Academy Fellow

By 2050, nearly 7 of 10 people will live in cities. Australia’s population will nearly double, with most growth occurring in cities; and Sydney and Melbourne expected to become mega-cities. The idea that city planning affects health is not new. In the 19th century, city leaders in crowded, unsanitary, and polluted industrial cities acted to reform the way cities were built to protect the public’s health, marking the disciplinary roots of public health, urban and transport planning, and civil engineering. However, in the 20th century, linkages between these disciplines diverged. Cities are the engines of economic growth and innovation, providing unprecedented opportunities for employment, education, health services and culture and recreation. Yet in the 21st century, cities are confronting unparalleled challenges: rising preventable chronic diseases, managing new infectious diseases, population growth, traffic congestion, climate change, inadequate (and ageing) infrastructure, housing affordability, food, and water shortages, growing social inequity, ageing populations, and new disruptive technologies. Human, eco-system and planetary health will be shaped by decisions about how to accommodate growing urban populations; and the speed with which we can transition to healthy, sustainable, and low-carbon living. The form and function of cities are determined by city planning policies. Australia has some of the least walkable and most car-dependent cities in the world. There is now growing global recognition of the urgent need to design pedestrian- and cycling-friendly higher density, mixed use compact neighbourhoods with access to green space and all the amenities required for daily living. PostCOVID19, momentum has grown globally to ‘build back better’ through 20-minute neighbourhoods or 15-minute cities.

My research was initially prompted to create an evidence-base to support two of the World Health Organization’s 1986 goals for health promotion: the need for ‘healthy public policy’ and the creation of ‘supportive environments’. Over nearly three decades, I have led multidisciplinary teams pioneering policy- and practice-relevant built environment and health research to help achieve these aspirations, resulting in a paradigm shift that has reconnected public health with city planning, locally and globally. Health is now a priority in planning policy, and vice versa. This has been achieved through strong long-term partnerships with policymakers and practitioners. I have trained a new generation of social scientists who understand the importance of these partnerships. Moreover, I have contributed to establishing a new field of social science research as evidenced by ANZSRC recently introducing ‘Urban planning and health’ as a new field of research code.

My team’s research has influenced local, national, and international policy and practice. For example, our 10 year longitudinal RESIDE study evaluating the Western Australian government’s Liveable Neighbourhood Guidelines, is referenced in WA’s Planning Strategy as endorsing a shift away from lowdensity urban sprawl and supporting the World Health Organization to create safe ‘active’ systems. Our award-winning liveability research is referenced in Victoria’s Public Health and Wellbeing Plan (2015–19 and 2019–23), and informed metrics for conceptualising The Victorian Government’s Plan Melbourne’s 20-minute neighbourhood and a framework for its evaluation. My team’s liveability indicators were used in Victorian local government Municipal Health Plans and in the federal government’s National Cities Performance Framework (public transport, open space) that informs city policy and investment decisions. Indicators from our National Liveability Study undertaken in Australia’s 21 largest cities, are disseminated through the Australian Urban Observatory https://auo.org.au/; and available through Figshare for use by other researchers. This liveability research was upscaled globally through the Healthy and Sustainable City-Indicators Collaboration study of 25 cities in 19 countries, findings from which were published in 2022 by The Lancet Global Health in a second series on Urban Design, Transport and Health; policy-briefs available for policy-makers distributed through the Global Observatory of Healthy Sustainable Cities https://www.healthysustainablecities.org/; data distributed for use by researchers through Figshare and which is now growing further through establishment of the 1000 cities challenge. My research began by creating an evidence-base about how to measure the built environment and why we should build healthy and sustainable cities, but over decades it has shifted to evidence about what needs to change and how..

Planning Institute of Australia National Award for Planning Research Excellence (2023, 2018)

NHMRC Research Fellow (2003-2020)

Elizabeth Blackburn Public Health Fellow (2016-2020)

Town and Country Planning Association 2020 Sir James Barrett Memorial Medal

Clarivate (previously Thomson Reuters) Highly Cited Researcher (top 1% in field by citations)

2014-2019), 2021 (cross-field category)

VicHealth Champion Award (2017)

Centre for Active Design (New York) Research Excellence Award (2017)

Australian Health Promotion Association Ray James Award (2015)

Public Health Association of Australia, Inaugural Mentor of the Year Award (2011)

Hon. Fellow, Planning Institute of Australia (2012)

Fellow, Public Health Association of Australia (2008)

Fulbright Scholar (2008)

President’s Award National Heart Foundation of Australia (2003)

1. Giles-Corti, B., Foster, S., Lynch, B., & Lowe, M. (2023). What are the lessons from

COVID-19 for creating healthy, sustainable, resilient future cities? NPJ Urban

Sustain, 3(1), 29. doi:10.1038/s42949-023-00107-y

2. Giles-Corti, B., Saghapour, T., Turrell, G., Gunn, L., Both, A., Lowe, M., . . . Higgs, C.

(2022). Spatial and socioeconomic inequities in liveability in Australia's 21 largest

cities: Does city size matter? Health Place, 78, 102899.

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102899

3. Giles-Corti B, Moudon AV, Lowe M, Cerin E, Boeing G, Frumkin H, Salvo D, Foster

S, Kleeman A, Bekessy S, Hérick de Sá T, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Higgs C, Hinckson E,

Adlakha D, Arundel J, Liu S, Oyeyemi AL, Nitvimol K, Sallis JF. What next? Expanding

our view of city planning and global health and implementing and monitoring

evidence-informed policy. The Lancet Global Health. 2022; 10(6), e919-e926.

doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00066-3

2022 Fellow Registration Form Page | 6

4. Giles-Corti B, Vernez-Moudon A, Reis R, Turrell G, Dannenberg AL, Badland H,

Foster S, Lowe M, Sallis JF, Stevenson M, Owen N. City planning and population

health: a global challenge. The Lancet. 2016 388 (10062):2912-24.

5. Giles-Corti B, Lowe M, Arundel J. (2020) Achieving the SDGs: Evaluating indicators

to be used to benchmark and monitor progress towards creating healthy and

sustainable cities. Health Policy Jun;124(6):581-590.