Healthy Populations and Environments
The Healthy Populations and Environments Platform is actively supporting local health districts to translate health and environment research into policy and action. We’re also working with public health academics, clinicians, social scientists, public health leaders and executives, and built and natural environment specialists to bring Sydney to the forefront of healthy urban environments.
A few years ago, the United Nations revealed that over 50% of the global population resides in cities, a trend mirrored in Greater Sydney. The expected doubling of urban dwellers by 2050 prompts a crucial examination of how urban living impacts health opportunities.
As a global city, Sydney possesses the potential to pioneer urban health development. Despite its natural beauty and unique demographics, the city lags behind others globally in incorporating health indicators into urban planning, economic development, and design policies. However, the Healthy Populations and Environments Platform is actively working to reverse this trend by closely looking at how urban policy and governance in Sydney can lead to better health outcomes for local and global populations.
Our Vision
Our Vision
In partnership with other SPHERE Platforms and Clinical Themes, UNSW, UTS, WSU, LHDs, and other aligned partner organisations, we aim to make a significant change to public health and urban policy development and planning at the national and state level, through evidence-based research, educational strategies, and translation of knowledge.
Our Focus
Our Focus
We engage with government, industry and NGOs to build sustainable prevention systems across diverse communities, environments and determinants of health to keep populations healthy and well, reduce the likelihood of inequities, illness, disease or injury over the life course, and increase our preparedness for emerging health threats. There are three research areas where we have delivered the greatest impact to date:
There is an increased recognition within the NSW government, and internationally, that health precincts and health infrastructure are not just a cluster of facilities and services, and need to be developed and managed so that they can better support the health and wellbeing of the communities, patients and staff that utilise them. This requires a greater awareness of not only how health facilities, services, and offerings can be improved, but also:
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Health Precincts and Health Infrastructure
* how their public spaces can be improved
* how they can be better linked to their service region, and
* how they can be developed to better respond to the socioeconomic, cultural and environmental contexts they service.We are developing diverse tools to improve the development and management of health precincts and health infrastructure so that they can better support the health and wellbeing of the communities, patients and staff that utilise them.
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Equity and the determinants of health
The determinants of health, which may be social, economic, environmental, and cultural among others, impact some groups in the population more than others, meaning that some are inequitably burdened with the likelihood of experiencing illness, disease and injury over the life course. We work to influence policy and practice that can help level the playing field, to help ensure sections of the population are not disadvantaged by their individual circumstances that contribute to unhealthy lifestyles and negative health outcomes.
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Sustainability and the environment
As we transition to a net-zero future, there is a need to encourage and implement sustainable practices. This includes within the healthcare sector, where adjustments to current practices may not only contribute to this net zero transition but also improve the efficiencies of how care and support is provided. This includes longer-term views and foresight into how we, as individuals and as systems, can be better prepared for and adapt to emergencies such as climate change or a pandemic, as well as mitigate the challenges ahead.
Our network of multi- and transdisciplinary expertise work on solutions that are applicable across the health systems, as well as the wider urban and environmental systems in which the health system operates.
Our Projects
Our Projects
Since 2019, Healthy Populations and Environments Platform has awarded four rounds of seed funding. A total of 11 projects have been awarded under our three research themes. We also actively collaborate with other SPHERE Clinical Themes and other partners on innovative research projects.
Health precincts and health infrastructure
Hot hospital carparks – An avoidable risk for patients and visitors?
The likelihood that a person with high vulnerability to heat will use a hospital carpark is exponentially greater compared to any other carpark.
Place-based planning for health precincts in NSW Discussion paper
The aim of this discussion paper is to provide a systematic presentation of evidence and recommendations around place-based planning to inform the development of a new Place Planning Guide for health precincts in NSW.
Appraising health precinct and audit tools
This project involves four built environment assessment tools in a rapid systematic review exercise on their suitability for application at health precincts.
Place-based health interventions in NSW rapid review
Commissioned by the Cancer Institute NSW, this project involves a rapid systematic review to collate and summarise the broad range of place-based initiatives that focused on health promotion and risk interventions, and that have been implemented in NSW.
Equity and the determinants of health
Cards
Understanding Reception of Care Technology for Healthy Ageing at Home
This project, funded by SPHERE under its 2023 Big Ideas grant program, aims to find out more about what everyday ageing people think about the idea of technology (such as sensors and robots) being installed in their homes to support their ageing in place.
Conceptualising unhealthy urban places: The need for a systems approach
Through the use of a systems approach, this project seeks to develop a collaborative approach to the development of a conceptual model of place-based unhealthiness.
NSW built environment practitioners’ perspectives on place-making opportunities that deliver health and wellbeing outcomes
The built environment can positively impact the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Effectiveness of community-based food hubs and peer support on food accessibility and dietary intake
This project reviews the existing literature on healthy food interventions that have been delivered in community settings.
