Practitioners’ Perspectives Virtual Workshop Progress, insights, new AI methods and policy impact being created by the Australian Urban Observatory digital liveability indicators system

The Australian Urban Observatory is a digital liveability planning platform measuring and monitoring liveability down to the local neighbourhood level across the 21 largest cities of Australia. Established in 2020, liveability indicators included in the Australian Urban Observatory are guided by a comprehensive definition of liveability with the digital portal developed and co-designed overtime in response to the needs to policymakers who are applying the indicators as evidence in policymaking. The transdisciplinary project is based on expertise in public health, urban planning, geography, architecture, geospatial science, computer science and artificial intelligence to establish foundational knowledge about the liveability of Australian cities that has also been applied in Thailand and Japan.

This presentation will provide an overview of the Australian Urban Observatory local and national liveability indicators system, and describe how the evidence is being applied in Australian government and industry contexts. It will explain how computer science and artificial intelligence are being used to support development of innovative neighbourhood liveability indicators in response to emerging community and policy needs. The presentation will also provide an overview of co-designed resources and toolkits developed to support improved public health and urban policymaking, and support advocacy action to improve liveability across the country. The presentation will argue that indicators alone are not enough to support the critical issues of evidence-informed health and urban policy development and that new methods of data visualisation, communication, capacity building and engagement need to evolve to ensure the value of indicator systems.