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Accessibility to sport facilities in Wales: A GIS-based analysis of socio-economic variations in provision
Abstract
Previous studies concerned with investigating the relationship between levels of physical activity and aspects of the built environment have often led to inconsistent and mixed findings concerning associations between the availability of recreational or sport facilities and area socio-economic status. Further complications may arise when analysis is conducted separately for access to either publicly available or private facilities or where alternative methodological approaches to measuring accessibility are adopted. This paper provides a review of such research before exploring the potential use of methods for examining variations in accessibility based on enhanced floating catchment area (FCA) models which are increasingly being advocated in medical geography applications. Using bespoke tools developed within a commercial GIS package, which are being made publicly available by the authors, and a national database of sport facilities, variations in accessibility are investigated in relation to a widely used measure of deprivation in the UK. Findings from this analysis suggest that whilst those living in deprived areas of Wales have greater potential access to publicly available sporting opportunities, associations with privately owned facilities are reversed for some distance thresholds and at different spatial scales. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the implications of such findings given current financial pressures on local government and other sport and leisure providers and highlights how spatial analytical techniques can be used to monitor such trends.
... These barriers could have to do with (lack of) accessibility and inclusion, both in terms of measureable and tangible aspects, such as distance and costs (e.g. Higgs et al., 2015), and intangible aspects, such as the feeling of not belonging and perceptions of activities and places. In this contribution, we will deal with tangible as well as intangible aspects based in, for example, embodied experiences of gender (Butler, 1993), as well as aspects of territoriality and social order (e.g. ...
... For instance, several studies have linked engagement in physical activity to physical accessibility to sport infrastructure and public space opportunities, namely relative proximity and actual travel times/ distances to sport facilities and places, although with inconsistent findings (e.g. Higgs et al., 2015;Lotfi & Koohsari, 2009;Pouliou et al., 2019). Furthermore, aside from proximity, aspects such as such as safety, aesthetics, amenities, maintenance, environmental comfort, visual vision and landscape, and human scale have all been found to be important attributes for supporting physical activity (e.g. ...
... The first type of solutions involves spatial and physical issues, which include much more than location and proximity factors (see e.g. Higgs et al., 2015;Lotfi & Koohsari, 2009;Pouliou et al., 2019). To overcome the spatial and physical barriers, signs and colour markings on the pavement leading to the place and marked routes for running, walking, and biking passing the place are simple tools to help unaccustomed and potential users to find and feel inspired and welcomed to use the sport place (Figure 1). ...
A popular strategy for activating the urban population physically is to provide informal outdoor sport and recreational spaces. However, building an infrastructure does not assure physical activity among the wider population. For instance, girls tend to be underrepresented at public sport places. To create more equal physical activity opportunities in public space, we need to uncover and interpret the barriers. Therefore, outdoor sport and recreational spaces are interesting to examine, as they provide a possibility to understand gender in relation to norms, activity, and public space. The project Equalizer–a tool for equal and inclusive activity places deals with the perspectives of gender, place, and physical activity to create changes in the use of public informal outdoor sport and recreational spaces. This paper aims to discuss the experience-based, participatory method of disturbances used in the Equalizer project and some of the central findings and solutions. The findings indicate that the barriers for engaging in physical activity at informal outdoor sport and recreational spaces are multi-faceted, as are the possible solutions to overcome the barriers and open up the places to more people. We identified four types of solutions based on the identified barriers: spatial/physical, organisational/support-related, activity-related, and norm/representation-related. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
... Rural areas have been particularly well researched in this context (e.g., [17][18][19]51,52]). Most studies focus on a single type of service and, in addition to the provision of services, great importance is also attached to the accessibility of services (see [17][18][19]28,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59]). Settlements with certain services are therefore more often distinguished not by the quantity or level of services available in them, but rather by the accessibility of these services. ...
... In the academic literature, a growing number of studies have been conducted in recent decades on the accessibility of specific places where different services are offered. Most studies focus on a single service or analyse the accessibility of services individually (e.g., [14,17,28,[52][53][54]56,58,[63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70], while a few analyse the accessibility of a wider range of services and derive composite accessibility indicators for all analysed services (e.g., [11][12][13]71]). Understanding the overall accessibility of all service categories, which results from the interpretation of composite indicators, contributes significantly to understanding the spatial distribution of services and centres of different service levels. ...
The quality of life in both urban and rural areas is highly dependent on the availability of services of general interest. This study examines the provision and accessibility of 41 types of point-specific services, divided into 10 categories, within the functional urban region of Zagreb, Croatia, characterized by a declining population, despite being the most populous area in Croatia. This study adopts a multi-service rather than a single-service research approach, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. Using GIS composite indices for service provision and accessibility by car (cumulative opportunities) were calculated. Cluster analysis (Ward method, quadratic Euclidean distance) revealed seven different geographical patterns. The results show different patterns of service provision and accessibility throughout the urban region. Two specific areas were highlighted: traditional and inner peripheral areas with low levels of both service provision and accessibility, and suburban areas with very good accessibility but very poor service provision. The results of this study are particularly valuable as they relate to a single functional urban area that includes both urban, suburban and rural settlements of different types, a spatial framework that has not been sufficiently analysed in the literature.
... The government and researchers have paid more attention to public participation in physical exercise A large number of research studies have presented a positive relationship between spatial accessibility to sports facilities and physical exercise [3][4][5]. Due to spatial differences in socio-economic status, maldistribution of sports facilities may lead to unbalanced supply and demand, and further cause varied spatial accessibility to sports facilities [6]. Therefore, it is beneficial to improve greater equity of sports facilities by understanding spatial accessibility. ...
... In other districts, the means and variances of spatial accessibility are similar at the middle level. Existing researches on the accessibility of sports facilities rarely quantitatively analyze the heterogeneity and multi-scale influencing mechanism of accessibility [6,14], this research employs the MGWR model to reveal the impacts of different factors on spatial accessibility. It is assumed that the results of the regression model with the highest R 2 or the low AICs are more reasonable or accurate in explaining the relationships. ...
It is crucial for social sustainability that adolescents have access to social sports services fairly. However, there are few research studies on requirements for sports facilities and spatial accessibility of adolescents at a fine scale. Further, identifying the heterogeneity of the relationship between spatial accessibility and other factors and their scales simultaneously would be conducive to reveal the variations of spatial accessibility effectively under the potential scale effect. This research aims to explore the heterogeneity of spatial accessibility to sports facilities at a fine scale in Changsha, China. The Gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area model is first employed to evaluate spatial accessibility. Then, multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) is applied to examine the relationship between spatial accessibility and its associated factors. The mean accessibility in Yuelu District (0.158) is the highest as well, and the standard deviation (0.236) is also the highest one. Both the accessibility (0.019) and its standard derivation (0.029) in Furong District are the lowest. The results show that there is a lack of balance of spatial accessibility for the clusters with different accessibility levels distributed in the study area. Some socio-economic factors, such as housing price and nighttime light intensity, have significant impacts on spatial accessibility for adolescents with spatial and scale heterogeneity by using MGWR. Based on heterogeneous distribution and association, suggestions for promoting spatial accessibility to sports facilities for adolescents are proposed.
... Gravity-based model later overcomes the disadvantage of the closest public facility assumption (Chang & Liao, 2011), but it tends to overly smooth accessibility values (McGrail & Humphreys, 2009). The two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method (Radke & Mu, 2000;Luo & Wang, 2003), as a dichotomous technique of gravity-based models, has been improved and widely used in health care access (Luo & Qi, 2009;Dai, 2010), public transports (Langford et al., 2012), sport facilities (Higgs et al., 2015), and green space access studies (Dony et al., 2015;Xing et al., 2018). New metrics and improved methods were developed to increase the accessibility accuracy because of the differentiated characteristics of different facilities. ...
... Third, this study also confirmed that socially disadvantaged groups (e.g., external populations, low economics) are more frequently associated with low accessibility, which are consistent with the findings of previous studies (Dai, 2011;Higgs et al., 2015;Wu et al., 2022). With regard to correlations with the actual check-in behavior, the values of accessibility suggested a lack and waste of health resources. ...
... However, existing literature suggests that qualitative methodologies may have some limits as it "still involve a form of aggregation and tend to lose the richness of individuals' lived experiences" (Preston, Rajé 2007), focusing on specific population groups (Titheridge et al. 2009, Shergold, Parkhurst 2012, Ryan et al. 2015 or target activities (Fransen et al. 2015, Mao, Nekirchuk 2013, Higgs et al. 2015, Materiali Uval 2014. For this reason, more sophisticated approaches based on individual accessibility are needed. ...
