The Built Environment Inventory data show the accessibility of lifestyle amenities and potential health pitfalls.
They are the result of a research project initiated by Healthy Together Geelong. The data was calculated using a sophisticated, proprietary method by Community Indicators Victoria, McCaughey Centre: VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne in May 2014.
Distances to many dozens of features as disparate as greengrocers, bus stops, tobacco sellers, and rail trails were calculated from meshblocks of mostly residential populations. These measures were then aggregated and grouped at the neighbourhood level. The table Geelong_BuiltEnvLookup.csv describes the variables and their meanings; these variables make up the GIS file and are also in Geelong_BuiltEnv.csv. In all there are 95 measures recorded for each suburb.
Although all due care has been taken to ensure that these data are correct, no warranty is expressed or implied by the City of Greater Geelong or by the University of Melbourne in their use.
The land use dataset was categorised into six different land uses: retail,
commercial, health/community, recreation, residential, and other. These categorisations were made on the basis of data supplied by the City of Greater Geelong and VicMap Planning Zones 2013. Land use mix was calculated using an entropy formula. The resulting land use mix measure is a value between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates homogenous land use (i.e. the entire suburb is the same land use) and 1 indicates heterogeneous land use (i.e. there are equal areas of each of the different types of land use of interest).
Distances to sites were calculated along street centrelines. Site information was supplied by the City of Greater Geelong.
Note that densities are often not spatial densities (eg. number per hectare) but, rather, represent number of sites per population measure or per kilometre of roads.