KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE, SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND HEALTHY URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: INTEGRATING WALKABILITY MODELS INTO PRACTICE

This project aims to maximise the policy impact of research already undertaken on walkability, particularly the development of a Real Walkability Network, which has initially been generated as part of the PARC project based on a study area of East Belfast. This project aims to extend the applicability of the developed policy tools to cover the two main cities of Northern Ireland, Belfast and Derry, so that the model then covers 37% of the population and some of the most deprived communities in the region. The project will disseminate the use of this model to practitioners in order to increase the evidence base for interventions in the built environment aimed at promoting physical activity. It will provide a range of benefits for both the academic community and the end users of research. For academics, it will make important contributions to ongoing research on understanding the environmental correlates of physical activity and through engagement with practitioner communities will aim to create a virtuous circle of research, implementation and feedback. For end users it will provide benefits in terms of the establishment of a useful decision-making tool that will enhance the evidence base for environmental interventions for improving physical activity and will provide training and capacity building in its use with the aim of establishing sustainability for its ongoing deployment. The value of the project is reflected in the large number of public bodies that have been willing to become partners, including Belfast and Derry City Councils, Department of Regional Development, Dept of Health Social Services and Public Safety, Public Health Agency and Belfast Healthy Cities, as well as cities in England, who have provided match funding and in kind support of over £88,000. The project will run for 12 months and employ two research assistants to help undertake three separate work packages:

Work Package 1: Model consolidation and validation. (Months 1-5)
This work package will involve the appointment, training and placement of 2 research assistants to be based in Belfast and Derry City Councils respectively, during which time they will consolidate and extend the model developed for East Belfast so that it has operational coverage of the entire 2 local authority areas. The model will be subject to validation using random checking of critical elements, such as land use and footpath coverage. During this time the research assistants will interact with staff of local authorities and other statutory agencies to begin to build up an understanding of the extent, form and availability of spatial data and the information needs of different partners, including potential links to regional strategies on obesity, active travel and physical activity.

Work Package 2: Project integration and sustainability (Months 6-10).
Work package 2 will involve a process of integrating the walkability models and other elements of spatial analysis into the existing physical activity-related programmes of the partner organisations to improve their effectiveness, efficiency and accuracy. This stage of the project will also involve developing the capacity of project partners to ensure the sustainability of the place-specific walkability models.

Work Package 3: Knowledge dissemination and engagement with wider practitioner communities (Months 11-12) Work Package 3 will involve an evaluation and a report of the benefits, costs and opportunities arising from the operational deployment of walkability models and their integration with other central and local government responsibilities and initiatives. On the basis of this evaluation, a series of workshops will be run in Northern Ireland and the UK. Finally, the findings of the project will be presented at three conferences to disseminate the findings to different academic and practitioner communities.

The project has been designed to maximise the impact of the research already undertaken on developing a model to assess the walkability of the built environment. The project builds on established partnerships and aims to create new collaborations. Initial discussions with our partners have identified a wide range of impacts on policy, decision-making, capacity building and awareness raising in relation to enhancing public bodies' understanding of the environmental correlates of physical activity. The project will increase the effectiveness of interventions in the built environment to support active lifestyles and help target resources in a more efficient way. It is also suggested that there may be a range of spin-off benefits for those involved in direct service delivery (e.g. the councils). The project links directly to a number of major policy initiatives in Northern Ireland and across the UK related to obesity, physical activity and active travel.

The impacts can be considered in a number of phases. In the short term (months 1-12), the project will have immediate and direct impacts through training and knowledge transfer opportunities; in the medium term (years 2-3), the project is expected to influence broader policy and data-gathering approaches and in the long term (+3 years), we hope that the project will be shown to be the basis of an ongoing collaborative relationship between the University and stakeholders active in this policy field.

Project impacts are maximised through a robust communication, dissemination and monitoring strategy. This will include a detailed needs and stakeholders analysis in the first few months of the project, regular steering group meetings to monitor how the walkability model has been used by each partner and a series of dissemination workshops in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK that will describe the development of the methodology, the benefits and applicability of the model. The project also includes proposals for a number of peer reviewed papers and conference presentations.

Finally, the impacts strategy is built upon a strong record of engagement of the research team, who have extensive experience in such collaborative projects and in communicating with an array of government, business and civil society stakeholders in health and spatial planning.