Creating healthy, sustainable, ‘liveable’ cities is a priority in both Australia and the UK. Growing evidence suggests how we plan our cities can affect preventable health risks such as physical inactivity, obesity, noise and air pollution, and road trauma.

By testing and estimating the health impacts of scenarios in urban and transport planning interventions in different contexts, we can inform city planners and public health practitioners about what scenarios have the greatest chance of promoting good health for future planning.

Funded by the UK Medical Research (UKRI) and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), this project brings together research linking the built environment, transport and other health behaviours to develop computer models that can better inform urban and transport planning policy and practice in Australia and the UK.

The project is led by Distinguished Professor Billie Giles-Corti and Dr Belen Zapata-Diomedi at RMIT University and Dr James Woodcock at the University of Cambridge and involves a multi-disciplinary team of leading researchers with complementary expertise across Australia (Monash University, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland) and England (Imperial College London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Leicester).

For more information visit us at JIBE Project

Research

The project is divided into seven work packages (WP):

WP1: Co-production and policy review to develop built environment measures and scenarios for England and Australia

Lead and team: Audrey de Nazelle, James Woodcock, Billie Giles-Corti, Lucy Gunn, Belen Zapata-Diomedi, Liton Kammaruzzaan, Rohit Sharma

Outputs: Quantitative and qualitative policy and research will be undertaken to inform the development of policy-relevant built environment measures in WP2 and scenarios that will inform WP7. 

WP2: Developing spatial measures of the built environment for England

Lead and team: Liton Kamruzzaman, Billie Giles- Corti, Jenna Panter, Anna Goodman, Lucy Gunn, S.M. Labib

Outputs: A database of policy-relevant built environment measures for urban postcodes for 11 city regions in England. 

WP3: Linking built environment measures to transport behaviours for England

Lead and team: Lucy Gunn, Gavin Turrell, Billie Giles-Corti, Anna Goodman, Jenna Panter, Liton Kamruzzaman, Tayebeh Saghapour, S.M. Labib

Outputs: Evidence to inform the matching process for the English synthetic population (WP4) and to derive built environment scenarios (WP7). 

WP4: Synthetic population for England matching on built environment characteristics and including destinations and routes

Lead and team: Dhirendra Singh, Alan Both, Anna Goodman, Lucy Gunn, Corin Staves, Aruna Sivakumar

Outputs: A revised synthetic population for the English city regions.

WP5: Upgrading England exposures & health impact model based on improved spatial and travel resolution

Lead and team: James Woodcock (overall lead, physical activity & traffic injuries), Anna Goodman (overall lead and physical activity), Linton Kamruzzaman (greenspace), Belen Zapata-Diomedi (health modelling), Audrey de Nazelle (air pollution), John Gulliver (noise), Ali Abbas (data science), Billie Giles-Corti (greenspace), Haneen Khreis (air pollution)

Outputs: Improved estimates for impacts in England that will inform transport analysis guidance (see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transport-analysis-guidance-webtag). 

WP6: Developing METAHIT for Melbourne

Lead and team: James Woodcock (overall lead, physical activity and injuries), Belen Zapata-Diomedi (overall lead and health modelling), Linton Kamruzzaman (greenspace), Audrey de Nazelle (air pollution), Luke Knibbs (air pollution), Alan Both (data science), John Gulliver (noise), Billie Giles-Corti (greenspace)

Output: WP7 will integrate the exposure models with the PMSLT to be used in WP7 to assess the health implication of built environment interventions for Melbourne. 

WP7: Developing and running scenarios and producing results for England and Melbourne

Lead and team: James Woodcock, Anna Goodman, Audrey de Nazelle, Lucy Gunn, Belen Zapata-Diomedi, Billie Giles-Corti, S.M. Labib

Output: In addition to academic papers, policy briefs and other publications will be developed to inform policymakers of the findings in a user-friendly way.

JIBE Collaborating Organisations