Introduction by Croakey: A citizen science project assessing walkability across lutruwita/Tasmania brought many useful insights and wider benefits, including becoming a catalyst for community empowerment.
“It provided people with a means of having their voices heard that has also amplified these local voices, built awareness of environmental barriers and assets, and encouraged people to take ownership of their neighbourhoods,” reports planner and urban designer Jenny Donovan.
“It also provided councils and researchers with valuable, place‑specific data that can guide future planning, in particular the importance of integrated active transport,” she says.
The project was funded by the Heart Foundation; Donovan is a member of the Heart Foundation’s Tasmanian Advisory Board.
This article is published as part of Croakey’s Primary Healthcare: Community matters (#PHCmatters) initiative, which puts a focus on strengths-based stories from local communities.
Jenny Donovan writes:
Tasmanians are amazing people in many ways but we do fall behind other Australians in some aspects of our health, in ways that diminish the quality and quantity of our lives and leave us less able to enjoy all the things that living here can bring.
Compared with the rest of Australia, people living in lutruwita/Tasmania are generally older, less active, have poorer diets, and experience higher rates of heart disease. Despite our close knit communities and high rates of volunteerism, we also have relatively high rates of loneliness and social isolation.
But addressing these concerns is not simply a matter of individual choices. The places where people live, learn, work, play and age profoundly shape our ability to be active, eat well and feel connected.
These require (amongst other things) walkable streets, safe crossings, green spaces, and access to fresh food.
The presence and quality of these things shape daily habits and so the trajectory of our lives, strongly influencing our long‑term wellbeing. They are essential health infrastructure, just like hospitals and doctors’ surgeries.
The Love Your Heart, Love Your Community project – led by the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania and funded by the Heart Foundation – set out to explore this connection between environment, behaviour and health.
But it did something more powerful: it placed people in lutruwita/Tasmania at the centre of the research.
Through a citizen‑science approach, community members became active contributors, gathering data about their own neighbourhoods and reflecting on how their surroundings support or hinder healthy living.
Participatory process
Using the Walkability Checklist devised by the Heart Foundation, 108 people across the state walked their local streets and rated features that influence walkability – footpaths, shade, safety, public transport, places to socialise, and access to healthy food. They also completed surveys about their health habits and experiences.
The participants were weighted somewhat towards nipaluna/Hobart, with 65 percent coming from there, while this city is home to 42 percent of the state’s population. However, other urban centres across the state’s three regions were also represented, as were rural and regional areas.
Participants were more likely to be women (67 percent) and tended to be better educated than the Tasmanian average.
The findings of this participatory process created ample data that the authors interpreted, shining a light on how people saw their communities.
Many participants reported noticing issues they had never paid attention to before – uneven footpaths, missing kerb ramps, fast‑moving traffic, or the absence of shade.
Others became more aware of the needs of older adults, people using prams, or neighbours with mobility challenges. As one participant put it: “I hadn’t realised how impassable some paths would be for someone with less mobility.”
Key findings
Within the inevitable limitations of a project relying on volunteers, gathering a much sharper focus on some sections of the community than others, the findings were very telling.
Footpaths are the biggest barrier to safe, enjoyable walking. Missing, narrow or uneven paths, overgrown vegetation and obstacles like bins made walking difficult. Also connectivity matters – people want continuous networks linking homes, parks, shops and services.
Taken together, these two insights suggests that our choice to walk or not is somewhat dependent ‘on the weakest link in the chain’ and small unwalkable sections may deter people from walking at all.
Traffic and infrastructure safety strongly shaped people’s confidence to walk. As might be expected, being near noisy, fast vehicles and little supporting infrastructure (such as places to sit) will make walking much less appealing.
Natural environments are a major asset, with beaches, rivers and parks repeatedly named as reasons people enjoy walking, providing a strong magnet that justified the effort and commitment of time intrinsic to walking.
The project also found that access to healthy food varies, with some communities having limited fresh options.
These insights provide strong evidence for what many have long suspected. When walking is easy, safe and pleasant, people are more likely to be active. When healthy food is accessible, people are more likely to eat well. And when public spaces feel welcoming, people feel more connected to their community.
Our chances of overcoming the many influences that are distracting us and deterring us from being healthy and connected are easier to overcome when our surroundings support it.
Empowerment
One of the most striking outcomes of the project was the impact it had on participants themselves.
Many felt they could see their surroundings in a new light, they reported feeling more motivated to advocate for improvements, contact their local council, or share concerns with neighbours. Some discovered new walking routes or parks they had never visited. Others said the project strengthened their appreciation for their local area.
Citizen science, in this context, became a catalyst for community empowerment. It provided people with a means of having their voices heard that has also amplified these local voices, built awareness of environmental barriers and assets, and encouraged people to take ownership of their neighbourhoods.
It also provided councils and researchers with valuable, place‑specific data that can guide future planning, in particular the importance of integrated active transport networks that make walking or cycling realistic and appealing choices to get from A to B.
Shared path forward
The Love Your Heart, Love Your Community project demonstrates that improving heart health is not just a medical challenge – it is a community one.
When residents are invited to observe, reflect and contribute, they become partners in shaping healthier, more connected and more equitable places.
The project shows that the path to better heart health begins not only with individual choices, but with communities working together to create environments where healthy living is not a chore but the preferred way to live.
Author details
Jenny Donovan is a planner and urban designer, and a member of the Heart Foundation’s Tasmanian Advisory Board. She is the principal of the urban and landscape design practice Inclusive Design. She also works for the Cradle Coast Authority as a Consultant Planner and Urban Designer, and before that, the UN in Afghanistan where she managed a major human development and security program. Jenny is passionately interested in the social outcomes influenced by the places we build. Throughout her professional life she has been fortunate enough to work in roles that have focussed on helping people to overcome disadvantage, meet their needs, thrive and fulfil their potential. Her recent work includes ‘Care in Transit’, for Transport for New South Wales which provided design and placemaking guidelines to ensure train stations reconciled the needs of all users and the Steps Towards Sustainability program for Waratah Wynyard Council that installed a suite of pause places in northwest Tasmania. She is the author of books on socially responsible urban design, most recently “Designing to Heal” (2014) (CSIRO), “Designing the Compassionate City” (2017) and “Recipes for Urban Happiness” (2024) (Routledge).
Previously at Croakey: From the Cradle Coast, a call for rail to be recognised as public health infrastructure for regional communities
Add Comment