Case Study: Melbourne Metropolitan Open Space 30–Year Investment Opportunities Framework

Spatial Vision developed a spatial framework for Victoria’s Open Space Strategy 2021 to guide investment priorities and funding to improve metropolitan Melbourne’s open space actions supporting biodiversity, climate resilience, health and social-economic benefits.

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The Victorian Government Open Space Strategy 2021 for metropolitan Melbourne, developed in response to Plan Melbourne 2017–2050, aims to enhance the integrated open space network over the next 30 years. The Victorian Government’s strategy aligns with the broader vision for liveable, inclusive, and sustainable communities.

Prepared following a comprehensive review of global, state, and local policies, the strategy sets out a review and reform agenda to address new challenges working with multiple agencies and stakeholders.

With goals spanning improved;

community health and wellbeing,
biodiversity,
climate change resilience, and
economic and social benefits,

The strategy envisions a connected, immersive, and shared network through planning and investment to protect, optimise, and grow the open space network.

To help deliver these goals, a 30-year investment framework was proposed to help outline multi decision making criteria, provide metrics to quantify and measure progress, and to prioritise investments in open space under the four main goals.

Customer Profile

Solution

The Investment Opportunities Framework included multi decision-making criteria analysis linked to the goals of the Open Space for Everyone strategy and evidence-based Open Space Investment Mapping through a series of spatial analysis products and maps. Together, the framework and mapping provided a deeper context and greater direction and confidence to prioritise investment in open space infrastructure, research, and land management.

Benefits

Mapping investment priorities through a robust multi criteria expert-driven system can address open space access inequities in the metropolitan area.
The Framework serves as a tool for State and Local Government land managers to prioritise funding for open space actions impacting health, biodiversity, climate resilience, and social-economic benefits.

SDGs in Focus

UN Sustainable Development Goals in Focus

This project contributes to:

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (Target 11.7) to “provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities”

For more information on the Sustainable Development Goal Targets and Indicators, visit: sustainabledevelopment.un.org

The Issue

The project required the creation of an investment framework to facilitate the development of open space and support the vision of the Open Space for Everyone strategy to make “Melbourne a city in nature with a flourishing and valued network of public open space that is shared and accessible by everyone” (Open Space Strategy 2021, DEECA).

The Open Space for Everyone Strategy identified several problems:

Inequities of access to open space provision across the metropolitan area.
Measures used to define this inequity are quantitative only and based on out-of-date data.
There are no alternative cost effective and replicable, decision-making frameworks that consider qualitative and quantitative spatial data and information sources.
There are no evidence-based metropolitan wide guidelines as to ‘where to invest and why’.

The Solution

The Framework involved a systems and mapping approach that aimed to guide investment in the development of Melbourne’s metropolitan open space system in line with the Victorian Government’s metropolitan Melbourne Open Space Strategy 2021, Open Space for Everyone.

The 30-Year Investment Opportunities Framework included a decision-making multi criteria analysis linked to the goals of the strategy and evidence-based investment mapping through a series of spatial products and maps. Further, an expert-driven pairwise analysis methodology was applied to appropriately weight each criterion to create a final index-based score under each goal.

Together, the framework and mapping provided a deeper context and greater direction and confidence to prioritise investment in open space infrastructure, research, and land management.

The development of the framework involved a co-design process with DEECA, Local Council Land Managers, Parks Victoria and the Consultant Team involving:

A review of the OSE strategy and detailed research review of decision-making criteria that support the outcomes of the strategy.
A development stage that included a series of project meetings and workshops.
A testing phase that involved Land Manager workshops and consideration of projects listed in current strategies and plans to understand investment needs and themes at regional and metro scale
An analysis stage involving sourcing and translating data into spatial systems and mapping outputs. These were used to help inform the ratings of a range of actions and recommendations against the decision-making criteria.

The Benefits

The scope of work undertaken assisted DEECA in several ways:

Pilots a new approach to investment decision making that includes multi quantitative and qualitative data related to strategic goals
Mapping investment priorities through a spatially driven, robust expert-driven system can address open space access inequities in the metropolitan area.
The Framework serves as a tool for State and Local Government land managers to prioritise funding for open space actions.
Develop an open space network accessible to everyone, irrespective of age, gender, ability, or location, as a shared community asset.
Help establish an open space network at local and landscape scales to protect biodiversity, reduce habitat fragmentation, and offer an expansive open space experience.

The Melbourne Metropolitan Open Space Project entailed a framework that helped DEECA map investment priorities and prioritise funding for open space actions supporting biodiversity, climate resilience, health and social-economic benefits.

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