Abstract
During the last quarter century the developing world has been experiencing rapid urban growth. These rapidly changing urban landscapes can create many new opportunities for economic growth but the same processes can also generate spatial inequalities within urban boundaries. Using recent and comprehensive geospatial data we describe, map and examine one dimension of urban spatial inequality, our results suggest that accessiblity to urban facilities and services. Our case study is Tehran; one of the most rapidly growing cities in the Middle East and he developing world. Geospatial data, Geographic Information Systems and spatial analytical tools were combined for mapping accessibility to thirty different urban facilities and services in Tehran. Descriptive maps identify areas of under and over services. Also we use the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), commonly used in economics, to calculate the geographical distribution of urban facilities. Our results suggest that accessibility to urban facilities and services is widely varying within Tehran; with better accessibility found in some northern, central, and southern districts as well as in those districts lying along a north–south axis. Differences in HHI values reveal spatial inequality in geographical distribution of many facilities and services, particularly those of potential interest to demographers and health researchers (e.g., Red Crescent centers). The use of recent geospatial data to map and derive measures of accessibility can help both urban and public health planners to take the best courses of action to tackle the (spatial) inequality in access to urban facilities and infrastructure mainly public health facilities. Similarly, these data can be used to generate contextual variables for neighborhoods, districts and other subunits in the city that can be combined with health studies to examine the role of place characteristics in health disparities.
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Source Geography of transportation (Rodrigue et al. 2009)
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Notes
The basic role of transportation is to provide access for people and businesses to jobs, public and private facilities, and other social and personal activities. The public transport system has a crucial role in the everyday life in a city. The effectiveness and function of public transport have not been studied, although it deserves more attention in order to measure spatial accessibility and provide a compensatory role. On the other hand, providing accessibility is an important target in transport planning.
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Acknowledgments
The lead author would like to express their sincere gratitude to his supervisors, professor Stefano Moroni and professor Andrea Caragliu for their continuous support and constructive comments on my thesis during my time at Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
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Appendix: Priorities of Services and Facilities
Appendix: Priorities of Services and Facilities
List | Facilities and services | Explanation | Priority (weight) |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ambulance | Ambulance services | 3 |
2 | Blood center | Blood center | 2 |
3 | Death cleaning and cemetery | Cemetery and related facility (negative factor) | −1 |
4 | Death related | Facilities for death related except cemetery (negative factor) | −1 |
5 | Electricity | Response center and facility for electricity Power plant class (negative factor) | 1 (−1) |
6 | Firefighting | Firefighting response | 3 |
7 | Food production | Food production of public sector (negative factor) | −1 |
8 | Food wholesale vegetable, fruit | Public wholesale market/storage for vegetables and fruit | 3 |
9 | Garbage collection | Garbage collection It could be both negative and positive factors | −1 +1 |
10 | Gas | Natural gas response and facility | 2 |
11 | Gas capsule | Capsule gas station | 2 |
12 | Government local | Local government (Tehran Municipality, District & Nahiyeh Municipality) | 2 |
13 | Government province | Administration and Disaster Management of Governorship (Tehran province) | 1 |
14 | Hazardous | Hazardous facility except petrol station and capsule gas station (negative factor) | −3 |
15 | Health Center | Health center | 3 |
16 | Hospital | Hospital | 3 |
17 | Local disaster management | Disaster Management Center of Local Government (Tehran Municipality, District& Nahiyeh Municipality) | 3 |
18 | Mosque | Mosque | 1 |
19 | Ncndr | National center for natural disaster reduction | 3 |
20 | Park | Park | 3 |
21 | Petrol station | Petrol station | 2 |
22 | Police | Police station | 3 |
23 | Red Crescent | Red crescent | 3 |
24 | Primary school | Primary school (location identified school only) | 2 |
25 | Secondary and high school | Secondary and higher school (location-identified school only | 2 |
26 | Sewage | Sewage | 1 |
27 | Sport field | Sport field | 2 |
28 | Storage | Storage | 1 |
29 | Telecom | Telecommunication | 2 |
30 | Traffic police | Traffic police | 2 |
31 | Vacant | Vacant | 2 |
32 | Water | Water supply | 3 |
Transportation | Identified emergency response center and/or resource of transportation | ||
35 | Air transportation | Airport and related facility 1. Positive in term of accessibility | 2 |
2. Negative in term of noise pollution | −2 | ||
Railway | Identified emergency response center and/or resource of railway transportation | ||
36 | Railway | National railway (line) (negative factor for noise pollution) | −3 |
Railway station | 2 | ||
37 | Metro | Metro (line) | 2 |
38 | Metro | Metro (station, etc.) | 3 |
39 | Access control | Traffic access control zone boundary It limits the accessibility | −3 |
40 | Bus regional terminal | Bus terminal for intercity network | 2 |
41 | Major road | All roads | 3 |
42 | Truck terminal warehouse | Truck terminal (negative factor) | −1 |
43 | Road | Road | 3 |
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Rabiei-Dastjerdi, H., Matthews, S.A. & Ardalan, A. Measuring Spatial Accessibility to Urban Facilities and Services in Tehran. Spat Demogr 6, 17–34 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40980-016-0028-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40980-016-0028-2