... Accessibility of youth has not been deeply analyzed in the literature, except for some works considering the access to recreational spaces and sport facilities (Ogilvie et al. 2011, Higgs et al. 2015, Karusisi et al. 2013, as it has been taken for granted that high accessibility level of the caregiver is reflected on young people they take care of (Mattioli, Vendemmia 2021, Waygood et al. 2017. The main limits of these works are the neglect of age, ethnic grouping, socioeconomic circumstances, sporting preferences or gender of the local population and their interaction with the type of sporting facility being used. ...
The concept of basic needs and essential services evolves according to sociocultural parameters. Therefore, defining marginality based on the distance from a predefined set of services, institutionally considered essential for life, may lead to an unfocused representation of marginal and more fragile areas.
This work focuses on a territory located on the Apennine of the Province of Piacenza, northern Italy. These mountainous areas are characterized by significant shrinking processes, ageing population, low income and educational rate, unemployment, and by work/study-related mobility practices over long distances and at high speed, revealing low levels of attractivity and significant dependence on more dynamic areas of the region. Moreover, according to the National Italian Strategy for Inner Areas, they have been identified as inner areas because of the high distance from main services.
Starting from quantitative research based on availability, location, and accessibility to a set of services considered essential, the present work aims to reconsider and integrate this desk-based approach with an on-site qualitative survey, thanks to interviews with inhabitants and persons with special knowledge of the territory as well as participant observation.
The hypothesis is that, particularly in low density and peripheral areas, a mixed-methods research methodology that includes the accounts of populations and local stakeholders may help to extend the knowledge of their actual needs and their willingness to travel, thus reconsidering their accessibility to what they perceive as essential services and, consequently, redefining the notion of marginal and fragile territories.
... Several studies have investigated the spatial accessibility of sports facilities to provide insight into proper allocation and design (Billaudeau et al., 2011;Cereijo et al., 2019;Cutumisu & Spence, 2012;Halonen et al., 2015;Higgs et al., 2015;Karusisi et al., 2013;Martori et al., 2020;Shrestha et al., 2019). However, most researchers have used simple indicators, such as distance to the nearest facility and the number of facilities within a predefined circular buffer around the dwelling or in a specific administrative unit, with only some studies using 2SFCA models. ...
... For example, Cutumisu and Spence (2012) adopted an enhanced 2SFCA (E2SFCA) method to evaluate objective accessibility to sports fields at the census block level and further compared the impacts of objectively or subjectively assessed accessibility on physical activity levels among adults in Edmonton, Canada. Similarly, Higgs et al. (2015) applied the same model to examine the inequality of access to sports facilities among regions with different socioeconomic statuses in Wales. Moreover, Langford et al. (2018) created an add-in tool in ArcGIS to facilitate the calculation process of the E2SFCA. ...
Equitable access to sports services has drawn much attention from policymakers and planners in China, as rapid urbanization and lifestyle changes have caused the pandemic of inactivity. An accurate measure of accessibility will enable the spatial equity of public facility allocation. Existing approaches to measure the spatial accessibility of sports facilities tend to ignore the heterogeneity in potential users’ preferences for facilities, thereby causing a bias in the measurement of accessibility. This paper proposes a multi-preference Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (MG2SFCA) method to measure the spatial accessibility of sports facilities, taking into account different travel modes, catchment sizes, and facility preferences among different age groups. Empirically, we adopted the MG2SFCA method in examining the spatial accessibility of sports facilities among children, young working-age population, old working-age population, and elderly population under walking, cycling, and driving modes in Dongguan. The results indicated a significant spatial disparity in the accessibility to sports facilities, with better accessibility in the north and poorer accessibility in the south. Children have the best access to sports facilities, followed by old working-age population, young working-age population, and older population. In the comparison among different transport modes, the accessibility distribution of sports facilities in walking mode showed the greatest spatial variation, while accessibility in driving mode was the most balanced. The MG2SFCA method is superior to the traditional Gaussian 2SFCA method because the former can capture disadvantaged people’s actual needs for sports facilities more accurately than the latter.
... To investigate the relationship between NOE proximity and outdoor physical exercise, the amount of residential NOE cover within 250 m, 500 m, 1 km, and 1.5 km radial buffers around each respondent's dwelling was extracted. These buffer sizes were informed by previous studies showing that these are the distances that people might travel to exercise (Halonen et al., 2015;Higgs et al., 2015) and/or to visit parks to conduct physical activity (Kaczynski et al., 2014;Schipperijn et al., 2017). They also correspond to Singapore's green space targets: the 250 m distance buffer corresponds to the minimum recommended distance between the furthest residence along a public pedestrian walkway to the nearest public NOE according to the guidelines on greenery provision for Singapore's developments (National Parks Board, 2018). ...
... e., uncertain geographic context problem), nor the exact type or location of NOEs in which each respondent conducted their outdoor exercise. To minimise the geographical uncertainty effect of these limitations, we proposed multiple buffer ranges that covers the typical maximum distance one would travel from their residence to exercise in exercise facilities and/or parks (Halonen et al., 2015;Higgs et al., 2015;Kaczynski et al., 2014;Schipperijn et al., 2017). As we could not get the specific NOE locations, we utilised the next best alternative-correlating outdoor physical exercise habits with the NOEs within proximity of their residential place, which is a reasonable assumption given that the proximity of NOEs to individuals strongly influences whether physical exercise is conducted in such areas (Browning and Lee, 2017;Sturm and Cohen, 2014). ...
Growing recognition of nature’s benefits to many aspects of human wellbeing has prompted the incorporation of both urban green and blue natural outdoor environments (NOEs) into cities. Amongst the many purposes of NOEs, promotion of physical exercise has been garnering interest, given the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of urban dwellers. However, studies rarely consider how different types of NOEs, let alone the combination of them, might affect the type and frequency of physical exercise conducted by urban residents. We use Singapore, a highly urbanised tropical nation with a considerable number of NOEs, as a case-study to address these gaps. We used a market research survey (n = 1,519), geographic information systems, and generalised linear regression models to investigate the relationship between residential NOE cover, exercise-influencing sociodemographic factors, and outdoor exercise choice (i.e., if respondents exercised or not) and frequency of four types of physical exercises: walking, individual-based, team-sports, and overall exercise. For exercise choice, more people walked in areas with higher forest and scrub cover, and less in areas with just scrub. Less conducted individual-based exercise in areas with high unmanaged vegetation cover, and more conducted team-sports in areas with higher open-canopy managed vegetation cover. Amongst those who engaged in these exercises, managed vegetation cover is positively correlated with walking (open- and closed-canopy combined) and team-sports (open-canopy) frequency. Individual-based exercise frequency rose in areas with a mix of high open-canopy managed vegetation and blue space cover within 250 m from one’s home, and a mix of high managed treescape and forest cover 500 m from one’s home. Findings suggest that a specific mix of NOEs can promote the participation of different types of physical exercise. Integrating the right NOE types and combinations into urban residential spaces may thus help to mitigate sedentary lifestyles, boosting public health outcomes in city populations.
... They showed that better access to sports infrastructure determined residents' participation in sports. A few studies on sports participation have integrated measures of distance/travel time to reach sports facilities using approaches that are common for measuring the spatial accessibility of healthcare services, such as floating catchment area (FCA) models and two-step FCA (Cutumisu & Spence, 2012;Higgs et al., 2015). Higgs et al. (2015) and Norman et al. (2006) employed the geographic information system (GIS) to collect environmental data and included the number of sports facilities and their density in their analysis. ...
... A few studies on sports participation have integrated measures of distance/travel time to reach sports facilities using approaches that are common for measuring the spatial accessibility of healthcare services, such as floating catchment area (FCA) models and two-step FCA (Cutumisu & Spence, 2012;Higgs et al., 2015). Higgs et al. (2015) and Norman et al. (2006) employed the geographic information system (GIS) to collect environmental data and included the number of sports facilities and their density in their analysis. Ewing et al. (2003) employed an urban sprawl index, which was calculated using residential density, land use mix, degree of centring, and street accessibility (Wicker et al., 2013). ...
Research question
Most people spend a large part of their adult life at work. This study investigated how access to sports infrastructure near workplaces is related to the sports participation of working adults, compared with access to sports infrastructure near their homes.
Research methods
This study used data from a quantitative household survey conducted in 2017. The sample comprised 4006 individuals (including 2147 working adults) aged ≥15 years, representing the entire adult population of Russia. Logistic regression models were performed to estimate the role of infrastructure and individual characteristics in sports participation.
Results and findings
Only a quarter of Russian adults were regularly involved in sports. The sports participation of Russian adults was attributed to their individual characteristics (gender, age, education, health, and family characteristics) and access to sports infrastructure located near their homes and workplaces. For working adults, access to sports infrastructure near their workplaces was associated with a 12 percentage points increase in the probability of sport participation compared with an 8 percentage points increase associated with access to sports infrastructure near their homes.
Implications
There is a need to improve working adults’ access to sport facilities. Developing sports infrastructure close to workplaces may have an even stronger potential effect on sports participation among working adults, than investing in infrastructures close to their homes. It can result in additional benefits for workers, employers, and sports providers.
