Billie Giles-Corti

University of Melbourne | MSD · McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing

Measuring and monitoring progress towards achieving healthy, equitable and sustainable cities is a priority for planners, policymakers and researchers in diverse contexts globally. Yet data collection, analysis, visualisation and reporting on policy and spatial indicators involve specialised knowledge, skills, and collaboration across disciplines....

Physical inactivity is a leading contributor to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Almost 500 million new cases of preventable noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) will occur globally between 2020 and 2030 due to physical inactivity, costing just over US$300 billion, or around US$ 27 billion annually (WHO 2022). Active adults can achieve...

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives and the economy, reminding the global community of the devastating health and economic impacts of uncontrolled infectious disease. It has affected how and where people live, work, shop, and play, and exposed our cities’ vulnerabilities, leading to calls for a health lens to be applied in designing, approvin...

Measuring and monitoring the spatial distribution of liveability is crucial to ensure that implemented urban and transport planning decisions support health and wellbeing. Spatial liveability indicators can be used to ensure these decisions are effective, equitable and tracked across time. The 2018 Australian National Liveability Study datasets com...

The shift towards higher density living in Australia, with the compact and shared spaces inherent to apartments, has prompted considerations of residents' social outcomes. This study tested whether communal area design in apartment buildings impacts residents' neighbouring and loneliness. Apartment developments (n = 113) in Sydney, Melbourne and Pe...

Background Physical inactivity is a significant public health concern, with limited signs of improvement despite a global commitment to achieving the World Health Organization’s target of 15% reduction by 2030. A systems approach is required to tackle this issue, involving the creation of environments that are conducive to physical activity. Laws r...

Background: The development of policies that promote and enable physical activity (PA) is a global health priority. Laws are an important policy instrument that can enable enduring beneficial outcomes for individuals, organizations, and environments through multiple mechanisms. This article presents a systematic process for mapping laws relevant t...

Comprehensive apartment design policies have been legislated by Australian state governments to address concerns about poor design in residential buildings. These policies aim to improve apartment design and promote good health. This study examined whether: (1) residents living in apartments that implemented more minimum design requirements perceiv...

Spatial and area-level socioeconomic variation in urban liveability (access to social infrastructure, public transport, open space, healthy food choices, local employment, street connectivity, dwelling density, and housing affordability) was examined and mapped across 39,967 residential statistical areas in Australia's metropolitan (n = 7) and larg...

This commentary from the Journal Editorial Board sets out the research agenda for the journal and invites contributions. We want to elicit and synthesize research- and practice-based knowledge toward the goal of resilient, equitable cities in a world with less than 1.5°C of warming, focusing on the transformational change needed to achieve this goa...

Creating healthy and sustainable cities should be a global priority. Some cities prioritize 15-minute cities as a planning approach with co-benefits for health, climate change mitigation, equity, and economic recovery from COVID-19. Yet, as our recent Lancet Global Health series on “Urban Design, Transport, and Health” showed, many cities have a lo...

Globally, compact city policies promote increased density to sustainably house urban populations. In Australia, the recent proliferation of apartments challenges an enduring cultural preference for detached housing, calling into question apartment residents' satisfaction with this housing form. We examined associations between apartment residents'...

This Series on urban design, transport, and health aimed to facilitate development of a global system of health-related policy and spatial indicators to assess achievements and deficiencies in urban and transport policies and features. This final paper in the Series summarises key findings, considers what to do next, and outlines urgent key actions...

City planning policies influence urban lifestyles, health, and sustainability. We assessed policy frameworks for city planning for 25 cities across 19 lower-middle-income countries, upper-middle-income countries, and high-income countries to identify whether these policies supported the creation of healthy and sustainable cities. We systematically...

An essential characteristic of a healthy and sustainable city is a physically active population. Effective policies for healthy and sustainable cities require evidence-informed quantitative targets. We aimed to identify the minimum thresholds for urban design and transport features associated with two physical activity criteria: at least 80% probab...

Cities are socio-spatially patterned, yet few researchers have explored the association between walkability and house prices by neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage, highlighting issues about housing affordability, equity, and liveability. We aimed to determine whether walkability and house prices differed by neighbourhood socioeconomic disadva...

Benchmarking and monitoring of urban design and transport features is crucial to achieving local and international health and sustainability goals. However, most urban indicator frameworks use coarse spatial scales that either only allow between-city comparisons, or require expensive, technical, local spatial analyses for within-city comparisons. T...

Benchmarking and monitoring urban design and transport features is critical to achieving local and international health and sustainability goals. However, most urban indicator frameworks use coarse spatial scales that only allow between-city comparisons or require expensive, technical, local spatial analyses for within-city comparisons. This study...

This paper explores neighborhood-built environment features related to ‘better than expected’ and ‘as expected’ early childhood development outcomes (ECD) in 14 Australian disadvantaged communities. This paper draws from mixed methods data collected in the Kids in Communities Study – an Australian investigation of community effects on ECD – in comm...

