Molonglo Aquatic Sports and Recreation Centre Feasibility Study
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Trends in aquatic planning and design
Aquatic, sport and recreation facility planning and design has significantly changed in recent years. New facilities are tailored to local needs and act more as a community hub rather than a single use aquatic facility.
Aquatic facility planning The 2009, ‘Future of Australian Sport’ review found that sport and recreation facilities are generally not meeting demand consequently reducing the opportunity for Australians to participate in sport.
Section 02 considers the key trends in aquatic facility planning and design and reviews the design of comparable aquatic facilities in Australia and overseas to understand specific facility mix and design precedents.
Poor planning for facilities has been identified as one of the major factors in the under supply of sporting facilities. Best practice approaches both in Australia and internationally recognise that planning of facilities should be based on a local needs assessment instead of older and now generally obsolete population benchmarks for sports and recreation planning. They recommend a needs analysis should include an inventory of existing facilities and consultation with relevant sporting groups and government providers. The ACT Government has long recognised the need to take a strategic approach to aquatic and recreation planning and provision. The preliminary Draft Aquatic and Related Facilities: ACT Strategic Plan 2011-2030 (June 2011) was prepared to understand the supply and demand for aquatic facilities in the ACT and develop a strategic action plan to improve service provision. It is noted that this document is current being revised. This study builds on the draft Strategic Plan to take a local-needs approach to future aquatic facilities in Molonglo.