What causes significant changes in walking? Investigating macro and micro level drivers of walking in neighbourhoods
This project identifies factors that lead to definitive and significant changes in walking patterns in neighbourhoods.
Urban planning and design for the COVID-19 era
This project is a rapid review of interdisciplinary knowledge already published, which examines the relationship between cities and pandemics of coronaviruses as well as current and historical H1N1 influenza pandemics.
Waterloo housing estate redevelopment: Assessment of residents’ health needs and circumstances
This pilot project develop and trials quantitative and qualitative methods for a long-term, quasi-experimental, longitudinal health study for the proposed redevelopment of the Waterloo public housing estate.
Urbanisation and health during the first 2000 days of life: Building a foundation for health in Sydney’s urban environment
The concept of ‘child-friendly cities’, predominantly focused on those aged 5 through 12, has been used to guide the development of a coherent research and policy framework into how everyday urban environments sets a foundation for health in later life.
Facilitating physical and non-physical connections to Country among older Aboriginal peoples living in urban Australia
This project explores different ways that older, urban-living Aboriginal people and their connection to Country may be improved as healings of intergenerational traumas.
Land use planning for equitable health outcomes
Commissioned by the Western Sydney Health Alliance, this project assesses the NSW State Environmental Planning Policies and the Local Environmental Plans of the eight Western Parkland City local government areas against the healthy planning principles set out in NSW Health’s Healthy Built Environment Checklist.
Making public spaces more inclusive through urban policy and practice
This project builds on the success of a UK-based project, and reviews local government strategies and policies across Greater Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, regarding their strategies and activities for accommodating LGBTIQ+ individuals, families and communities.
Inclusive place-based planning for LGBTQIA+ communities
A follow-up to the Queering Cities in Australia report, this project seek to understand how urban spaces can better service their needs and reflect their diverse experiences in more inclusive ways. It focuses on the Six Cities Region in NSW, to explore LGBTQIA+ communities’ sense of home, belonging and connection to different places, feelings of safety and security, and how inclusive place-based planning may help improve these outcomes.
Assessing and addressing formal and informal care needs when diversities intersect
With support from ACON and the National Association of People with HIV Australia, this project identifies the care and support needs of older people at the intersection of age, ethnicity and sexuality, to uncover how their needs are currently supported by formal services and informal networks.
Sustainability and the (built) environments
Cards
Climate change & vulnerability assessment of South Eastern and South Western Sydney – Scoping study
Climate change impacts on human health are evident in Australia and are predicted to become more frequent and intense. While the effects of these climate changes impact all of us, already disadvantaged populations are more vulnerable through a compounding of disparities in social and economic conditions. Health services play a critical role in responding to changing health needs of the local population, and to the likely effects of climate change on health service resources, workforce and infrastructure.
Carbon accounting in healthcare: The path to improving patient health, saving money and saving carbon
The health sector has a large carbon footprint and, as the world shifts towards zero-carbon economies, health services and activities will be required to decarbonise. A range of initiatives will need to be undertaken: sustainable hospital and precinct design, green infrastructure, reducing the carbon costs of healthcare activities and services, and developing low-carbon models of care. Internationally, research in carbon accounting in healthcare is rapidly progressing.
What stops and promotes cycling of children from lower socio-economic groups; A Blacktown (NSW) case study
Regular exercise and playability are essential for children’s health and wellbeing (Olds et al., 2015). The Australian Government recommends at least 60-minutes of physical activity for children aged 5-17. However, Australian teenagers are among the most inactive in the world (Guthold et al., 2019). About 80% of children lack exercise and 1 in 4 children aged 5 to 14 are either overweight or obese (AIHW, 2020). Riding a bicycle could be a solution to move Australian children on the track to better health.
Our Team
Collaborators
Collaborators
We use our networks to partner with like-minded Sydney and NSW councils, government departments, industry, charities and non-profit organisations. We combine the strength of these partnerships to support healthier communities through joint programs, planning and integrated care.
Resources:
Publication: Understanding vulnerability in the context of climate change – a Health impact Assessment Framework
To highlight the important findings and outcomes of the Healthy Urban Environments seed grant program over the past five years by the universities, local health districts and other partners of SPHERE Healthy Populations and Environments Platform (previously called SPHERE Healthy Urban Environments Collaboratory, HUE), we have collated 8 papers in an open access special issue now published with the Sax Institute journal, Public Health Research and Practice. The collation includes papers that focus on different aspects of public, population and planetary health, on different marginalised and less represented groups (covering social housing residents, LGBTQIA+ communities, First Nations Australians to name a few), and also grassroots lessons and policy options to encourage and enhance implementation initiatives.
Submission to Climate Health WA Inquiry:
Contact us:
For more information on our work, contact Dr Sophie Gates, Research Support Officer.