Prior studies show that the Built Environment (BE) can influence route and mode choice, increasing the uptake of active modes and reducing car dominance. One of the main challenges in establishing such relationships between the BE and travel behaviour is the unavailability of micro-scale BE data. This study presents a methodology for harmonising an...

Confronted with rapid urbanization, population growth, traffic congestion, and climate change, there is growing interest in creating cities that support active transport modes including walking, cycling, or public transport. The ‘30 minute city’, where employment is accessible within 30 min by active transport, is being pursued in some cities to re...

Agent-based and activity-based models for simulating transportation systems have attracted significant attention in recent years. Few studies, however, include a detailed representation of active modes of transportation - such as walking and cycling - at a city-wide level, where dominating motorised modes are often of primary concern. This paper pr...

Population growth and urbanisation are contributing to the densification of cities globally, including a proliferation of apartment developments. While many developments include shared spaces and facilities, little is known about their design, quality or use. Using a novel desktop audit approach, we objectively identified communal area design featu...

Background To advance active transport, robust policy-relevant evidence is needed to understand how to change behaviour and to support decision-making by policy makers and practitioners. Currently, however, priority research questions that are most critical for advancing active transport have not been identified. To this end, we aimed to inform an...

In this paper, we present an algorithm for creating a synthetic population for the Greater Melbourne area using a combination of machine learning, probabilistic, and gravity-based approaches. We combine these techniques in a hybrid model with three primary innovations: 1. when assigning activity patterns, we generate individual activity chains for...

Recognition is increasing globally that urban planning interventions to improve neighbourhood liveability enable healthy sustainable lifestyles and assist in the prevention and management of chronic disease. We present the spatial urban liveability index (ULI) as a tool to inform localised interventions that would create healthier, more sustainable...

There is increasing international interest in place-based approaches to improve early childhood development (ECD) outcomes. The available data and evidence are limited and precludes well informed policy and practice change. Developing the evidence-base for community-level effects on ECD is one way to facilitate more informed and targeted community...

City-scale simulation modelling of active modes of transportation (i.e., walking and cycling) is becoming increasingly popular in recent years. The heterogeneous and complex behaviour of these transportation modes, however, indicates the need for a shift from the traditional car and public transport centred modelling approaches towards incorporatin...

Although pandemics are rare, planning and preparation for responding to them plays a crucial role in preventing their spread. The management and control of pandemics such as COVID-19 relies heavily on a country's health capacity. Measuring vulnerability to pandemics in geographical areas could potentially delay a pandemic's exponential growth and r...

The world's population is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050 and 75% of this population will live in cities. Two-third of the European population already live in urban areas and this proportion continues to grow. Between 60% and 80% of the global energy use is consumed by urban areas, with 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced within urba...

Pedestrian accessibility is an important factor in urban transport and land use policy and critical for creating healthy, sustainable cities. Developing and evaluating indicators measuring inequalities in pedestrian accessibility can help planners and policymakers benchmark and monitor the progress of city planning interventions. However, measuring...

Pedestrian accessibility is an important factor in urban transport and land use policy and critical for creating healthy, sustainable cities. Developing and evaluating indicators measuring inequalities in pedestrian accessibility can help planners and policymakers benchmark and monitor the progress of city planning interventions. However, measuring...

Nature underpins human well-being in critical ways, especially in health. Nature provides pollination of nutritious crops, purification of drinking water, protection from floods, and climate security, among other well-studied health benefits. A crucial, yet challenging, research frontier is clarifying how nature promotes physical activity for its m...

Urbanization, a major force driving changes in neighborhood environments, may affect residents’ health by influencing their daily activity levels. We examined associations of population density changes in urban areas with adults’ physical activity changes over 12 years using the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study (1999-2012). The anal...

CHAPTER 1: HOW AUSTRALIA IMPROVED HEALTH EQUITY THROUGH ACTION ON THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH: Do not think that the social determinants of health equity are old hat. In reality, Australia is very far away from addressing the societal level drivers of health inequity. There is little progressive policy that touches on the conditions of daily...

In this paper, we introduce and test our algorithm to create a road network representation for city-scale active transportation simulation models. The algorithm relies on open and universal data to ensure applicability for different cities around the world. In addition to the major roads, their geometries and the road attributes typically used in t...

We investigate the prospective association between neighbourhood-level disadvantage and cardiovascular disease (CVD) among mid-to-older aged adults and whether physical activity (PA) mediates this association. The data come from the HABITAT project, a multilevel longitudinal investigation of health and wellbeing in Brisbane. The participants were 1...

Residential dissonants, residents who are not satisfied with land use patterns in their neighbourhood, are a threat to transit-oriented development (TOD) policy because of their unsustainable transport choices. However, it is not known if their level of dissatisfaction is reduced in TODs, and if so, the time duration it takes. This study tracks dis...