... Investing in an infrastructure for sport and recreation, be it traditional sport facilities or nature-based recreation opportunities, is one thing, making it accessible is another thing. Several studies have linked engagement in physical activity to tangible factors like physical accessibility to sport infrastructure and public space opportunities in terms of relative proximity and actual travel times/distances to sport facilities and places, although with inconsistent findings (e.g., [34][35][36]. Furthermore, aspects such as safety, amenities, restrooms, maintenance, aesthetics, environmental comfort, walking paths, human scale, visual vision and landscape have all been found to be important attributes for supporting physical activity (e.g., 32, 37,38). ...
Today, cities are to a growing extent looking for solutions for how urban infrastructure, like former industrial sites, can be developed into facilities for sport and recreation, as well as tourism. One example of such infrastructure is canals and former harbour areas. This paper aims at exploring the underlying factors behind, and the potential benefits and challenges of, recreation- and sport-led regeneration of urban water infrastructure with a focus on former harbours and canals, using three Scandinavian cities as examples: Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Malmö. A conceptual and theoretical frame is built around three perspectives: (1) contemporary trends and tendencies in sport and recreation, and spatial implications thereof, (2) urban regeneration, and (3) recreational spaces as ecosystem services. The empirical material is mainly based on six semi-structured interviews with informants involved in the planning, production and operation of the water infrastructure. As shown by the three examples, there are several benefits of a recreation- and sport-led regeneration of former harbours and canals. Those benefits include, for instance, ecosystem services, such as enhanced biodiversity and improved recreational opportunities, quality of life and well-being, as well as economic benefits in terms of tourism and positive attention. One of the examples also demonstrates that harbour regeneration could be an opportunity to develop methods for community participation and public-nonprofit partnerships. However, the examples highlight a number of challenges as well, such as polluted water and the technical issues and high costs involved in cleaning it; the provision of equal access to the water infrastructure; the creation of a safe co-existence for different actors and activities in the same water space; and diverse ownership, responsibility and regulation issues. To summarize, the paper shows that in a successful recreation-led regeneration of urban water infrastructure, the potential outcome is increased attractivity, activity and sustainability.
... Based on the principle of matching supply and demand, Wei and Deng have formulated an optimisation strategy under the balance of 'self-existence and coexistence' [46] and proposed an approach for the construction of community space sports services [47]. Higgs, Ashik Fajle and other scholars have successively quantitatively evaluated the coverage of sports function provisions [48] in public spaces through a Two-Step Search Method [49], combined with a global and local autocorrelation analysis to assess and guide the fair layout of community spaces to meet the needs of residents. Chen formed the evaluation system of urban community space sports venues through the '4E' model, which is constructed from the four dimensions of environment, efficiency, fairness and economy [50]. ...
Urban community open spaces are external spaces for public use that meet the needs of residents in their daily lives, and which gradually become the basic unit for activities and fitness. The arrival of the era of ‘national fitness’ requires the formation of public activity spaces that benefit all ages. Yet most construction targets of urban community open spaces are homogenised and are not diversified for all age groups. This phenomenon leads to a spatial and temporal mismatch between the allocation of space for community sports activities and the needs of residents. We quantitatively analysed time periods, demanded area and preferred types of activities required by all age groups. We further defined the objectives for the provision of physical activity functions in community open spaces. We also constructed a method for matching and optimising the supply and demand of sports and fitness functions in community open spaces, which was based on the calculation of supply and demand, the matching analysis model and the optimisation of supply and demand gaps. Accordingly, based on the distribution of demand points, we can clarify the amount and radius of each point, and calculate the matching relationship with the Maximum Capacity Limitation Coverage Model. When the implementation rate of demand at the covered points is less than 67%, it means that there is a demand gap. In response to the gap, optimisation has been achieved by establishing a time-sharing utilisation mechanism and using excessive supply space for renovation. The results of the study can help optimise the mismatch and long-term layout of physical activities for all residents in urban communities. The proposed sustainable optimising strategy suggests the importance and necessity of meeting the spatial needs of sports activities for all age groups in high-density cities with insufficient open spaces.
... • Mental health services • Community health centers • Sexual health clinics Another strategy is to promote and provide healthy food by collaborating with local restaurants and food stores, including schools, to increase healthy food choices and make healthy food more affordable, especially for students (Townsend et al., 2011). Cardiff also has various sports and recreation facilities (Higgs et al., 2015;Price et al., 2023), such as: ...
The urgency of urban health in Indonesia is very worrying because most of Indonesia’s population now lives in urban areas with minimal supporting infrastructure. That prompted this study to analyze the government’s response to the healthy city development plan in the new capital city. This study uses a qualitative approach that focuses on thematic analysis. It helps check official government documents related to healthy city development plans. The relevant documents that were found were in the form of regulations. This regulation is Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 3 of 2022 concerning the National Capital (Ibu Kota Negara, IKN). This official document was coded by maximizing the analysis tool, namely NVivo 12 Plus. This study succeeded in mapping several bare references in the healthy city development plan for the new capital city by the Indonesian government. Some of these primary references include the healthy city model (World Health Organization, WHO), the healthy city strategy (Cardiff), and (Vancouver). All of these primary references aim to improve the quality of life of residents in cities through city development that focuses on health. However, there are several challenges that the Indonesian government may face in the future, including problems with air pollution, environmentally friendly transportation, and the provision of green public spaces, health facilities, universal health services, and other infrastructure. This all requires adequate capacity and budget plans, including ensuring transparency in budget management. This study also encourages collaboration between the government, the private sector, and civil society to support the development of healthy cities that run well and sustainably.
... Studies abroad have revealed that long distances to public sports service facilities and their inadequate numbers can diminish residents' participation in sports activities. Consequently, considerations of accessibility and equity are crucial in the planning and construction of these facilities [8][9][10]. Research on the spatial allocation of public sports service facilities is of substantial practical significance for understanding their layout characteristics and enhancing their spatial distribution. ...
The spatial allocation of urban public sports facilities is critical for ensuring equitable access to basic public services and maintaining urban spatial cohesion. This study examines central cities in the Yangtze River Delta, utilizing Point of Interest (POI) data to characterize urban sports service facilities. Employing methods such as kernel density estimation, the nearest neighbor index, spatial autocorrelation, and coefficient of variation, this study analyzes the spatial aggregation, synergy, and equalization of sports service facilities at the community scale. The findings indicate that: (1) the spatial distribution of sports service facilities within community life circles demonstrates a clustered pattern, forming a concentric core-to-periphery structure, with notable variations in clustering degrees across different cities; (2) synergy among sports service facilities has significantly improved, with the emergence of multiple high-value clusters and low-value dispersions across various cities; and (3) the level of equalization of sports service facilities in community life circles follows the general order of Shanghai > Nanjing > Hangzhou > Hefei. These insights offer valuable guidance for the planning and optimization of urban public sports facilities.
... Se midió la accesibilidad a áreas verdes, en correspondencia con los aportes realizados por Montoya-Domínguez y Rojas-Robles (2016). La disponibilidad del equipamiento deportivo a partir de los aportes realizados por Higgs et al. (2015), así como la existencia y disponibilidad de bibliotecas en correspondencia con los resultados aportados por Guo et al. (2017). No obstante, existen pocos aportes sobre el tema relacionado con la distribución de los grupos socioeconómicos (Doriwala y Shah, 2010). ...
En la actualidad el crecimiento urbano presenta impactos con diferentes aristas, entre ellas la ambiental, social, económica y política. El objetivo de la investigación consiste en ofrecer diversos aportes teóricos relacionados con la identificación de las necesidades y los elementos urbanos requeridos para garantizar la calidad de vida y el desarrollo humano en las ciudades de cara a las exigencias y los nuevos tiempos del siglo XXI. Se aplicó el método deductivo en un trabajo de revisión que implicó un examen profundo de la bibliografía disponible sobre el tema en estudio. Se concluye que el desarrollo urbanístico requiere atención especial al equipamiento para mejorar la calidad de vida de los habitantes, no solo la generación de políticas públicas, sino también realizar investigaciones profundas que propicien el cumplimiento de los requerimientos necesarios para generar bienestar y convivencia social en el medio urbano de las ciudades.
... The "appropriateness" of territorial coverage and access to services and points of interest is a topic extensively researched and applied in other domains: -sports facilities (Billaudeau et al., 2011;Higgs et al., 2015;Shrestha et al., 2019), -fire stations (Kc et al., 2020;Shahparvari et al., 2020) -residential care facilities (Cheng et al., 2012;Wang et al., 2020) -health services facilities (Bauer et al., 2018;Ouko et al., 2019;Taylor and Pettit, 2020) -preventing the formation of food deserts (Dai & Wang, 2011;Jiao et al., 2012). ...
