Planning for Active Living
Well-designed communities encourage and support physical activity. After smoking, physical inactivity is the second most preventable cause of illness and premature death for Australians. Currently only half of the NSW population meets the recommended level of at least 30 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week.
The NSW Government has set reducing obesity as one of its priorities in the State Plan. It has also established the Premier's Council for Active Living (PCAL) to identify and promote multi-agency strategies and actions to get more people more active more often. The Department of Planning is one of several agencies directly involved in initiatives to tackle obesity and create environments which support active living.
It is well-established that the built environment impacts on health and well-being and in many cases encourages a sedentary lifestyle. A number of resources have been made available through the PCAL program for practitioners in local and State Government, private consultancy, the development industry, other design and health professionals and the community. These aim to assist in understanding the issues and identifying practical ways in which the built environment can be changed and enhanced to create a more supportive environment for active living.
The resources can be accessed at www.pcal.nsw.gov.au. They include a 'Why Active Living' statement, planning and design guidelines, monthly e-newsletters, projects and events, fact sheets, and presentations given at conferences and workshops on healthy planning.
The designing places for active living section of the website provide summary advice on design considerations for five aspects of the built environment and links to documents which provide detailed information. The aspects are:
- cities, towns and neighbourhoods
- walking and cycling routes
- public transport
- open space
- retail areas
Further information: