Cities 143 (2023) 104565
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Cities journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cities
Denser habitats: A longitudinal study of the impacts of residential density on objective and perceived neighbourhood amenity in Brisbane, Australia Sarah Foster a, *, Billie Giles-Corti a, Julian Bolleter b, Gavin Turrell a a b
Centre for Urban Research, School of Global Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, 124 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC), School of Design, The University of Western Australia, Level 2, 1002 Hay St Perth Western, Australia
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Built environment Neighbourhood perceptions Urban consolidation Compact cities Walkability Social cohesion NIMBY
Higher residential densities are fundamental to creating sustainable, liveable and healthy neighbourhoods; however, community resistance to densification remains a barrier to infill development. We examined the relationship between residential density and the anticipated benefits and (feared) harms that trigger opposition using longitudinal data collected from mid-age adults (n = 3028) in Brisbane, Australia (2007–2016). Partici pants completed a questionnaire and objective measures were generated for each individual's 1 km buffer at each timepoint. Longitudinal fixed-effects models examined associations between change in density and change in: (1) objective measures of the built environment and crime; and (2) residents' neighbourhood perceptions controlling for time-varying and time-invariant factors, stratified by distance to the central business district (CBD). Dwell ings/ha increased, on average, by 1.5 dwellings (p < 0.001), however density levels and the magnitude of change differed by distance to the CBD. Different relationships were apparent depending on distance to the CBD, however despite some exceptions, as densities increased participants' neighbourhoods typically changed in ways that made them objectively more walkable, and subjectively more socially connected, pleasing places to live. The study provides empirical evidence that will help governments and developers communicate the benefits of density and pre-empt or mitigate potential problems that infill developments impose on local communities.
1. Introduction The United Nations refers to urbanization as ‘one of the twenty-first century's most transformative trends’ (United Nations, 2017a). By midcentury, around 70 % of the world's population will reside in urban areas (United Nations, 2019). Managing population growth and urbanisation, together with pressing economic, social, cultural, and environmental issues is a priority for cities (United Nations, 2017b). Indeed, to deliver sustainable, equitable and healthy cities, the New Urban Agenda re iterates the need to prioritize compact development and urban renewal, and prevent urban sprawl (United Nations, 2017a). While the COVID-19 pandemic initially appeared to undermine this ambition, there is growing evidence that over-crowding rather than density per se posed a greater risk to disease transmission (Frumkin, 2021), and the need to densify our rapidly growing cities remains a priority. Numerous environmental, economic and health co-benefits stem from increasing residential densities and limiting low density suburban development (United Nations Habitat, 2014). Density is a core element
that underpins a walkable neighbourhood, as the larger population base increases the viability of local shops, services, and public transport routes, including the frequency of service (Giles-Corti et al., 2016). There is now considerable evidence from multi-city (Gascon et al., 2019; Kerr et al., 2016) and longitudinal studies (Bentley et al., 2018; Chan drabose et al., 2021; Giles-Corti et al., 2013; Hirsch et al., 2014; Kam ruzzaman et al., 2016; Knuiman et al., 2014) that higher residential densities, and the destinations required for daily living that density supports, increase walking for transport. Evidence reviews also highlight the importance of compact walkable neighbourhoods to increased public transport use (Giles-Corti et al., 2016; Nieuwenhuijsen, 2020), less car dependency and sedentary time (Koohsari et al., 2015), lower BMI (Leal & Chaix, 2011) and greater social interaction (Bird et al., 2018; Thompson & Kent, 2014). While the evidence is not universally supportive, with some studies linking increased densities and local destinations with negative community outcomes such as crime (Cozens, 2008; Foster et al., 2013; Foster et al., 2021), on balance, the consensus is that developing compact communities is an effective intervention to
* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: sarah.foster@rmit.edu.au (S. Foster), Billie.Giles-Corti@rmit.edu.au (B. Giles-Corti), julian.bolleter@uwa.edu.au (J. Bolleter), gavin.turrell@ rmit.edu.au (G. Turrell). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104565 Received 12 April 2023; Received in revised form 8 September 2023; Accepted 16 September 2023 Available online 28 September 2023 0264-2751/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).