This report was submitted in response to the Call for Evidence on Access to Cash (HM Treasury Committee, HoC). Supporting digital maps: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4287289
... Researchers have typically investigated the accessibility of sports facilities from the demand side. They have analyzed the accessibility of these facilities by demographic (Xiao et al. 2022) or socioeconomic characteristics (Cereijo et al. 2019;Higgs, Langford, and Norman 2015), underscoring the need to account for selective daily mobility bias to avoid overestimated associations between spatial accessibility and the use of sports facilities (Shrestha et al. 2019), or examined the accessibility through a specific period, most notably the Covid-19 period ). These studies have relied predominantly on surveys or points of interest (POIs) data. ...
Recent studies on the accessibility of sports facilities have rarely considered the specific attributes of the facilities, limiting their ability to define service potential, and have often neglected the critical aspect of equitable access. This study proposed a novel approach based on remote sensing images to optimize the spatial accessibility of outdoor sports facilities. Using Shanghai, China, as the study area, the study identified four types of sports facilities using a deep learning object detection method, which allowed their service capacities (areas) to be measured more precisely. A greedy heuristic algorithm was then developed based on a "trade-off" strategy that seeks to optimize facility access by reconciling the objectives of enhancing access and ensuring equality and by weighing the benefits of utilizing existing resources (school facilities) against the necessity of developing new ones. The object detection method achieved precision and recall rates of 88% and 96%, respectively, and the optimization efforts resulted in a 73% increase in accessibility while also significantly reducing the Gini coefficient from 0.58 to 0.34. The proposed algorithm outperformed the random selection and all-school-opening strategies. The results indicated that the methodology can effectively create refined datasets for outdoor sports facilities and enhance their accessibility.
... Thus, it was concluded that the sports facilities in Tehran are located mostly in sparsely populated areas with low usage rates [17]. Higgs et al. investigated the accessibility of sports facilities in Wales using the floating catchment area (FCA) model, and the results of the analysis showed that the accessibility of sports facilities in deprived areas of Wales was significantly greater than that in other areas; i.e., community deprivation in Wales was positively correlated with the ease of access to sports facilities for people in the community [18]. Kozma et al. noted in their study on the spatial distribution of sports facilities in the northern Great Plains of Hungary that settlement size has a significant effect on the spatial distribution of sports facilities, and the more populous a region is, the stronger its demand and purchasing power for sports facilities, and the more complete and diversified the layout of sports facilities; moreover, the administrative level of the region is positively correlated with the degree of completeness of the layout of sports facilities [19]. ...
To explore the spatial allocation of national fitness resources at different spatial scales in Fuzhou city to provide useful references for optimizing and enhancing the spatial allocation of national fitness resources and urban planning. The equity, spatial distribution characteristics, accessibility and supply-demand balance of national fitness resources in Fuzhou city are analysed in depth by using the two-step mobile search method of multiple travel modes, the Gini coefficient, and exploratory spatial data analysis methods. The results show that the overall spatial allocation of national fitness resources is in a balanced state, but there are serious inequities and spatial mismatches in each district (county); the spatial distribution of national fitness resources is characterized by centralized agglomeration and surface dispersion, being dense in the south and sparse in the north. Areas with insufficient resources per capita have an agglomeration-type scattering distribution; areas with sufficient resources per capita have a dispersed patch distribution. Access to national fitness resources and the relationship between their supply and demand are characterized by positive spatial concentration; however, the layout of the national fitness resources planned for the old urban areas urgently needs to be optimized, with the Chating and Antai streets serving as centres, to increase the effective supply. Finally,we suggestions that Top-level design should be strengthened, the communalization of sports public services should be promoted, the service capacity and utilization efficiency of national fitness resources should be enhanced, and the construction of national fitness resources in new urban areas and new industrial agglomerations should be accelerated.
... The development level of sports infrastructure, characterized by its scale, diversity and operation is not spatially balanced in many countries and cities (Wang & Wang, 2020). Its spatial inequality and disparity have been widely investigated in both developed and developing countries, such as the United Kingdom- (Higgs et al., 2015), France (Billaudeau et al., 2011), Iran (Dadashpoor et al., 2016), the Netherlands (Hoekman et al., 2016), and China (Zheng et al., 2018). These studies have shown that the spatial inequality of sports infrastructure can easily lead to unequal opportunities for residents to participate in physical exercise and activities, and may aggravate health inequalities between places and groups. ...
The improvement of well-being of residents is the core of the people-centred urbanization. Inhabitants’ emphasis on healthy lifestyle draws attention to the provision of sports infrastructure. However, the spatial pattern of sport infrastructure development and in particular the driving forces from urbanization across China have not been examined yet in the literature. This paper aims to explore how the national sports infrastructure in mainland China is driven and scaled by urbanization, using data from the sixth National Sports Venues Census and a multi-scale geographically weighted regression approach. The results revealed strong regional inequality in the development of sports infrastructure in the stage of accelerating urbanization in China, with better provision of sports infrastructure in eastern than in western regions. The three dimensions of urbanization (urban population, public financial expenditure and built-up area) significantly explained the spatial disparity between 289 cities at prefecture-city level. There should be a feedback loop between the accumulative developments of urbanization and sports infrastructure. The contributing driving forces and subsequent regional heterogeneity suggest that sports space theory, the inequality amplification model, and hysteresis effect are comparatively suitable for explaining the spatial inequality characteristics of sports infrastructure development in China. A Sport Inequality Alert was conceptualized as a policy instrument for monitoring regional inequality and governing the development of sports infrastructure. It is argued that sports infrastructure development should be integrated into the national strategy for sustainable New-type Urbanization.
... There is strong evidence that the characteristics of particular locations and types of places influence variations in health and social outcomes geographically. For example, poorer people may have poorer access to local resources and facilities (Macintyre et al., 2008), there may be ethnic employment penalties in more deprived neighbourhoods (Jivraj & Alao, 2023), and public sports facilities may not be evenly accessible (Higgs et al., 2015). ...
Modern computational capabilities have brought about concerns about risks associated with the level of information disclosed in public datasets. A tension exists between making data available that protects the confidentiality of individuals while containing sufficiently detailed geographic information to underpin the utility of research. Our aim is to inform data collectors and suppliers about geographic choices for confidentiality protection and to balance this with reassurance to the research community that data will still be fit-for-purpose. We test this using simple logistic regression models, by investigating the interplay between two geographical entities (points for the observations and polygons for area attributes) at a variety of scales, using a synthetic population of 22,000 people. In an England and Wales setting, we do this for individuals located by postcodes and by postal sector and postal district centroids and link these to a variety of census geographies. We also ‘jitter’ postcode coordinates to test the effect of moving people away from their original location. We find a smoothing of relationships up the geographical hierarchy. However, if postal sector centroids are used to locate individuals, linkages to Lower/Medium Super Output Area scales and subsequent results are very similar to the more detailed unit postcodes. Postcode locations jittered by 500–750 m in any direction are likely to allow the same conclusions to be drawn as for the original locations. Within these geographic scenarios, there is likely to be a sufficient level of confidentiality protection while statistical relationships are very similar to those obtained using the most detailed geographic locators.
... Disadvantaged communities often bear the brunt of pollution, given their proximity to industrial areas, major roads, or other sources of pollutants (Clark et al., 2014). Moreover, these communities often lack access to greener and cleaner spaces for recreational walking (Higgs et al., 2015), thereby exacerbating the health disparities already present. Understanding and addressing these inequities are critical components of urban planning and public health interventions. ...
... Geographic Information System (GIS) tools play an important role in research on recreational and leisure areas. These tools can be used to obtain information about the spatial distribution, structure, and availability of recreational areas [65][66][67][68][69]. This category of tools includes participatory GIS (PGIS) systems which provide access to information about land planned for recreational use and the needs of its users [70][71][72]. ...
Recreational and leisure areas play a special role. These areas mitigate or eliminate the disadvantages of living in large cities, and they enhance the quality of life in small towns. The aim of this study was to analyze the share of recreational and leisure areas in Polish counties in 2022. In Poland, recreational and leisure areas constitute a separate land-use category in cadastral registers. Annual cadastral data from the Land and Building Register at county level (in tabular form) were the main source of data for the study. The analysis revealed that the share of recreational and leisure areas was higher in counties situated in western and south-western Poland, as well as in cities. The spatially varied influence of socioeconomic factors on the share of recreational and leisure areas in Polish counties in 2002 was determined with the use of local Moran's I statistic and geographically weighted regression (GWR). The study confirmed that population density was significantly related to the share of recreational and leisure areas in Polish counties. The impact of the remaining socioeconomic factors associated with spatial and economic development varied across regions. The study also revealed that in addition to the current socioeconomic determinants, the share of recreational and leisure areas in Polish counties was also influenced by historical factors and the counties' development since their establishment.
