WA Food Atlas

Investigators/Team: Prof Gina Trapp, Dr Paula Hooper, Assoc Prof Christina Pollard, Assoc Prof Lukar Thornton, Dr Matthew Cooper, Joe Simonetti, Dr Alexia Bivoltsis, Frith Klug, Dr Claire Pulker

Funding: Heathway Health Promotion Intervention Grant 2021-2024

Summary:

This project combined the disciplines of nutrition, public health, geography and urban planning to be the first in Australia to comprehensively map, measure and monitor food access across WA. The WA Food Atlas tool created is now being upscaled to a national level. The WA Food Atlas spatially visualised a community’s access to food, identifying the communities with limited access to retailers of healthy food and/or an oversupply of unhealthy food. Design of this tool was informed in consultation with professionals working in the fields of food policy, public health, environmental health and planning roles to maximise applicability and value.

Research impact:

The WA Food Atlas enables food access to be compared and ranked in different areas and evaluate trends over time. The generation of this local evidence now supports WA Public Health Planning, food regulation, food monitoring, nutrition environment interventions, local government strategic planning frameworks. The WA Food Atlas has built the evidence base for use by advocacy partners on the inclusion of public health within the deemed provisions of Clause 67 of the Planning and Development Act 2005 (WA).

Contact: Contact the Food Environments Team at FET@ecu.edu.au 

Partners:

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