A GIS Investigation of Access to Greenspace in Canberra, Australia

Abstract

The importance of access to greenspace has been widely acknowledged and its importance will continue to grow in to the future. Access to greenspace can provide a wide range of benefits from improving mental health to increasing social ties. In Canberra, Australia provision of greenspace has been a key feature in the development of the city and is now know as the ‘bush capital’. Given that greenspace is a core part of the city this study aims to identify if spatial behaviour patterns of residents differs in suburbs of different development eras. This exploratory study examined the effect of distance on frequency of use of greenspace in two areas of Canberra from different development eras and in relation to two household characteristics (dog ownership and children under the age of 15). A survey was distributed to residents in a sub-set of suburbs in the North Canberra and Gungahlin areas. Each survey contained a G-NAF number to allow for 100 percent geocoding of returned results. The survey had two sections. The first identified the demographic and household characteristic details whilst the second was related to greenspace usage. In the second section respondents were provided with a map and asked to mark greenspaces they had used in the last month and how frequently. Further questions in the section identified more information on residents greenspace usage. Euclidian distances from the respondent’s address to greenspace usage points were calculates and used in regression models to determine the effect of distance on frequency of use. In turn data from the regression models allowed for the development of hypothetical service area maps. The survey found that of the respondents 90 percent of them travelled to greenspace in the past month and most of them travelled there by foot. Respondents were typically going to greenspace to run or walk and are looking for wildlife and nature in greenspaces. One of key findings was that distance was found to have a statistically significant effect on the frequency of use of greenspace. For the overall sample with every additional kilometre to greenspace there was a 30.4 percent decrease in frequency of use. The analysis also found a difference in distance-decay between North Canberra and Gungahlin. The effect of distance on frequency of use was greater in Gungahlin. There was also a difference in distance decay between dog owners and non-dog owners as well as between households with children under the age of 15 and those without. The effect of distance on frequency of use was greater on dog owners than non-dog owners. For households with children under the age of 15 the effect of distance on frequency of use was less than households without. This information could be used in the future to better understand the spatial behaviour of residents interacting with greenspace and inform the development of new suburbs in the future to ensure that all residents are receiving maximum benefits from greenspace. Show more