News Archive

The association between neighbourhood and house design and walking as a measure of sense of community has been explored in two papers published recently in international journals by researchers at The University of Western Australia.

From UWA's Centre for the Built Environment and Health (CBEH), Dr Sarah Foster's study looked at what neighbourhood features influence people's perceptions of safety.  She spent a month tramping through 61 new outer Perth neighbourhoods to test her theory that a critical mass of well-maintained houses and gardens in a suburb created safe, walkable streetscapes.

Her assessment of symbols of residents' personalisation of their properties included a log of items such as elaborate letter-boxes, pot-plants, name and number-plates and even garden gnomes is recorded in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

CBEH Deputy Director Assistant Professor Lisa Wood's study, in Social Science and Medicine , reported that sense of community was positively associated with leisurely walking, seeing neighbours when walking and the presence of interesting sites.

"Our findings suggest that while some mixed land use is good in terms of walking destinations and availability of services, the presence of too many commercial outlets and big car-parks may detract from the creation of social capital and a sense of community among local residents," Professor Wood said.

She said the studies would be useful for planners of future housing developments, schools, shops and services when taking into consideration the safety and physical and mental health of residents.

"Of course people are more likely to walk in attractive neighbourhoods," Dr Foster said.  "However, negative visual cues deter residents from engaging in physical activity.  Good home maintenance appears to inhibit the incidence of graffiti and litter and contributes to the creation of safe, inviting streets for pedestrians."

Media references

Assistant Professor Lisa Wood (School of Population Health (+61 8)  6488 7809  /  (+61 4) 38 350 266
Dr Sarah Foster (UWA School of Population Health)  (+61 8)  6488 8730  /  (+61 4) 21 448 371
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716