Key Factors Customers Will Use to Judge the Value of our Product

The POSivite places tool will have two main sections, the main searchable interface allowing users to examine the current distribution and access to POS and POS amenity for planning and health outcome analysis.  Demographic information will also be provided in the context of park accessibility (i.e. 5 minute walk, 10 minute walk, etc).


Phase 1:

We anticipate that this main interface will be useful to a variety of customers including the general public, local governments, planning professionals in a variety of environments (i.e. local, private and state offices), and health researchers interested in exploring the impact of POS and park access or amenity on health.

For all of these users the following points are important:

1. A clear, logical interface allowing a variety of starting points to conduct a search
2. The ability to explore and display information about POS and parks specifically
3. To summarise POS and park information by suburb, local government area (LGA) or region 
4. To understand our concept of 'park' and other POS definitions
5. To be able to use relevant POS information for research or general interest purposes

To achieve the first, second, and third points, the product needs to provide an intuitive user interface for searching POS, browsing the map, and summarising results.  Search results must be displayed in a clear and concise manner. To achieve the fourth and fifth points, the product needs to ensure that the data is available for download in a common user format, can be easily linked with other georeferenced information, and that adequate metadata is included. The metadata will need to provide origin of input data, details of methodology, and POS definitions.


Phase 2:

The second section of the POSivite Places tool will allow registered users to log in and perform more in depth analysis of POS, including the ability to load a user's own spatial data (i.e. GIS polygon layer representing a health study area) and gather POS summary information specific to their own user defined area.  In addition this portion of the tool will offer the ability to examine the impact of population change on the provision of POS and POS amenity through scenario testing.

For these users they will be need to be able to: 

1. Upload their own spatial data in an easy to understand process
2. Perform basic spatial summary (i.e. with own polygon) functions
3. Output results in a meaningful format for their own research or exploration purposes

Why a POS Tool?

To date, a comprehensive dataset of POS location and POS amenity does not exist across the Perth metropolitan region. The data that does exists is owned predominantly by LGAs (created on their own volition for use in-house) and therefore a consistent POS data set for the entire region is not available. This makes it extremely difficult to conduct regional comparisons of POS distribution or POS accessibility (for areas that span more than one LGA). Furthermore, our data exits as a GIS database, and not all users have access to, and/or the skills required to analysis this type of information. By providing a user friendly web based interface, interaction with our POS data is available to a greater range of potential users.        


Will it work?

We are confident that through feedback from a willing group of testers in both academia, and the public and private sectors we will collect valuable feedback concerning both the usability and functionality of the POS Tool. Whilst there is also potential for wide use by the public, no formal testing of this group will be undertaken.

Technologies and Features

Major Features

The user experience is driven via an interactive map, it is intended that the user will use the map search to locate an area of interest (either a specific address, a public open space or suburb/local government area region) and then interact with the data to learn more about parks and and their amenities in a specifc region.

The map interface has been designed similar to that of Google Maps offering an web GIS experience familiar to many users.

In addition users can download information for an individual public open space, or park summary data for a suburb or local government area for linkage with additional georeferenced data on within other anaylytics software packages.  

Architecture

Technology

The web server component uses Python and the Django/GeoDjango web framework with a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database. The front end is built using OpenLayers for the map display and JQuery and JQuery UI for the other interface elements.

• PostgreSQL v9.1.3: http://www.postgresql.org/
• PostGIS v1.5.3: http://postgis.refractions.net/
• Django v1.4.0: http://www.djangoproject.com
• GeoDjango: http://geodjango.org/
• Python 2.6: http://www.python.org/
• OpenLayers v2.1.2: http://openlayers.org/
• JQuery v1.7.2: http://jquery.com/
• JQuery UI v1.8.23: http://jqueryui.com/

Source

The project uses Jenkins for integration testing and the source will be hosted in a Google Code repository upon completion of the project.

