Planning and Transport for Healthy Cities
Planning and Transport for Healthy Cities brings together our expertise in understanding how cities are planned and designed to create more just, sustainable and healthy outcomes.
Bringing together Australian and UK urban experts to virtually model and test the benefits of transport planning in creating healthier and sustainable cities across both countries.
Project dates: 2020–2024
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
Key people
- Billie Giles-Corti – Distinguished Professor, VC Professorial Research Fellow and Director of the Healthy Liveable Cities Lab
- Dr James Woodcock – University of Cambridge
- Belen Zapata-Diomedi – Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Researchers Australian Team
- Associate Professor Liton Kamruzzaman, Monash University
- Associate Professor Luke Knibbs, University of Sydney
- Dr Alan Both, RMIT University
- Dr Dhirendra Singh, RMIT University
- Professor Gavin Turrell, RMIT University
- Dr Lucy Gunn, RMIT University
- Dr Tayebeh Saghapour, RMIT University
- Professor Tony Blakely, University of Melbourne
Research Administration
- Monica Trubiano, RMIT University
- Judy Boyce, RMIT University
Key Researchers UK Team
- Dr Jenna Panter, University of Cambridge
- Dr Anna Goodman, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
- Dr Audrey de Nazelle, Imperial College London
- Dr Aruna Sivakumar, Imperial College London
- Professor John Gulliver, University of Leicester
- Dr Ali Abbas, University of Cambridge
- Dr Rohit Sharma, University of Cambridge
- S.M. Labib, University of Cambridge
Australian Policy and Practice Advisory Group
- Jonathan Spear (Chair), Infrastructure Victoria
- Rob Adams, City of Melbourne
- Ludo Campbell-Reid, Suburban Rail Loop
- Kristy Howes, Victorian School Building Authority
- Emma Dean, Department of Transport, Victoria
- Hugh Batrouney, Department of Transport, Victoria
- Giles Michaux, Department of Transport, Victoria
- James Mant, Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning, Victoria
- Julia Weyhe, Victorian Planning Authority
- Kath Phelan, Infrastructure Victoria
- Prue Smith, Suburban Rail Loop, Victoria
- Zuleika Arashiro, VicHealth
- Bruce Johnson, ARUP
- Mike Day, Hatch | RobertsDay
- Jeff Robinson, Aurecon Australasia
- Jess Noonan, Tract Consultants (Planning Institute of Australia Representative)
- Stephen Hodge, WeRide Australia
- Craig Richards, Bicycle Network
UK Policy and Practice Advisory Group
- Graham Pendlebury (Chair), Independent
- Nicola Kane, Transport for Greater Manchester
- Christopher Billington, Transport for London
- Paul Farrell, Liverpool City Council
- Richard Blyth, Royal Town Planning Institute
- Andy Cope, Sustrans
- Keyvan Rahmatabadi, AECOM
- Marcus Adams, JTP Architects
- Rebecca Britton, Urban & Civic plc
- Benjamin Fenech, UK Health Security Agency
- Sally Gibbons, Department of Transport
- Rahulan Chandrasekaran, Department of Transport
- Jeremy Clarke, Department of Transport
- David Barley, Department of Transport
- Margot Shatz, Department of Transport
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