... Spatial accessibil- ity is the most common method used to study whether the spatial distribution of public service facilities is reasonable and is also a common measure of spatial equity and service levels [16]. Researchers have conducted numerous studies on the spatial accessibility of public service facilities, such as medical institutions, educational resources, shelters, parks, and sports facilities [17,18]. However, the optimal configuration of COVID-19 vaccination sites in this study was significantly different from those reported in previous studies. ...
The outbreak of COVID-19 poses a serious threat to global public health, and vaccination is an effective means of prevention. Studying the spatial layout and accessibility of COVID-19 vaccination sites is of great significance. The study analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics and accessibility of vaccination sites in the early stage of mass vaccination in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, based on GIS technology and combines three location allocation models: the p-median model, maximum covering location problem (MCLP) model, and location set covering problem (LSCP) model to identify candidate COVID-19 vaccination sites for the proposed public service facilities. The study found that only 47 COVID-19 vaccination sites exist in the early stage, with a small overall number, uneven spatial distribution, and trend of high accessibility in the central but low accessibility in the north and south; after the proposed addition of 31 vaccination sites, the overall distribution showed an even and dense distribution in the central and western regions, sporadic distribution in other regions, consistent with the distribution characteristics of residential communities. The areas where the accessibility of vaccination sites increased by more than 500 m accounted for 41% of the total area, and the area served by vaccination sites increased by 18%. Therefore, using the existing public service facilities to reasonably add the vaccination sites can improve the efficiency of vaccination and safeguard the establishment of a herd immunity barrier.
... These indicators highlighted the direction of work for urban planners; Wang proposed four categories of planning spatial elements that affect health, including land use, spatial morphology, road traffic, green space, and open space, and argued that road planning should take into account such elements as promoting exercise, reducing pollution, and health effects on the human body [16]. At the micro level, some scholars focused on urban public health resources, conducted multi-level studies of a particular type of resource, and proposed that urban planners should pay attention to urban green spaces [17], the physical activities of residents [18], medical facilities [19,20], and sports facilities [21], which are considered to be essential for promoting the physical and mental health of residents and challenging socioeconomic inequalities; some other scholars combined different public resources [21-23] to analyze the spatial configuration of urban public service facilities, etc., at multiple levels. ...
Determining whether the supply–demand matching (SDM) of urban public health resources is reasonable involves important issues such as health security and the rational use of resources. Using the central urban area of Tianjin as the research area, this paper used the Gaussian-based 2-step floating catchment area method (Ga2SFCA), combined with multi-source data, and comprehensively considered public medical, natural, and physical resources to evaluate the SDM of single-category and integrated public health resources in the research area. The results showed the following: (1) there was a good fit between supply and demand for public medical and natural health resources in Tianjin’s central urban area. For public physical health resources, there was a poor fit between supply and demand; the population in the supply insufficient and scarce areas for 82.78% of the total and was mainly distributed in the marginal areas of the four districts around the city and the six districts of the inner city. (2) For integrated public health resources, the degree of SDM was generally good. It had a circular structure that gradually shrank from the core to the edge. In order to promote the supply–demand balance of urban public health resources, this paper proposed three strategies involving three aspects: the supply, accessibility, and demand of urban public health resources. These strategies involve the service supply level, urban traffic network and slow traffic, development intensity, and population scale.
... Higgs et al. [36] studied accessibility, for a general population, to a wide range of sporting facilities in Wales and found use was greater in more socially deprived areas and lower in the more affluent areas, which was similar to the present study that found a higher percentage of classes (63%) in more socially deprived areas. This was in contrast to Nottinghamshire, where a higher percentage of classes were located in more affluent areas, which was similarly found in a study by Christie et al. [37], who looked at the accessibility of renal replacement therapy units in South and Mid Wales. ...
Older people living with dementia are advised to exercise to remain independent. Although several exercise classes for older people take place across the UK, there is limited information about the geographical distribution of these classes. This study identified the location and explored the population characteristics of the classes in a UK region, to aid improved access to exercise. Using a geographical information system, data were collected on population characteristics, including size and age, socio-economic status, and rurality of the exercise classes in one area of the UK (East Midlands, population 5 million). The relationship between data sets was explored and a visual representation of these patterns was provided. A systematic internet search identified 520 exercise classes, evenly spread across the region and areas of socio-economic deprivation: 471 (90%) were in urban areas; 428 (80%) were in areas where less than 20% of the population was over 65 years of age; and 13 (2%) stated that they were suitable for people with dementia. People living with dementia are less likely than older people without dementia to have access to exercise classes.
... In terms of the relationship between accessibility of sports activity venues and regions, Xiao et al. found that the accessibility of sports facilities in northern Dongguan was higher than that in southern Dongguan based on the MG2SFCA method [29]. Higgs et al. [30] performed accessibility analysis and found that people in poorer areas of Wales had more opportunities to access public sports facilities. ...
In the context of healthy China, the study of the spatial distribution characteristics of urban sports venues is not only beneficial to planning the construction of sports venues in cities, but also to the health protection of urban residents. Therefore, to promote a fair and scientific approach to constructing public fitness sites in the city and meet the needs of urban residents’ fitness activities, this study targeted public fitness sites larger than 10 m² in the main urban area of Jinan City to study spatial distribution characteristics and accessibility. We combine the traffic road network and other data and use spatial and buffer zone analyses to assess the sites from the perspective of different travel modes of urban residents. The results show that the public fitness venues in the main urban area are mainly concentrated centrally; there is no significant pattern between the construction of venue area and population. For the time range of 0–15 min, Lixia District has the highest ratio of public fitness venue service area for walking, cycling, and car travel, with 22.54%, 62.25%, and 100%, respectively, and Changqing District has the lowest. In terms of travel mode, the highest service area ratio is 62.7% for car travel, followed by 28.7% for cycling, and 7.7% for walking. It is concluded that the construction of public fitness venues in Jinan has an unbalanced layout, does not fully consider the population factor, and different modes of travel have a significant impact on accessibility. It is therefore suggested that the government should increase public fitness venue construction in the areas surrounding the main city; moreover, future planning of urban public fitness venues should fully consider the distribution characteristics of population quantity and age in each area. Finally, the main travel mode characteristics of urban residents should also be considered to promote the future scientific development of urban public fitness venue construction.
... Public sports facilities, featuring professional and exercise facilities as well as professional training support, serve as a critical hub wherein citizens can meet their physical activity needs (Cereijo et al., 2019;Limstrand, 2008). Studies have established a relationship between proximity to sports facilities and rates of engagement in physical activity, which may be affected by the actual travel times and distances to the facilities (Higgs et al., 2015). Short travel times can reduce the inconvenience of travel, thereby increasing people's willingness to engage in physical activity MacDonald, 2019). ...
Public sports facilities, featuring exercise equipment and athletic facilities as well as professional support services, serve as a critical exercising and active living hub for citizens. Regarded as a component of public welfare, their distribution usually plays an integral role in urban planning for healthy and active cities. Ensuring that these facilities are located within a reasonable walking distance is crucial for encouraging people to visit them; hence, planners must consider walking distance when evaluating the rationale for these facilities’ existing and proposed distribution. Using Nanjing, China as a case study, we employed the Baidu Maps online mapping service to implement a city-scale catchment delineation of public sports facilities. We scraped the shortest walking routes between residents’ homes and the public sports facilities to delineate the walking catchments, then combined population data to explore the potential gaps between demands and needs. The results revealed significant differences in service areas and potential service capabilities across the sports facilities, demonstrating spatial inequity of sports resources and an insufficient number of public sports facilities in the study area. The walking accessibility of facilities in the peripheral areas was inferior to that of facilities in the central areas, which were expected to be overloaded with a citizen population. If implemented, the proposed plan would remediate this inequity to some extent, but considerable areas outside of 15-min catchments would persist in the study area. These findings highlight the spatial inequity of sports facilities within the city, in both the existing and proposed situation, implying disparities in physical activity opportunities among citizens. Such a straightforward estimation, reinforced with a big data approach, will prove useful for planners and policymakers, although it remains rarely adopted in China for supporting active city planning, and it will be transferable to other cities as a means of rapid assessment.
... Analyses carried out by Higgs and his colleagues [32] in Wales highlighted the importance of the population's deprivation levels: the areas most affected by deprivation are dominated mainly by public-owned sports facilities. Research concerning spatial distribution of constructed sports facilities [33] has indicated that the size of settlements can have a significant influence on the football fields completed, and the economic power of the local government has a major impact on their willingness to construct football fields in the first place. ...
