Designing healthy communities: Creating evidence on metrics for built environment features associated with walkable neighbourhood activity centres

Abstract

Background: Evidence-based metrics are needed to inform urban policy to create healthy walkable communities. Most active living research has developed metrics of the environment around residential addresses, ignoring other important walking locations. Therefore, this study examined: metrics for built environment features surrounding local shopping centres, (known in Melbourne, Australia as neighbourhood activity centres (NACs) which are typically anchored by a supermarket); the association between NACs and transport walking; and, policy compliance for supermarket provision. Methods: In this observational study, cluster analysis was used to categorize 534 NACs in Melbourne, Australia by their..