Appearance of Public Space

Indicator Rationale 

Satisfaction with the built environment contributes to overall feelings of well-being.  The amount and type of open space is a key element of urban design and impacts on people’s perceptions of ‘neighbourliness’ and safety.  The type of open space also determines the range of recreation and leisure opportunities.  Open space is often centred around areas of specific importance such as historic buildings, cultural centres, icons, parks and gardens. Open space acts to cement relationships within our communities and with the natural world.  The amenity value of open space can be seen in the high price real estate commands in areas with views, ocean outlooks or surrounding parks and gardens. 

Data Source 

Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development, Community Satisfaction Survey

Measure 

Percentage of adults who express satisfaction with accessibility and appearance of public areas.

In the last 12 months, how has [council] performed on the appearance of public areas (this includes local parks and gardens, street cleaning and letter collection and street trees)? Excellent; Good; Adequate; Needs some improvement; Needs a lot of improvement. 

This question is included in the DPCD Community Satisfaction Survey and all local governments need to give permission for results to be published by CIV, thus preventing the publication of these data to date. These data may form part of the local government performance monitoring framework recommended by the Essential Services Commission in their review of local government reporting (final report due in 2011).  

References 

Queensland Health. (2005). Health impact assessment: issue guidelines for natural and built environment determinants of health, February.

World Health Organisation. (2003). Social determinants of health: the solid facts. 2nd edition, edited by Richard Wilkinson and Michael Marmot.

Essential Services Commission (2010). Reducing the Reporting Burden on Local Government, Scoping Paper, August.