Sports facilities play a very important role in educating people about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, and the examination of their spatial distribution is one of the important research areas of sport geography, a field of study becoming increasingly important in recent times. In this spirit, the aim of this paper is to present the spatial distribution of sports facilities in a specific Hungarian sample area, the Észak-Alföld (Northern Great Plain) region, to point out the differences between settlements, as well as the reasons behind these differences. Data received from the local authorities and state administration bodies were used for the preparation of the study, which included the different sports facilities at the settlement level in addition to information found on the Internet. The following conclusions were drawn based on the research. First of all, it was found that the settlement size significantly influences the spatial distribution of sports facilities, inter alia, larger settlements with larger populations boast increased demand and higher purchasing power and also have more enhanced and more diverse sports infrastructure. Secondly, in the case of competitive sports, the size of settlements is less relevant; there are only insignificant differences between the settlements of different sizes. This can be explained by the fact that almost all settlements have their own football pitch. Thirdly, the administrative role of the settlements was also found to be significant since settlements being on higher levels of the hierarchy (district centres, county seats) always have better facilities.
... Spatial measures of access to essential services have evolved massively in the past few years and in solving the problems of access to cash we could take inspiration from those methods. These include access to sports facilities (Billaudeau et al., 2011;Higgs et al., 2015;Shrestha et al., 2019) supporting social and societal participation, access to healthy food (Aggarwal et al., 2014;Dai & Wang, 2011) fire stations (KC et al., 2020;Shahparvari et al., 2020), etc. ...
This statement has fed into the Summary of Responses report that concludes the HM Treasury's 'Access to Cash' consultation.
... Public tennis courts were mainly built in the city sport center and could not fulfill the demand of the increasing tennis population. A shortage of sport facilities resulted in children's and adolescents' physical inactivity [67]. Instead, a safe, well-equipped, and supportive school and neighborhood environment would significantly increase weekday and weekend MVPA in children and adolescents [27]. ...
Physical activity and sport participation behaviors in children and adolescents are consistently shaped by surrounding ecological systems. Accumulating evidence highlights individual, family, peer, school and teacher, and macroenvironment elements such as policies that affect unstructured physical activity choices in youth populations. However, the reason for participation has not been fully interpreted from the perspective of the youth themselves, especially those from an Asian cultural background. In our study, we aimed to better understand the self-identified reasons for adolescents’ participation in non-organized or spontaneous tennis practice in contemporary China. Twenty-six adolescents and informants were recruited in mainland China and participated in semi-structured interviews to provide thick descriptions of their continued tennis participation behaviors. Data were coded and analyzed via NVivo 12. Four themes emerged: (a) Individual characteristics and self-interpretations of tennis culture; (b) microsystems mediating adolescents’ tennis participation; (c) barriers and obstacles impacting tennis participation; and (d) policies and macroenvironments. Adolescent tennis participation is a result of the integration effect of the sociocultural and ecological factors dominated by multifaceted ecological systems. As a particular vision of their physical activity experiences, adolescents’ interpretation of tennis and their broader worldview has been continuously reshaped by concurrent sport and educational policies.
... Each access point of the AFS is also verified by physical survey. It is difficult to compare the outcomes of accessibility measures as large data are involved and account in aggregation errors [35]. So while taking the location, we choose the closest access points to overcome the negative errors [23]. ...
In developing nations, studies on accessibility planning using non-motorized transport (NMT) are still in nascent stage of progress. Even though, there is an intense planning for public transit (PT) in Indian cities, last mile connectivity is not the primary concern in most of the planning exercises. Therefore, in most of the cities, there is lack of accessibility to amenities, facilities, and services (AFS) using NMT. This study focuses on measuring accessibility to AFS using NMT from PT in an Indian city, Nagpur and develops NMT indices using various parameters like built density of residential and commercial, mixed land use, entropy, near, and network distance in macro-level and micro-level evaluation. The results show that Nagpur city has higher levels of access from PT to AFS within 400 m of network distance and planning measures like density and land use mix display the city’s potential for making it friendly for walking and cycling. But lack of infrastructure prevents NMT from being used. This study suggests both macro-and micro-level assessment should be evaluated for formulating planning strategies and policies for NMT to improve the overall accessibility of the city.KeywordsWalkabilityAccessibilityNon-motorized transportPublic transitLast mile connectivity
... Foreign scholars introduced spatial accessibility into the public service domain and have conducted an abundance of empirical studies on urban public service facilities, such as education facilities (Talen, 2001), medical resources (McGrail, 2012;Wan et al., 2012;Deborah et al., 2018;Naylor et al., 2019), sports venues (Higgs et al., 2015), and public green spaces (La Rosa, 2014;Wolch et al., 2014). In the existing research, there are three main methods commonly used for investigating the accessibility of urban public open spaces: 1) the nearest neighbor method, in which the network or Euclidean distance to the nearest green space is used to measure the accessibility (Comber et al., 2008;Kessel et al., 2009); 2) area-weighted proportion method, in which the total area of green spaces in individual subareas is used to estimate the accessibility (Potestio et al., 2009;Richardson et al., 2010); and 3) gravity model method, in which a gravity model is used to measure the attractivity of green spaces with respect to a subarea, and the sum of the activities is used as the measure of the green space accessibility for that subarea (Hillsdon et al., 2006). ...
The service capacity of urban public open spaces is an important indicator of the justness and soundness of the allocation of public space resources, such as parks and green spaces, in the process of urban development. Improving the service capacity of urban public open spaces is conductive to healthy, sustainable urban development. In this study, taking Shengyang City, China as a case study, a Gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area method (2SFCA) is used to calculate an accessibility index and identify residential areas with a poor accessibility to urban public open spaces. Then, a particle swarm algorithm (PSA) is used to optimize the locations of new open space developments. Finally, the optimization results are verified using the analytic network process (ANP). The results show that the service capacity of public open spaces in the center of Shenyang City (covering six districts) is relatively low and exhibits an uneven spatial distribution. In the service scope of the existing urban public open spaces, the accessibility for 48.6% of the residential estates is moderately poor or poor. The layout is optimized when the number of optimization points is set to 8. These points are mainly located in old town areas such as the Tiexi, Huanggu, and Dadong districts. The optimization increases the green space area accessible by motor vehicles (60 min), bicycles (60 min), and walking (30 min) by 4.67%, 5.38%, and 8.03% of the study area, respectively. Finally, green space planning recommendations are offered from two perspectives: spatial layout and transport system optimization.
... In response to the limitations of such measures, scholars have developed floating catchment area (FCA) models to calculate spatial access to public services such as hospitals (McGrail & Humphreys, 2009), urban green spaces (Dony, Delmelle, & Delmelle, 2015), sports facilities (Higgs, Langford, & Norman, 2015), employment locations (Wang & Minor, 2002), food stores (Dai & Wang, 2011), banks (Langford, Higgs, & Jones, 2020), and transportation stations (Langford, Higgs, & Fry, 2016). ...
Improving the spatial accessibility of fire stations is a key factor in minimizing property loss and reducing injuries and deaths. Most existing studies neglect the effect of travel time correlation and uncertainty on the level of accessibility in non‐normally distributed networks. In this article, a two‐step floating catchment area (2SFCA) model is introduced to measure accessibility in correlated non‐normal uncertain transportation networks. The model extends the conventional 2SFCA measures by considering the catchment area of supply and demand locations in stochastic contexts. The proposed measure is applied to a study area to investigate the impacts of travel time correlation, travel time uncertainty, and non‐normal distributions on the accessibility value. It is further used to analyze access inequality between different areas of the case study and to identify segregated places in terms of accessibility to the fire stations. In addition, the conventional 2SFCA measure is executed to provide an evaluation of the outputs of the proposed model. Results highlight significant difference between the introduced model and the other existing measure. They also show inequality of accessibility in the study area and the way that the model parameters affect the accessibility level. Furthermore, results offer several methodological implications for accessibility analysis in time‐dependent networks.
... Cutumisu et al. used the two-step floating catchment area method to study the association between the accessibility of sports venues and residents' physical activities [20]. Higgs et al. used the FCA model to measure the relationship between the accessibility of sports facilities and the level of regional development [21]. Finally, in the research on the layout optimization of facilities, scholars mainly solved the configuration and spatial layout of sports facilities from the perspective of urban planning management and urban policy [22][23][24][25][26]. ...
This paper proposes a framework for a layout evaluation of urban public sports facilities. First, the buffer analysis method is used to measure the service level of public sports facilities. The study findings indicate that the overall service level of public sports facilities presents the spatial characteristics of a central agglomeration, and the value of the service level diffuses outward from high to low. There is evident spatial heterogeneity in the layout of public sports facilities in Hangzhou. Second, the Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, and location entropy are employed to measure the equity of the distribution among spatial units and the intradistrict disparity. The results show a mismatch between the spatial distribution of the facilities and the distribution of the permanent population. The patterns of distribution of the location entropy classes of Hangzhou can be divided into three types: balanced, alternating, and divergent districts. The method in this paper is effective in measuring spatial equity and visualizing it. it has a certain degree of systemicity, universality and operability. At the same time, this method can compare the diachronic characteristics of the same city and the synchronic characteristics of different cities, which has universal application value.
