SPARC Invests $327,000 in North Shore City Active Communities Project
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SPARC is investing $327,000 to study the relationship between physical activity and the urban environment on the North Shore. A key aim of the project is to achieve a greater understanding of how much peoples’ living environment and the location of recreational facilities affect community levels of physical activity.
Environmental design has been identified as a key determinant in sustainable physical activity participation, especially for transport-related physical activity such as walking. Yet little work has examined the associations between physical activity participation and the local built environment in a New Zealand context.
This is the first project of its size to use population survey data and a range of methods, including geographic information systems, to examine these relationships.
Project Goals
- To understand the environmental determinants of physical activity in a New Zealand urban/suburban context.
- To use this information to inform policy and strategy planning for the North Shore City Council and wider communities.
- To develop a public interactive tool (interactive website) to identify physical activity opportunities by household location in North Shore City.
Given the unique contribution the project has made to the body of knowledge around active friendly environments, information from the study will be used by AUT to support the completion of a PhD, and will also appear in subsequent published articles.
Health Research Council
The project has also contributed to the successful application made by AUT to the Health Research Council to obtain a grant for $1.12 million to study further urban design and physical activity in three new cities (North Shore, expansion on the current AFE Project, Waitakere, and Christchurch). This project will run over three years and is part of larger study using the same protocols run in eight different countries.
“The success in such a competitive medical research environment is due in part to the support SPARC has shown in the Active Communities fund through the "Active Friendly Environments" project undertaken with Harbour Sport, North Shore City, and AUT over the last three years,” said AUT Associate Professor, Grant Schofield.
The study has generated national media interest, and most recently was featured on TV3’s Campbell Live.
Updated | 08 Oct 2007.
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