Urban Change Readiness Index
Measuring community readiness for sustainable growth.
The Urban Change Readiness Index is an evidence-based approach to measuring a community’s preparedness for urban change, including its level of urban change literacy, sentiment towards likely change scenarios and confidence in the system to manage change well.
By capturing these insights, the Index helps governments, planners, and communities understand readiness and identify pathways to build trust, confidence, and support for sustainable growth in their city and its neighbourhoods.
Piloted in partnership & implemented in over 15 Local Government Areas Australia wide.
To pilot the Index, 14 leading organisations from across local and state governments, peak bodies and the private sector support implementation in 4 local government areas (LGAs) of Cairns, Ballarat, Penrith and Hume.
This built an evidence-based understanding of community preparedness for transformational urban change and explored ideas for how our sector could better prepare themselves and the community for urban change. This template approach has now been tailored and implemented in over 15 LGAs Australia wide.
Lead Partner
Place Partners
Sector Partners
Knowledge Partners
Urban Change Readiness Index Overview
The Urban Change Readiness Index comprises three Domains and eight Indicators.
Data is gathered through a tailored 30-minute online survey of 150–300 + local residents, recruited to reflect the community’s demographic profile — including voices often under-represented in consultation such as young people, renters, busy families, and culturally diverse groups. The survey can also be extended to councillors and agency staff to capture an organisational view of readiness.
Responses are analysed and translated into the Urban Change Readiness Index, with results segmented by audience and geography. These insights highlight knowledge gaps, community priorities, and opportunities to better prepare people for housing diversity and urban transformation. Councils and agencies have used the findings to inform plan-making, engagement strategies, community education, and organisational development.
The three Domains and eight Indicators are outlined below, along with insights from our pilot program delivered across four Local Government Areas in three states.
Urban Change Literacy
Urban Change Literacy measures Level of urban change awareness, sentiment towards anticipated growth and knowledge of sustainable urban change concepts, challenges and benefits.
Indicators - Awareness + Sentiment + Knowledge
Place (Re) Attachment
Place (Re) Attachment measures the level of place attachment and responses to potential future urban change scenarios.
Indicators - Attachment + Future Place Alignment
System Actors’ Capacity & Capability
System Actors’ Capacity and Capability measure confidence in the system
to manage change well and collaborate on transition challenges
Indicators - Confidence in Actors + Community Capacity + Citizenship
Implementation Reflections
Observations and insights from implementing the Index with partner LGAs