... The accessibility of critical services and resources as well as everyday facilities has been researched in a number of contexts. These include access to sports facilities (Billaudeau et al., 2011;Higgs et al., 2015;Shrestha et al., 2019) supporting social and societal participation, access to healthy food (Dai & Wang, 2011;Aggarwal et al., 2014;Chen, 2019;Hu et al., 2020) preventing the formation of food deserts and supporting the reduction of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases, and further areas like primary health services (Bauer et al., 2018;Ouko et al., 2019;Taylor & Pettit, 2020), fire stations (Kiran et al., 2020;Shahparvari et al., 2020), residential care facilities (Cheng et al., 2012;Tao et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2020), among others. Accessibility in most of these areas is characterised by a certain degree of homogeneity of what the associated sites and facilities provide. ...
Access to 'universal banking services' through the post office network has been a goal of the UK governments over the last twenty years. Various policies and mechanisms have been put in place in an attempt to maintain national geographical coverage with access points while increasing the financial viability of the network. One such mechanism is represented by the six official criteria for access to post offices, expressed as a percentage of the UK population living within one mile, three miles, and six miles of a post office. The method for calculating compliance with these access criteria is not published. Nor will any granular results be published, but only an annual statement that the criteria are being met. This article examines geographical and temporal access to post offices in order to understand the territorial coverage of the network and the impact this has on the provision of basic banking services. The area under investigation is Wales, for which we are reviewing the Government's official access criteria. Through the Post Office Ltd website, we are collecting up-to-date information on the locations and opening hours of post offices in Wales. In addition, a detailed population grid is combined with calculated areas of equidistant geographical access, called isochrones, to determine the number of people who have access to the post office network. The isochrones are based on the Welsh road network and are calculated for different travel modes and thresholds using a powerful routing engine. Our results show that the official access criteria are largely unmet in Wales. In addition , and in contrast to previous studies, we show a rural-urban divide not in terms of spatial access, but in the combination of spatial and temporal access. The results are of both practical and theoretical value and will hopefully inform policy makers.
... Estudios recientes utilizan metodologías de análisis de la accesibilidad en entornos informáticos de Sistemas de Información Geográfica enfocándose en diferentes áreas como: salud (Cheng et al., 2016;Neutens, 2015), centros de cuidado infantil (Fransen, Neutens, De Maeyer y Deruyter, 2015), infraestructura de deporte (Higgs, Langford y Norman, 2015), mercados (Farber, Morang y Widener, 2014), recreación (L. Brabyn y Sutton, 2013), y transporte público (Bröcker, Korzhenevych y Schürmann, 2010;Delmelle y Casas, 2012;Tribby y Zandbergen, 2012) Este trabajo se enfoca en la accesibilidad locacional, buscando medir la accesibilidad en términos de distancia y tiempo a los equipamientos. ...
La presente investigación muestra los resultados del cálculo de un índice de accesibilidad a nivel barrial a los servicios colectivos, considerando los conceptos de equidad y eficiencia espacial, en el área urbana de la ciudad de Quito. Por la COVID-19, varios sectores académicos y técnicos relacionados con la planificación urbana han sugerido la importancia de la proximidad caminable a bienes y servicios. El propósito de este artículo es aportar con aproximaciones metodológicas que permitan cuantificar esta proximidad para la toma de decisiones informada. Los datos de población fueron analizados a partir de la distribución de los sectores censales y de la población a nivel de manzanas para el año 2010, utilizando como medida la distancia, real e ideal, desde el centroide de cada barrio a los servicios colectivos más cercanos. Entre los principales hallazgos se destaca que la metodología empleada permite identificar áreas prioritarias para la intervención a través del diseño y la planificación urbana, en tanto que la desagregación del análisis por grupos de edad sugiere algunas fuentes de inequidad en el acceso, las cuales deben ser atendidas de manera prioritaria. Este tipo de análisis debe complementarse considerando las otras dimensiones de accesibilidad a los servicios. Palabras clave: transporte sostenible, accesibilidad caminable, Sistemas de Información Geográfica. Abstract: Based on a spatial equity and efficiency concept, the present research shows the calculation of a neighborhood-level accessibility index to collective services for Quito city. Due to COVID-19, various academic and technical areas related to urban planning suggested the importance of walkable proximity to goods and services. The article purpose is to provide methodological approaches that allow quantifying this proximity for informed decision making. The population data, at the block level, were analyzed starting from the census sectors and population distribution for 2010, using as a measure the distance, real and ideal, from the centroid of each neighborhood to the closest collective services. Among the main findings it is emphasize that the applied methodology allows identify, through design and urban planning, priority intervention areas. Also, the age group disaggregation analysis suggests some sources of inequity in access, which should be addressed as a primary's issues. This type of analysis should be complemented by considering other dimensions of services accessibility.
... Urban settings in different countries have significant inequalities in the distribution of physical infrastructure that affect residents' quality of life; for example, residents in historic quarters of Changting in China, Glasgow in the UK and Berlin in Germany suffer from lack of access to basic services such as transportation, health care, and green space [1,3,[13][14][15][16][17]. of 4.4 million people living in 16 of those (precincts 1-13 and 15-17). The 16 municipal precincts comprise 394.78 km 2 of urban land, which is concentrated in the city's central districts, whereas the remaining 6 peripheral precincts comprise agricultural land and villages. ...
Accessibility, the size of the land area, the design and build quality, and the number of parks and their correlation with population density are key elements in fostering ecological spatial equity within cities. This study analyzed different spatial equity attributes of existing parks in Kabul City using onsite observations, measurement analyses, and mapping and buffering of satellite imagery using computer-aided design methods. The results revealed that, presently, 309 ha of urban land is covered by parks, which accounts for 0.78% of the total land area of 394.78 km². On average, a quarter of city residents can access a park with basic amenities within 300 to 600 m of their residence, and parks currently provide a land coverage distribution per resident of 0.69 m². However, the majority of parks lack certain amenities like playground and sports facilities desired by different user groups. This article also explored the inequitable distribution of parks at the city scale, underlining the scarcity or concentration of parks in certain areas and stressing the importance of allocating additional land for park provision.
... Radke and Mu first proposed a two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) approach to measure spatial accessibility that takes into account interactions [16]. Luo further developed this method into the Enhanced 2SFCA (E2SFCA) method [17], which has been extensively studied for access to medical [18] and sports facilities [19]. This method reveals more shortage of space areas but proposes a limited solution on uniform accessibility in each catchment [20]. ...
Nature-based recreation in urban areas is essential for the well-being of citizens. Park green space (PGS) is a necessary urban infrastructure and a critical step of urban planning and policy-making. The existing research on PGS only focuses on service allocation problems existing in the current urban development, ignoring changes in residential communities accessibility. This research provides new ideas to evaluate PGS. Based on parks and residential communities’ data, we adopt an improved Gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method to evaluate PGS accessibility in Ningbo (China) and its matching with different levels of residential areas. We present a case study in Ningbo, and discuss its implications for PGS management. This study contains two elements: (a) Compare the current and initial PGS accessibility of each community to accurately identify the communities with PGS vacancies. (b) Analyze and discuss the association between community accessibility and residential house prices. Compare the PGS coverage ratios of communities at different levels to determine the equity of PGS planning in Ningbo. We found that the level of PGS allocation in the central area of Ningbo is high. Obviously, high-value clusters are formed in Sanjiangkou, Zhenhai New Town, Southern and Eastern Yinzhou. The accessibility level in the middle area of Yinzhou is low, and there are super high accessibility residential communities in the outer city area. There is an exact period of green space vacancy in the middle and the outer area. The residential areas with ultra-high accessibility did not configure PGS services at the beginning of their construction. There is no noticeable difference in PGS accessibility of residential communities of different levels at present, but 149 low- and middle-income residential communities lack green space service when the construction was completed. High-end residential communities have priority on enjoying park green space services. Our study suggests that PGS accessibility should be studied temporally and spatially for each residential community. The Ningbo government should strengthen the balanced construction of green space in parks and guarantee green space services for low-end residential communities to improve green space equity.
... Hoy existe consenso en que una distribución equitativa de las oportunidades no solo pasa por acciones que el Estado o el mercado desarrollan, sino por cómo estos distribuyen recursos equitativamente a lo largo del territorio urbano. Para estudiar las condiciones de acceso al equipamiento urbano, se ha medido la facilidad de acceso a ellos con respecto al costo de viaje, la distancia y el tiempo (Thornton, Pearce y Kavanagh, 2011); asimismo se ha medido la accesibilidad a áreas verdes (Rojas, et al., 2016), equipamiento deportivo (Higgs, Langford y Norman, 2015), bibliotecas (Guo, Chan y Yip, 2017), entre otros. No obstante, poco se sabe sobre el tema en relación con la distribución de los grupos socioeconómicos (Doriwala y Shah, 2010). ...
