This project will develop a suite of new indicator data assets to help improve health and social infrastructure planning in urban and regional Australia.

The Australian Urban Health Indicators (AusUrb-HI) is a collaboration between NCRIS facilities, AURIN (Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network) and PHRN (Population Health Research Network), and researchers, that will develop a suite of new indicator data assets that improve the understanding of the health of Australian urban and regional populations.

This project will integrate PHRN Health Outcomes Data  with AURIN Health Determinants Data, which includes demographic, socioeconomic, health service and environmental data.

The data will be de-indentified and integrated in the Secure Unified Research Environment (SURE) at the Sax Institute to deliver new insight by linking health outcomes and their determinants for improved health planning  and decision making.

Co-investment partners
AURIN
PHRN
Lead node
1 Cancer determinants
Working with the Australian Cancer Atlas (https://atlas.cancer.org.au/) AusUrb-HI will develop indicators quantifying the association between demographic, socioeconomic, health services and environmental determinants to the incidence and survival rates for major types of cancer for urban and regional areas across Australia.
2 Heat health vulnerability
AusUrb-HI will develop a population heat health vulnerability indicator that combines data on population demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, health and environmental conditions in order to understand the locations of greatest population vulnerability to current (and potentially future) extreme heat events.
3 Urban liveability & health
In collaboration with the RMIT Centre for Urban Research (https://cur.org.au/) AusUrb-HI will generate indicators that give new insight into the liveability of Australian urban and regional areas from a health perspective.

Core features

Improved Health Planning
The new indicators and metrics generated by AusUrb-HI will provide invaluable insight to data-driven and evidence-based policy-making and planning in local, State and Commonwealth health and social infrastructure planning departments.
Improved Health Outcomes
Improved health planning will lead to more liveable neighbourhoods, improved health services, more targeted interventions, a reduction in preventable diseases and a reduction in the economic costs associated preventable diseases in Australia.
Ignition of transdisciplinary research
Enhanced accessibility to the new indicators and computational methods, will catalyse future research and projects that are extensible across regions, disciplines and health issues.

Who is this project for?

  • Researchers
  • Research organisations
  • Government agencies (state and commonwealth)
  • Urban and regional planners
  • Data analysts

What does this project enable?

This project enables improved health planning. The new indicators and metrics will provide invaluable insight to data-driven and evidence-based policy-making and planning in local, State and Commonwealth health and social infrastructure planning departments. This will lead to improved health outcomes such as more liveable neighbourhoods, improved health services, more targeted interventions, a reduction in preventable diseases and a reduction in the economic costs associated preventable diseases in Australia.

Handy resources

AURINVisit
PHRNVisit