Interrelationships between neighborhood walkability, area disadvantage, and crime may contribute to the inconsistent associations between crime and walking. We examined associations between crime and walking, and tested for differences by neighborhood disadvantage while addressing these additional complexities. Participants ( n = 6,680) from 200 ne...

Goals and pathways to achieve sustainable urban development have multiple interlinkages with human health and wellbeing. However, these interlinkages have not been examined in depth in recent discussions on urban sustainability and global urban science. This paper fills that gap by elaborating in detail the multiple links between urban sustainabili...

Aim: Although walking is a priority in many strategic plans in Australian cities, there is limited understanding of the statutory components for delivering this. Confusion still exists despite substantial evidence about the built environment elements that promote walking and the availability of tools to assess walkability outcomes. This paper exam...

Background: Since the late 19th century, city planners have struggled to cope with new types of urban transport and mobility that threatened the existing system, or even rendered it obsolete. Purpose: As city planners confront the range of disruptive urban mobilities currently on the horizon, this paper explores how we can draw on a vast body of...

Background We assessed whether the residential built environment was associated with physical activity (PA) differently on weekdays and weekends, and contributed to socio-economic differences in PA. Methods Measures of PA and walkability, park proximity and public transport accessibility were derived for baseline participants (n = 1,064) of the Ex...

Background Low physical activity is widespread and poses a serious public health challenge both globally and in the UK. The need to increase population levels of physical activity is recognised in current health policy recommendations. There is considerable interest in whether or not the built environment influences health behaviours, particularly...

Background: Previous research has reported associations between features of the residential built environment and physical activity but these studies have mainly been cross-sectional, limiting inference. This paper examines whether changes in a range of residential built environment features are associated with changes in measures of physical acti...

In the context of global urbanisation, creating high-density living environments that promote health, wellbeing and social connectedness is vital. In apartment buildings, residents live in close physical proximity and share communal areas, however not all areas are equal in design and quality, which may impact usage and residents’ social connection...

Studies of parks and physical activity rarely identify the actual spaces participants use. Using data from the HABITAT project, a longitudinal cohort of mid-to older-aged (40–70 years) respondents (n = 11,036) living in Brisbane Australia, this study examined (1) the demographic characteristics of users and non-users of parks; (2) the park used and...

Background Neighbourhood characteristics may affect mental health and well-being, but longitudinal evidence is limited. We examined the effect of relocating to East Village (the former London 2012 Olympic Athletes’ Village), repurposed to encourage healthy active living, on mental health and well-being. Methods 1278 adults seeking different housin...

1. The case for physical activity 1.1 Co-benefits of physical activity – health, social, economic, environmental and other societal gains from building a more active nation 1.2 Are Australians active? Prevalence, trends and correlates of meeting physical activity guidelines 2. Whole-of-systems approaches 2.1 Whole-of-systems approaches to physi...

Background: Interventions to encourage active modes of travel (walking, cycling) may improve physical activity levels, but longitudinal evidence is limited and major change in the built environment / travel infrastructure may be needed. East Village (the former London 2012 Olympic Games Athletes Village) has been repurposed on active design princi...

Background: The RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) project is a unique longitudinal natural experiment designed to evaluate the health impacts of the "Liveable Neighbourhoods" planning policy, which was introduced by the Western Australian government to create more walkable suburbs. Objectives: To summarize the RESIDE evidence of the impact of th...

Transport researchers conceptualise residential mobility as a BE intervention because there is the potential for residents to be exposed to a different urban form following relocation. Residential mobility studies therefore overcome the weaknesses of cross-sectional studies in establishing causal links between urban form and travel behaviour. Howev...

Globally, the rapid construction of apartments has ignited concerns about the quality and amenity of new housing, and the impact of poor design on residents. In Australia, different planning policies/guidelines for apartment development apply across states, however there has been no assessment of how these policies address health. We audited apartm...

Creating healthy, liveable cities is a common policy aspiration globally. However, little research has explored the capacity of urban policies to deliver this aspiration, or levels of policy implementation. This study aimed to develop policy-relevant indicators, to detect within- and between-city inequities in the implementation of Australian state...

Abstract Background Living in walkable neighborhoods may provide long-term cardio-metabolic health benefits to residents. Little empirical research has examined the behavioral mechanisms in this relationship. In this longitudinal study, we examined the potential mediating role of physical activity (baseline and 12-year change) in the relationships...

Purpose of the Review A compelling body of research demonstrates associations between urban design and health, but this research is often not reflected in urban policies. This article reviews the literature on the science and practice of translating health research into urban policy and planning. Two Australian case studies demonstrate how policy f...

Background: Most research on walking for transport has focused on the walkability of residential neighborhoods, overlooking the contribution of places of work/study and the ease with which destinations outside the immediate neighborhood can be accessed, referred to as regional accessibility. Objectives: We aimed to examine if local accessibility...