Project Outputs and Our Primary Product

In general, the POS Tool provides access to integrated built-environment information not readily available for the region. The POS Tool will provide users with the ability to examine and interrogate POS and POS amenity data and derive POS-built environment measures based on two ABS political units - suburb and local government authority (LGA). In a planning context, the tool will allow for the geovisualization of the distribution of POS and POS amenity across the Perth metropolitan region but also allow for scenario testing of the impact of population growth on access to POS (and POS amenity). Users will be able to change the population of political units and recalculate POS and POS amenity measures to examine how growth will influence access to POS in a political unit. In a health context, the tool provides the ability to examine POS provision across the region and exported POS related information for LGAs and suburbs for linkage with other census or health outcome data.

It is expected that a Beta version of the POS Tool will be unveiled in late November at a workshop highlighting the uses for and, technical aspects of the tool.  

 

      

Who will benefit from the POS tool?

·     1. State and local planners and land developers

            There is growing recognition in government and in the urban planning sector of the role that the built form can play in community health and well being. The recent State of Australian Cities report for example, emphasised the importance of planning for livability and quality of life, and the need for city environments that encourage physically active lifestyles. Sectors and organisations involved in the planning and provision of urban infrastructure can benefit from the project through direct access to data and ability to interrogate information through a user friendly interface; and through access to research findings and translation of research utilising the POS TOOL.

          
2. Public Health, social sciences, geography and other researchers 

      Benefits to researchers in health 

Many of the factors that most influence health exist outside the sphere of the health sector, and there is growing evidence base substantiating the multiple ways in which the built environment (which includes availability and amenity of parks and open space) impacts on health. The type of data collected and used by health researchers typically focuses on health outcomes, behaviours or interventions, and objective measures of the physical environments in which people live are often difficult or cost prohibitive to access. 

Benefits to other research - The POS TOOL and POS data is relevant to research in a number of disciplines, including geography, urban planning, social policy, natural resource management and economics and regional development. Examples of application could include: exploring the economic benefits of POS and more specifically the relationship between house prices and presence/absence of POS and POS amenities.

      Other research groups could similarly utilise the POS TOOL to interrogate and export data into existing datasets to investigate their own research questions (for example the Cardiovascular Health research group at UWA could investigate the relationship between cardiovascular outcomes, physical activity and POS accessibility).

 

     
3. The community

The broader community stands to benefit in a number ways from the research and planning applications arising from the project. Benefits include:

i. better planning outcomes for community wellbeing, quality of life and recreation in terms of park/POS provision/quality and access. This has flow on benefits for both physical health (via physical activity, walking, sport, active play for children) and mental health (via access to nature, settings for relaxation and social interaction)

            
ii. greater transparency in terms of inequity or inadequate accessibility of POS for particular areas or population groups, and a tool for benchmarking improvements to address this

The general public will also benefit from a visual, interactive presentation of the POS in their area and surrounding regions.

What is the POS tool about?

Public open space (POS), including parks, confer a number of physical, psychological and social health benefits for individuals and the community. However there is a paucity of data on provision and spatial distribution of POS, and particularly adequate data to examine the provision and quality of POS by social disadvantage. This project aims to: 1) integrate heterogeneous data sets from POS data layers with other geo-referenced demographic data, 2) to develop a web based geospatial data analytic and visualisation tool to support two new opportunities:

 ·   In Research:  investigations into the provision, access, and quality of POS and contribute to research efforts to understand the direct and indirect health benefits afforded by POS

·   In Urban planning practice: enable better planning of the land allocation and positioning of POS, allocation of POS amenities relative to existing large and local scale services; and the modelling of future needs of POS according to forecasted and hypothetically modelled demographic changes.

The project will bring together and integrate multiple forms of data related to POS provision, amenity, location and infrastructure, providing the ability to analyse POS data with other geo-spatial built environment information as well as ABS population demographic data. The emphasis of this project is creating a user friendly interface for accessing and using data at various political units or levels of interest.