Table 2.

Description of the Urban Liveability Index and 13 core sub-indicators included in the published databases.

Description (variable names listed in italics)

Urban Liveability Index

The urban liveability index is a composite score based on performance across the 13 sub-indicators listed in this table22,25, and was calculated separately both for within-city (uli_city) and nationally (uli_national) relative comparisons of urban addresses and areas against a benchmark average score of 100.

Access to services and amenities

Access to destinations along the pedestrian road network for each address point was evaluated against destination specific access distance thresholds. A score out of 1 for access to destinations was calculated, using the soft threshold described by Higgs et al.22, and the average score for access to destinations within recommended thresholds was calculated using thematic categories, as listed below.

Social infrastructure; also see combined variable social_infrastructure_mix with score /16 for below destinations

1 Community, Culture & Leisure (li_community_culture_leisure): Community Centres (1000 m); Cinema/Theatre (3200 m); Libraries (1000 m); Museums/Art Galleries (3200 m)

2 Education access (li_education): State Primary Schools (1600 m); State Secondary Schools (1600 m)

3 Health & social services access (li_health_services): Aged Care (1000 m); Pharmacy (1000 m); Community Health Centres (1000 m); Dentists (1000 m); GP Clinics (1000 m); Maternal/Child Health (1000 m)

4 Sport & recreation access (li_sport_rec): Swimming Pools (1200 m); Sport/recreation facilities (1200 m)

5 Early years access (li_early_years): Childcare meeting quality requirement (any, 800 m; out of school hours, 1600 m)

Food

6 Fresh food access (li_food): Fruit/vegetable grocer (1000 m); Meat/seafood (3200 m); Supermarkets (1000 m)

Convenience

7 Convenience access (li_convenience): Convenience store (1000 m); Newsagent (3200 m); Petrol station (1000 m)

Transport

8 Access to regular public transport (li_pt_regular_400m) was evaluated using locations having average daytime (7 am to 7 pm) weekday service frequency of 30 minutes or less, considered across all public transport modes (e.g., bus, ferry, train, tram, as applicable) for stops during the Spring school term period of 8 October and 5 December.

Public Open Space

9 Access to large public open space (>1.5 hectares; li_public_os_large_400m) was evaluated using proxy entry point locations generated at 20 metre intervals along the boundaries of areas of open space located within 30 m of the walkable road network, and having publicly accessible area larger than 1.5 hectares.

Walkability; also see within-city (walkability_city) and between-city (walkability national) walkability index variables

10 Street connectivity per km2 (li_street_connectivity_1600m) was calculated as the number of pedestrian network intersections intersecting the local walkable network buffer, divided by its area in square kilometres.

11 Dwelling density per hectare (li_dwelling_density_1600m) was calculated as the sum of dwellings within Mesh Blocks (small statistical geography areas, equivalent to a street block) intersecting the local walkable network buffer, divided by its area in hectares.

Housing

12 Housing affordability stress (li_sa1_30_40_housing_stress) was evaluated as the proportion of low-income households (in the bottom 40% of the Australian income distribution) spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs. For inclusion in the ULI, this measure was reverse-scaled to represent ‘housing affordability’.

Employment

13 The percentage of employed persons working in the same Statistical Area 3 (broader catchment, SA3) as the local area (Statistical Area 1; SA1) in which they live (li_sa1_sa3_local_employment) was calculated as a measure of local employment opportunities.