Explore Indicators
Usage of amenities
What is the indicator?
This indicator measures the amount or rate of usage of specific types of amenities/amenity present in a defined geographic area (such as within the boundaries of a local government area). This can be done in two ways. The first measures the total amount of use – for example, the total number of visitors to a nature area in a year. This provides an understanding of how a particular amenity is being used, but not of the reasons for change. For example, an increase in total visitation could occur for many reasons: an increase in new visitors, or an increase in frequency of use by existing users. The second measures use per head of population, for example that one in every 23 residents of a community visited an area at least once in the previous year. Usage of any type of amenity can be monitored, but typically usage of recreational, sporting and cultural facilities is most common, such as parks, sporting ovals, meeting halls, or trails.
What can this tell us about wellbeing?
While often easy to track, it can be hard to interpret what a change in amenity usage means for wellbeing. For example, a change in the number of cyclists using a cycling trail could occur for many reasons – and many of them will not have an impact on cyclists wellbeing. For example, a reduction in usage of one trail could result from the opening of new trails which mean cyclists have more options for places to cycle, a change likely to be associated with an increase in wellbeing rather than a decline. Alternatively, it could be due to high financial stress causing increased work hours and a reduction in recreation, something that is associated with a decline in wellbeing. It could also be due to a change in the popularity of cycling, with many people switching to different recreational activities, which will be unlikely to affect wellbeing.
Change in amenity usage therefore needs to be interpreted with reference to what is happening in the rest of the community, rather than assumed to indicate a change in wellbeing in and of itself. Often other amenity indicators may provide more direct insight into whether amenities in a community are supporting wellbeing.
Advantages and disadvantages of this indicator
Advantages: Measuring usage of an amenity is sometimes possible to do by installing relatively low cost sensors, or accessing administrative records on numbers of bookings. This can make this an easy to track indicator.
Disadvantages: There isn’t a simple relationship between changing use of particular amenities and wellbeing. Typically further investigation is needed to identify whether a change in usage is likely to be a cause or consequence of changing wellbeing.
What measures should I use for this indicator?
This indicator can be examined using a wide range of measures, depending on the type of amenity and the method used to measure usage. Examples of measures that can be applied to a number of amenities are provided below. All require collection of your own data: there are no available sources of data in Australia that consistently measure amenity usage for individual communities.
Measures
This measure uses administrative records of facility usage based on bookings. It can be used for any amenity that requires a booking or payment for use, as long as administrative records are consistently kept. Examples might include:
- How many days of the year a community hall was used by community groups or other organisations
- How many times local residents booked to use tennis courts or a sports oval.
This measure can only be used where there are consistent administrative records, and these records are likely to reflect overall levels of usage. For example, a sporting oval may be used informally by many residents when not formally booked for use for team training or events; in this case, administrative bookings are likely to be a poor indicator of overall usage. Care is needed in interpretation: a change in usage may or may not indicate a change in wellbeing, depending on the reason for the change in usage. Decline in use of an oval may indicate a decline in engagement in sports teams – or simply that another oval with better facilities is being used instead.
Typically this is measured using administrative records of the organisation that manages the amenity.
Surveys of the general community can be used to measure this instead of administrative records – see the Use of amenities – community survey measure.
This measure uses sensors to track usage of an amenity. Examples might include:
- Sensors embedded in a trail that record how often a bicycle rides over them
- Sensors at the entrance to a parking lot recording how many cars park in the parking lot of a trail head.
This measure can only be used where sensors are installed, and where data from the sensor measures specific use of an amenity. Care is needed in interpretation: a change in usage may or may not indicate a change in wellbeing, depending on the reason for the change in usage. Decline in use of a cycling track may indicate a decline in recreation and exercise – or simply that cycling has declined in popularity and there has been an increase in other types of recreation that have become more popular.
Typically this is measured using sensors installed at amenities and maintained over time by the organisation managing the amenity. Data need to be sourced from that organisation.
Surveys of the general community can be used to measure this instead of administrative records – see the Use of amenities – community survey measure.
This measure uses app data to estimate use of a facility. This is most common for sporting activities in which an app is used to record the activity, for example apps like Strava which record geocoded locations of a person while they are engaging in an activity.
App data can be useful as an indicator of usage of facilities, but only if an app is consistently popular and maintains a similar level of usage over time. For example, if one app declines in popularity and another becomes more popular, the first app may show a decline in usage of a given walking or cycling trail and the second an increase in use of the same trail during the same period. Care is needed to ensure that change in what is recorded in app data is likely to reflect real change in usage.
Typically this is measured by accessing data from the app owner. When doing this, care is needed to ensure appropriate ethical protocols are in place to protect the privacy of app users, and to ensure app users have consented to their usage data being shared.
Surveys of the general community can be used to measure this instead of administrative records – see the Use of amenities – community survey measure.
This measure uses a survey of the community to ask about usage of local amenities. Surveys can ask how often a person used or visited a given amenity during a recent period, such as the previous year, month, or week. When asking about shorter periods, it is important to ensure seasonal variation in usage is considered. For example, visitation to beach areas in winter will typically be lower than during summer periods. Measures of usage can be accompanied by asking about the reasons for any changes in usage, and how satisfied the person is with the quality, accessibility and availability of the amenity.
Surveys have limited space for questions. Consideration should be given to whether asking about usage is more important, versus asking residents other questions about amenities such as their level of overall satisfaction with them, or ability to use them.
This is measured in a community survey.
Examples of survey questions measuring usage are provided below. Those that ask a person to recall a longer period typically do not ask for a precise number of visits, as many people cannot recall the exact number of times they visited a place over a 12 month period. This means it is better to ask about ranges than precise numbers of visits. However, when asking about a shorter period such as a month, it is possible to ask for recall of the precise number of visits.
| Question | Response options |
| In the last year, how often did you visit a nature area in Rural Shire? | Zero visits, 1 visit, 2 visits, 3 visits, 4-5 visits, 6-10 visits, More than 10 visits. |
| In the last four weeks, how many days did you use the Pleasant Walking Trail in Rural Shire? Estimate if you are unsure | Number of days (from 0 to 28): |
| In the last year, how many times did you attend an event in the Rural Shire Community Theatre? | Zero times, 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, 4-5 times, 6-10 times, More than 10 times. |