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Background: Global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), and accelerometers are powerful tools to explain activity within a built environment, yet little integration of these tools has taken place. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of combining GPS, GIS, and accelerometry to understand transport-related physical activity (TPA) in adults. Methods: Forty adults wore an accelerometer and portable GPS unit over 7 consecutive days and completed a demographics questionnaire and 7-day travel log. Accelerometer and GPS data were extracted for commutes to/from workplace and integrated into a GIS database. GIS maps were generated to visually explore physical activity intensity, GPS speeds and routes traveled. Results: GPS, accelerometer, and survey data were collected for 37 participants. Loss of GPS data was substantial due to a range of methodological issues, such as low battery life, signal drop out, and participant noncompliance. Nonetheless, greater travel distances and significantly higher speeds were observed for motorized trips when compared with TPA. Conclusions: Pragmatic issues of using GPS monitoring to understand TPA behaviors and methodological recommendations for future research were identified. Although methodologically challenging, the combination of GPS monitoring, accelerometry and GIS technologies holds promise for understanding TPA within the built environment.

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Social infrastructure requires a consistent and measurable definition and more evidence is needed to demonstrate why it is important to health, wellbeing and the liveability of a community. In this paper, social infrastructure is defined as life-long social service needs related to health, education, early childhood, community support, community development, culture, sport and recreation, parks and emergency services. These services are needed to promote health and wellbeing and underinvestment and poor planning of social infrastructure has been linked to area-based health inequities. Current methods used to plan infrastructure delivery in communities were analysed and a new conceptual framework of social infrastructure developed and empirically tested using geocoded health survey data linked to spatial social infrastructure measures. Both accessibility and mix of social infrastructure were associated with higher Subjective Wellbeing. Residents were most likely to have close access to childcare services, dentists, doctors and sport facilities and least likely to have access to services of culture and leisure including cinemas, theatres, libraries, museums and art galleries. Results provide evidence of direct associations between social infrastructure planning and public health, the need for alternative social infrastructure urban planning methods and policies, and areas for future research.