For well over a decade Melbourne has been ranked as one of the most liveable cities in the world. For humans these rankings scores are based on the quality of life created by healthcare, infrastructure and the environment. But how would Melbourne be ranked when viewed from a dog’s perspective?
The Map of the Month project team analysed data from a wide range of sources—Melbourne Local Government Areas, Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria, Animal Welfare Victoria, AURIN, Ambient Maps and Geoscape Australia—to try to answer this question.
The quality of life factors they considered were:
- veterinary services and dog shelters to measure healthcare
- sound pollution as a measure of environmental quality
- council registration fees and the number of off-leash areas where dogs as a measure of infrastructure
Dogs thrive when they can run and explore without too much restriction, because of this off-leash areas are crucial to dogs’ wellbeing. Around 80% of the world’s dogs live as free-ranging animals, with total agency to interact with their surroundings are they choose. In Melbourne the distribution of off-leash areas varies dramatically.
The City of Melton, which collects $800,000 in dog registration fees annually, offers the fewest option for dogs to run free. And the cities of Monash and Whitehorse are the only council areas in Melbourne that have no fully fenced spaces specifically designated as dog parks. In comparison, the cities of Knox (approx. $1 million in annual fees) and Casey (over $1.1 million) allow dogs to be off-leash in almost all of their parks and reserves.
Regular access to veterinary care is a key component of a dog’s wellbeing and longevity, but access to vets can vary across the city. Veterinary services are more concentrated in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, while the western suburbs are less well served.
In humans sound pollution has been linked to higher rate of cardiovascular disease, increased blood pressure, and pre-eclampsia. But while humans are aware of environmental noise it can be easy to forget that dogs are even more sensitive to sound. Dogs hear at higher frequencies and over longer distances, which means noise pollution can cause stress and discomfort. This is most apparent during thunderstorms or when there are fireworks, but daily sound levels can impact the ability to sleep well or relax for both dogs and humans.
The team used data from Ambient Maps to explore sounds levels from roads and air traffic across the city and created a map to show a high resolution soundscape of Melbourne. The darkest areas on the maps are the noisiest, showing arterial roads and flight paths, but almost everywhere in the inner suburbs is affected by road noise.
A challenge the team faced when creating these maps was the difficulty in finding data. In most cases it didn’t exist in a single source and the team need to hunt for the data they needed.
AURIN is proud to provide thousands of multidisciplinary, clean, spatialised and research ready datasets for urban and regional research. In particular we’re excited to provide access to Ambient Maps Noise Mapping Datasets in collaboration with Ambient Maps and Geoscape Australia.
Powered by SoundPLAN software, the datasets provide comprehensive noise levels for every building across Australia. Breakdowns by time of day (day, evening, night) and noise origin (road, rail, aircraft) offer nuanced understanding, while exposure levels (maximum and minimum) deliver critical insights into noise impact. The Ambient Maps Noise Mapping Datasets reimagine noise mapping in Australia, offering valuable insights to empower users to analyse the impacts of noise on the urban environment.
We’re so happy to be part of the Map of the Month initiative—a science communications project led by the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with AURIN, Melbourne Centre for Cities, Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, and Pursuit.
The goal of the project is to use maps as a tool to initiate important policy discussion within Metropolitan Melbourne. The maps and stories feature in the project are contributed by academics, community leaders, and government representatives from different areas of Melbourne. The project is made possible through the support of the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and partnerships with the Victorian Office for Suburban Development and the Municipal Association of Victoria.