Table 2 The domains, attributes, rationale for inclusion and access measure definition for features of a 20MN

Healthy food

- Large supermarket (Coles or Woolworths)

- Smaller supermarket (e.g. Aldi, IGA, Woolworths Metro, Foodland)

- Fruit and vegetable store/market

The healthy food criteria were met if a resident could access a large supermarket which provides a large selection of healthy foods at affordable prices or, alternatively, access to both a smaller supermarket and a greengrocer which combined would provide opportunities to source both core household food items and healthy food products, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.

A household must meet one of the following criteria:

i) A large supermarket within a 1.5-km pedestrian network distance from home

OR

ii) A smaller supermarket AND greengrocer (i.e. fruit and vegetable store/market) within a 1.5-km pedestrian network distance from home.

Recreational resources

- Gym

The presence of a gym (commercial or public) was used as the indicator of access to recreational facilities, recognising that many gyms offer a range of fitness options and cater to many age groups.

To meet this criterion, a household must have access to a gym within a 1.5-km pedestrian network distance from home.

Community resources

- Primary school

- General practitioner (GP)

- Pharmacy

- Library

- Post office

- Café

The community resource criteria were met if an area had each of the following:

1. Primary school: School for young children (school years prep to grade 6 servicing children 5–12 years of age).

2. General practitioner: Provision of health services, particularly for elderly.

3. Pharmacy: Provision of health services, particularly for elderly.

4. Library: Learning opportunities and access to internet, particularly for children, the elderly and the socioeconomically disadvantaged.

5. Post office: Provider of government, financial and other ancillary services.

6. Café: Opportunities for social engagement.

To meet this criterion, a household must have access to each of the six community resource attributes within a 1.5-km pedestrian network distance from home.

Public open space - Melbourne

For the 400 m distance measure: public open space excluding small local links

For the 8 ha within 1 km measure, publicly accessible:

- Natural and semi-natural open space

- Parks and gardens

- Conservation reserves

- Recreation corridor

- Sports fields and organised recreation areas

Two measures were used: i) households within 400 m distance along a pedestrian network to public open space and ii) 8 ha of public open space within a 1-km radius.

Both access measures were informed by the Victorian Planning Provisions which outline (amongst other clauses) that 95% of all dwellings should be within 400 m of a safe walking distance to local parks and have access to active open space of at least 8 ha in area within 1 km.

(Standard C13 - VPP-56.05-2 Public Open Space Provision Objectives http://planningschemes.dpcd.vic.gov.au/schemes/combined-ordinances/VPPs_All_Clauses.pdf)

For the open space features chosen for the 8 ha within 1 km measure, we used a Euclidean distance and included only open space where people could freely visit (i.e. only publicly accessible spaces) for sport, recreation, or relaxation/restoration purposes.

To meet this criterion, a household must have access to the following:

i) Access to public open space within 400-m pedestrian network distance from home*

AND

ii) ≥8 ha of public open space within 1 km from home

* This data source provides a measure of households within 400 m of public open space with access points defined at 30-m intervals along public open space boundaries, where direct access from roads or trails are available [38]. It also includes a road network to which the custodians added thousands of informal pedestrian links. Therefore, it provides a highly accurate representation of pedestrian access.

Public open space - Adelaide

Publicly accessible open space areas categorised within the data source as:

- Botanic garden

- Coastal

- Conservation area

- Conservation park

- Linear

- Linear park

- Link

- National park

- POS

- Recreation park

- Sport

- Wetland

Two measures were used: i) households within 400 m distance along a pedestrian network to public open space and ii) 8 ha of public open space within a 1-km radius.

To meet this criterion, a household must have access to the following:

i) Access to public open space (park access points spaced every 50 m) within 400 m from home

AND

ii) ≥8 ha of public open space within 1 km from home

Public transport - Melbourne

- Bus stop

- Tram stop

- Train station

The three primary modes of public transport in Melbourne were selected for this measure. Buses and trams facilitate more localised travel within areas (and sometimes across areas), while trains facilitate longer journeys such as to and from the Melbourne central business district for work. Access measures for each mode were informed by past literature on public transport accessibility [39,40,41]. It was decided that within a 5-km radius centred around the central business district (with the General Post Office (GPO) as centre point), access buffers had to represent availability of either tram, bus, or train. This was factoring in that 5 km was a more than reasonable distance to assume that people who needed access to the city could do so via bus or tram without a major time burden or use alternative non-motorised forms of transport such as walking and cycling. The transport network beyond the 5 km range was modelled enforcing train availability, i.e. train stations had to be accessible in combination with either a bus stop or tram stop. This rule reflects that those in Melbourne have on average a commute distance of over 15 km [42] and trains are often the quickest mode of public transport over longer distances.

Within 5 km of the GPO: To meet this criterion, a household must have access to:

i) A bus stop within a 400-m pedestrian network distance from home.

OR

ii) A tram stop within a 600-m pedestrian network distance from home.

OR

iii) A train station within an 800-m pedestrian network distance from home.

Further than 5 km from the GPO: To meet this criterion, a household must have access to:

i) A train station within an 800-m pedestrian network distance from home.

AND either

ii) A bus stop within a 400-m pedestrian network distance from home.

OR

iii) A tram stop within a 600-m pedestrian network distance from home.

Public transport - Adelaide

- Bus stop including O-Bahn (guided busway)

- Tram stop

- Train station

The three primary modes of public transport were included using the same rationale for the distance to these modes as outlined for Melbourne above. Note, a separate measure for further than 5 km from the central business district was not undertaken in Adelaide given the emphasis on different public transport modes in this city and the smaller spatial extent.

To meet this criterion, a household must have access to:

i) A bus or O-Bahn stop within a 400-m pedestrian network distance from home.

OR

ii) A tram stop within a 600-m pedestrian network distance from home.

OR

iii) A train station within an 800-m pedestrian network distance from home.