complex and nonlinear pattern analysis in architectural space, form and program: developing computational tools to support social and cultural design. In a country that is experiencing increasing urban density there is an urgent need for the development of tools and models for the production of socially and culturally responsive environments. The Fellowship develops a new quantitative and qualitative understanding of the experiential and semiotic characteristics of buildings. The project, assisted by developments in robotics technology, produces a leading-edge computational model for analysing complex and non-linear patterns in architectural space, form and program from a social and cultural perspective. Such a model will assist design practitioners, scholars, town planners and policy writers to shape rich, responsive and inclusive architectural environments.Read moreRead less
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Making better decisions about built assets: learning by doing. This research will assist the built environment professions and their clients to make better decisions about new developments through a novel 'learning by doing' approach. Used successfully in other fields such as natural resource management, this idea will capitalise on the large number of asset investments undertaken to benchmark original stakeholder intentions and aspirations against the reality of current performance. Decisions w ....Making better decisions about built assets: learning by doing. This research will assist the built environment professions and their clients to make better decisions about new developments through a novel 'learning by doing' approach. Used successfully in other fields such as natural resource management, this idea will capitalise on the large number of asset investments undertaken to benchmark original stakeholder intentions and aspirations against the reality of current performance. Decisions will be re-evaluated in the context of contemporary economic, social and environmental criteria to enable existing multi-criteria models to deliver more sustainable outcomes that are also feasible and in the national interest, and consequently minimise the industry's current exposure to future climate change.Read moreRead less
Environmental quality and health in the elderly; The Australian situation and international comparison. The elderly are a vulnerable population group that should receive particular attention in health policy. They are a group of considerable and growing size that contributes disproportionately to total health burden. Although residential environment is likely to influence health and well-being among the elderly, the evidence-base for appropriate policy and practice is lacking. Improved understa ....Environmental quality and health in the elderly; The Australian situation and international comparison. The elderly are a vulnerable population group that should receive particular attention in health policy. They are a group of considerable and growing size that contributes disproportionately to total health burden. Although residential environment is likely to influence health and well-being among the elderly, the evidence-base for appropriate policy and practice is lacking. Improved understanding of the role of relevant environmental factors could lead to substantially reduced morbidity and mortality (and associated costs) for the key outcomes: falls, and cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Results will contribute to the international evidence-base in this increasingly critical area of research, policy, and practice. Read moreRead less
The Kids in Communities Study: national investigation of community level effects on children's developmental outcomes. This project (a cross-disciplinary collaboration) will investigate community level factors influencing early childhood developmental outcomes using a mixed methods approach in up to 10 communities across Australia. This will result in a potential set of measures or indicators that reflect communities that are good for children.
Social exclusion in adolescence: risks, assets, experiences and policy action. This project aims to investigate social exclusion among young people aged 8 to 17 including the risks of exclusion they face, the assets mobilised to support their inclusion and their life experiences in the context of these risks and assets. The project intends to investigate which risks, assets and experiences are most closely related to outcomes, and how these vary by age and gender. Expected outcomes include a new ....Social exclusion in adolescence: risks, assets, experiences and policy action. This project aims to investigate social exclusion among young people aged 8 to 17 including the risks of exclusion they face, the assets mobilised to support their inclusion and their life experiences in the context of these risks and assets. The project intends to investigate which risks, assets and experiences are most closely related to outcomes, and how these vary by age and gender. Expected outcomes include a new understanding of the relationship between social exclusion and outcomes in adolescence as well as entry points for policy intervention. Addressing social exclusion in adolescence will lead to improved outcomes in health, education and productivity, and a more socially-cohesive society.Read moreRead less
Attitudes and Behaviours in Consumer Spaces: Quantifying the Benefits of a Sustainable Retail Environment. The project provides a new level of understanding of the impact of retail environments that are ecologically responsible. Almost one quarter of the ecological footprint of the built environment in Australia is associated with some form of consumer space. While there are more than 8,000,000m2 of lettable retail environments in major centres alone in Australia, the ecological footprint of thi ....Attitudes and Behaviours in Consumer Spaces: Quantifying the Benefits of a Sustainable Retail Environment. The project provides a new level of understanding of the impact of retail environments that are ecologically responsible. Almost one quarter of the ecological footprint of the built environment in Australia is associated with some form of consumer space. While there are more than 8,000,000m2 of lettable retail environments in major centres alone in Australia, the ecological footprint of this space is far higher. This footprint may be minimised if the right combination of design and behavioural solutions can be enabled. But before this can occur, a detailed understanding of these complex attitudinal and behavioural issues must be developed. Read moreRead less