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New Zealand researchers are using Google Maps to help spot fall risks on New Zealand streets.
Over 2000 fall spots around the country were surveyed as researchers sought to find out why certain areas were prone to people falling.
The research found 60 percent of them had trip hazards, mostly due to dodgy and damaged footpaths.
Author of the research and senior lecturer in population health at the University of Otago Dr Angela Curl told Morning Report falls are a public health issue, and that the consequences are wider reaching than just the immediate injuries.
Google Maps used to spot fall risks on streets
"Falls are a leading cause of injury and death, but beyond those direct injury consequences there's lots of wider consequences. They often then start to feel concerned about going outside, stay at home a lot more, which can have wider consequences like isolation and loneliness."
Curl said the research was undertaken to understand more about what kinds of environments people were falling in and how much of a risk this was, particularly with the aging population that New Zealand has.
The research has two aspects, with Curl's team designing a tool that is available for anyone to use and physically go and look at streets around the country.
The second aspect was using Google street view to look at locations where it was known that people had fallen using data from St John ambulance.
The tool is used by looking at the questionnaire and having Google Maps open on your computer and zooming in on the particular place you want to look at and answering the questions. The data is then collected into a spreadsheet.
"We could go and say where people had fallen and what does the environment look like around where people had already fallen over.
"We looked at 2000 locations across the country except for Wellington because it's a different ambulance service, so we didn't have the data."
The tool was designed specifically with New Zealand in mind, but Curl said the tool could be used anywhere around the world.
Curl hopes the tool is used to design better cities and to look at footpath maintenance.