Human Settlements Theme Report
Australia State of the Environment Report 2001 (Theme Report)
Lead Author: Professor Peter W. Newton, CSIRO Building, Construction and Engineering, Authors
Published by CSIRO on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2001
ISBN 0 643 06747 7
Liveability: human well-being
This section reports on the following environmental indicators, which are defined in Newton et al. (1998).
| Environmental Indicator | |
|---|---|
| HS 3.8 | Home-based workers |
| HS 3.9 | Physical assaults in public places |
| HS 3.10 | Number of house burglaries |
| HS 3.11 | a | b | | Indices of urban socio-economic inequality |
| HS 3.12 | Indices of socio-spatial segregation |
| HS 4.7 | a | b | | Average speed by mode and distance |
| HS 4.8 | a | b | | Mode choice by trip purpose by area |
| HS 4.9 | a | b | | Total time and distance travelled |
| HS 4.11 | Economic costs of road accidents |
| HS 4.13 | Costs of congestion |
| HS 5.3 | a | b | | Unemployment rates |
| HS 6.2 | a | b | | House price to income ratio |
| HS 7.5 | Proportion of population sensitive to pollutants |
| HS 7.6 | Proportion of adult smokers with children |
| HS 7.12 | Incidence of Legionnaire's Disease |
| HS 8.2 | Incidence of vector-borne diseases |
| HS 8.4 | Passive smoking |
| HS 8.6 | Depression and related disorders |
| HS 8.7 | Melanoma of the skin |
| HS 8.8 | Cause-specific mortality rates |
| HS 8.9 | Mortality among Indigenous Australians |
| HS 8.10 | GP consultations |
| HS 8.11 | Hospital separations, all causes |
| HS 8.12 | Health services expenditure |
Findings from national surveys reveal that social and economic issues (health, crime, education, unemployment) outrank physical environment as key areas of concern among Australians (Table 31). This affirms the importance of recognising the dual dimensions of liveability of human settlements - human well-being and environmental quality - in SoE reporting (see Figure 3).
| Issue | Percentage nominating issue as major concern |
Issue | Percentage nominating issue as major concern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 29.7 | Unemployment | 13.3 |
| Crime | 25.5 | Environment | 9.0 |
| Education | 16.6 | Don't know | 2.8 |
Source: ABS(1999a).
Social and economic well-being
Australia's transition from an 'industrial' to a 'post-industrial' society has resulted in differing opportunities for both people and places (Baum et al. 1999). For human settlements, these transitions - which have included globalisation, new technologies, changes in the nature of work, the ability to access economic resources, and shifts in social dynamics generally - have resulted in increasingly noticeable social divides within Australian society which are reflected at the level of human settlements, with emerging disparities not only between the 'cities' and the 'bush', but also within the big cities and between towns within the non-metropolitan rural and regional Australia. These divides are more complex than is often portrayed in the media and politics. Many of the differences are the outcomes of processes of change that have been occurring for a long time, such as the decline of small country towns as they are bypassed in favour of larger regional centres. In Australia, the big cities have always reflected the uneven nature of society, with poor neighbourhoods alongside richer areas, while there has always been concern about the gap between the city and the bush. The changes that have been occurring over recent decades have in many ways exacerbated these differences. However, new disparities certainly are emerging as a direct result of the fast-paced changes of contemporary society. In terms of human settlements, these disparities all impact on liveability, the economic viability of places and the people who live there.