It turns out that Sydney is Australia's most liveable city, on the ‘official’ alternative interpretation of the Economist’s Liveabililty data.

Sydney ranks fifth on the ‘spatially adjusted ranking compiled by an architect and urban planner, Filippo Lovato, the winner of EIU's competition to come up with a new way of interpreting their data.

Melbourne was judged the world’s most liveable city on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveability Index for 2012, ahead of Vienna and Vancouver. Adelaide was fifth, Sydney seventh and Perth ninth.

The subjective report has of course come in for criticism, a report from ‘The Urbanist’ Alan Davies at Crikey identifies several of limitations of the annual survey’s methodology and also notes how earlier in 2012, the EIU and BuzzData partnered on the Best City Contest, seeking alternative ways of measuring cities.

Hong Kong took the number one spot in the study by Lovato.

Lovato's entry new liveability index added seven new indicators on themes of “spatial characteristics” including “green space”, “isolation” and “pollution”.

Filippo notes: “Hong Kong, the winner, is a very compact city that has managed to maintain its natural heritage, create a dense network of green spaces and enjoy extensive links to the rest of the world.”

He says on BuzzData that the aim of his submission is to complement the existing liveability index with an awareness of the city’s spatial characteristics by proportionately reducing the weight of the five categories to 75 per cent and adding in a sixth category - spatial characteristics - weighing 25 per cent.

“This additional category seeks to account for spatial aspects of city life: Urban form (sprawl, green space) The geographical situation of the city (natural assets, isolation, and connectivity) Cultural assets and pollution,” he says.

The Spatially adjusted Top 10

1) Hong Kong

2) Amsterdam

3) Osaka

4) Paris

5) Sydney

6) Stockholm

7) Berlin

8) Toronto

9) Munich

10) Tokyo

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Liveabililty Ranking

1) Melbourne 97.5

2) Vienna 97.4

3) Vancouver 97.3

4) Toronto 97.2

5) Calgary 96.6

5) Adelaide 96.6

7) Sydney 96.1

8) Helsinki 96.0

9) Perth 95.9

10) Auckland 95.7