Sustainable Urban Development for Older Australians: Understanding the Formation of Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities in the Greater Brisbane Region

Jiaxuan E, Bo Xia, Laurie Buys and Tan Yigitcanlar
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Jiaxuan E: Faculty of Engineering, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
Bo Xia: Faculty of Engineering, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
Laurie Buys: Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Tan Yigitcanlar: Faculty of Engineering, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: As most older Australians prefer to age-in-place, providing sustainable and age-friendly communities poses a significant challenge to urban policymakers. The naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) have organically emerged as a collaborative model of care to support older adults to age-in-place, but neither academic research nor government policies recognise this housing option for older Australians. This paper aims to analyse the distributions and temporal patterns of NORCs in the Greater Brisbane Region, Australia, to understand the formation and development of NORCs. The geovisualisation method was employed to identify the distribution changes of NORCs between 2006 and 2016. The Global Moran’s I and Local Moran’s I measures were utilised to analyse the spatial correlation and the clusters of NORCs. The results show that NORCs increased significantly from 2006 to 2016, and their distribution was mainly clustered or co-located along the coastline and Brisbane River areas. The evolvement of NORCs reflected the change of aggregation pattern of older population between 2006 and 2016. Understanding the distribution trend of NORCs informs government policy and decisions in addressing issues of service delivery and community cooperation, and eventually leads to sustainable urban development and successful ageing in place for older Australians.

Keywords: age-in-place; ageing communities; naturally occurring retirement communities; sustainable urban development; age-friendly cities; older population; Brisbane; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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