ABOUT 5,000 people who have recently purchased land in Perth’s newest suburbs are being invited by The University of Western Australia to participate in a world-first study into community design.
The four-year study, called the Residential Environments Project, or ‘RESIDE’, will examine new home owners’ leisure activities, health and what transport they use and how often. The study will start before they move into their new home, 12 months after and then two years after settling in.
“We are interested in what recreational and community facilities are available to people in and around their local area, if people use these facilities and how they get there,” UWA Associate Professor Billie Giles-Corti, who heads the research team, said.
“We will be looking at whether people walk, cycle, catch public transport or drive motor vehicles and how this influences leisure time activities, transport patterns, health and residents’ sense of community.
Professor Giles-Corti said this information would help build a picture of what is available, how people move around their neighbourhood and how the design of local communities affected people’s leisure time activities and their sense of community and well being.
The RESIDE study, funded by Healthway, is the first of its kind in the world and involves a research team at UWA’s School of Population Health working with the WA Department of Planning and Infrastructure and the National Heart Foundation.