El acceso a equipamiento y servicios urbanos ha ganado centralidad en la discusión urbana chilena, siendo un elemento fundamental de la política, los indicadores y el proyecto de ley sobre integración social urbana. De esta manera, el Estado chileno reconoce que para democratizar la calidad de vida y el desarrollo humano no basta con asegurar una vivienda, sino que debe promover entornos residenciales funcionalmente complejos. El artículo mide la accesibilidad al equipamiento urbano y su relación con la distribución de grupos socioeconómicos en dos comunas del Área Metropolitana de Valparaíso: Quilpué y Villa Alemana. Los resultados muestran un patrón de urbanización desequilibrado, con alta cobertura de servicios urbanos como colegios y centros de salud, pero deficitaria en la distribución de oportunidades de ocio, deporte y cultura, lo cual se traduce en un factor de reproducción de desigualdades sociales, ya que priva a grupos medios y vulnerables de oportunidades de recreación y cultura en la cercanía a su lugar de habitación.
... Yet, studies examining associations between the availability of recreational opportunities and an outcome measure of LTPA generally operate under the assumption that proximity is a key determinant of LTPA destination choice. Distance to the nearest facility from home and the density of facilities within a pre-defined buffer distance are frequently applied to operationalize proximity to PA facilities [19]. However, these measures may overly generalize the leisure-time destination choice by prioritizing proximity over other, symbolic and qualitative, destination qualities that may impact destination choice [17,20]. ...
Background:
Context-free outcome measures, such as overall leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), are habitually applied to study the neighborhood built environment correlates of physical activity. This cross sectional study identifies and empirically tests potential methodological limitations related to the use of context-free measures and discusses how these may help in the interpretation of inconsistent associations between participation in moderate-to-vigorous LTPA and objectively measured neighborhood-level built environment attributes.
Methods:
We employ a public participation geographic information system (PPGIS), an advanced participatory mapping method, to study the spatial distribution of moderate-to-vigorous LTPA among adult urban Finnish residents (n 1322). Secondary sources of GIS land-use and sport facility data were used to disaggregate respondent-mapped LTPA by the behavioral context, such as indoor and outdoor sport facilities, green spaces, and other public open spaces. Associations between the use of the identified LTPA settings and a range of objectively measured neighborhood built environment attributes were studied with multilevel logistic regression models.
Results:
Disaggregated by behavioral context, we observed varied and partly opposite built environment correlates for LTPA. The use of indoor and outdoor sport facilities showed no significant associations with their neighborhood availability, but were significantly associated with personal-level attributes. By contrast, participation in LTPA in green and built public open space shared significant associations with access to and availability of neighborhood green space that persisted after controlling for personal-level covariates. Moreover, neighborhood distances up to 1600 m poorly captured participation in moderate-to-vigorous LTPA, as, on average, 40% of visits were located further from home. However, we found the immediate home environment to be an important LTPA setting for the least active participants.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that LTPA can be a highly heterogeneous measure regarding both the spatial distribution and the environmental correlates of behavioral contexts. The results show that context-free LTPA outcome measures yield inconsistent associations with built environment exposure variables, challenging the applicability of such measures in designing neighborhood-level built environment interventions.
... The extent to which the residential built environment contributes to individual socio-economic differences in PA has been explored by drawing on two hypothetical pathways: (i) a deprivation-amplification effect [10], whereby disadvantaged individuals are less exposed to health-promoting facilities in their residential neighbourhood, and (ii) a moderating effect, by which socio-economic groups use the physical activity facilities available in their neighbourhood differently [11]. Regarding the deprivation-amplification pathway, some UK studies have reported that the most affluent urban areas have the poorest accessibility to recreational PA facilities [12][13][14][15], but others the most deprived [16]. As for the moderating effect pathway, some studies have reported that the association between the residential built environment and PA was moderated by the socioeconomic position [17,18], whereas others did not find such evidence [19,20]. ...
Background
We assessed whether the residential built environment was associated with physical activity (PA) differently on weekdays and weekends, and contributed to socio-economic differences in PA.
Methods
Measures of PA and walkability, park proximity and public transport accessibility were derived for baseline participants (n = 1,064) of the Examining Neighbourhood Activities in Built Living Environments in London (ENABLE London) Study. Multilevel-linear-regressions examined associations between weekend and weekday steps and Moderate to Vigorous PA (MVPA), residential built environment factors, and housing tenure status as a proxy for socio-economic position.
Results
A one-unit decrease in walkability was associated with 135 (95% CI [28; 242]) fewer steps and 1.2 (95% CI [0.3; 2.1]) fewer minutes of MVPA on weekend days, compared with little difference in steps and minutes of MVPA observed on weekdays. A 1km-increase in distance to the nearest local park was associated with 597 (95% CI [161; 1032]) more steps and 4.7 (95% CI [1.2; 8.2]) more minutes of MVPA on weekend days; 84 fewer steps (95% CI [-253;420]) and 0.3 fewer minutes of MVPA (95%CI [-2.3, 3.0]) on weekdays. Lower public transport accessibility was associated with increased steps on a weekday (767 steps, 95%CI [–13,1546]) compared with fewer steps on weekend days (608 fewer steps, 95% CI [–44, 1658]). None of the associations between built environment factors and PA on either weekend or weekdays were modified by socio-economic status. However, socio-economic differences in PA related moderately to socio-economic disparities in PA-promoting features of the residential neighbourhood.
Conclusions
The residential built environment is associated with PA differently at weekends and on weekdays, and contributes moderately to socio-economic differences in PA.
... Each access point of the AFS is also verified by physical survey. It is difficult to compare the outcomes of accessibility measures as large data are involved and account in aggregation errors [35]. So while taking the location, we choose the closest access points to overcome the negative errors [23]. ...
Accessibility planning is widely adopted worldwide in city planning policies for benefits of better access to various urban amenities. In developing nations, studies on accessibility planning using non-motorized transport (NMT) is still in nascent stage of progress. Even though there is an intense planning for public transit (PT) in Indian cities, last mile connectivity is not the primary concern in most of the planning exercises. Therefore, in most of the cities, there is lack of accessibility to amenities, facilities and services (AFS) using NMT This study focuses on measuring accessibility to AFS using NMT from PT in an Indian city, Nagpur. In the first section, macro-level assessment of accessibility is carried out for the entire city area. In second section, micro-level assessment of accessibility is carried out for the area around selected PT nodes. This study also develops NMT indices using various parameters like built density of residential and commercial, mixed land use, entropy, near and network distance and the assessment of NMT infrastructure on the safety convenience and satisfaction level from house hold survey are also considered in this study. In macro-level and micro-level evaluation, the results show that Nagpur city has higher levels of access from PT to AFS within 400 m of network distance and planning measures like density and land use mix which displays the city's potential for making it friendly for walking and cycling. But lack of infrastructure prevents NMT from being used. This study suggests, both macro-and micro-level assessment should be evaluated for formulating planning strategies and policies for NMT in order to improve the overall accessibility of the city.
هدف البحث إلى التعرف على مستوى القدرات المدرسية الرياضية في المدارس الإعدادية التابعة لمديرية تربية بابل، والتعرف على مستوى المعتقدات التحفيزية لدى مدرسي التربية الرياضية في المدارس الإعدادية التابعة لمديرية تربية بابل من وجهة نظرهم، فضلاً عن التعرف على طبيعة العلاقة وأدوار القدرات المدرسية الرياضية المؤثرة في المعتقدات التحفيزية لدى مدرسي التربية الرياضية، وقد تمّ فحص القدرات المدرسية الرياضية والمعتقدات التحفيزية لدى المدرسين عبر تصميم مقياسين، الأول لقياس مستوى القدرات المدرسية في المدارس الإعدادية، والثاني لقياس مستوى المعتقدات التحفيزية لدى مدرسي التربية الرياضية فيها، إذ تضمن المقياس الأول (12) فقرة، في حين تضمن المقياس الثاني (13) فقرة، وقد تمّ الحصول على البيانات عبر تطبيق المقياسين على عينة البحث الرئيسة التي مثلها مدرسو التربية الرياضية في المدارس الإعدادية التابعة لمديرية تربية بابل والبالغ عددهم (283) مدرساً، تمّ توزيعهم على ثلاث عينات فرعية هي (التجربة الاستطلاعية، والتحليل الإحصائي، والتطبيق النهائي) والبالغ عدد أفرادها (8، 165، 110) على التوالي، وبعد جمع البيانات ومعالجتها إحصائياً عبر الوسائل الإحصائية (الوسط الحسابي، النسبة المئوية، الانحراف المعياري، اختبار (ت) ، معامل الارتباط البسيط، معادلة الانحدار الخطي البسيط)، وبعد استخراج النتائج ومناقشتها توصل الباحث إلى مجموعة استنتاجات أهمها: - تمتلك المدارس الإعدادية التابعة لمديرية تربية بابل مستوى منخفض من القدرات المدرسية الرياضية من وجهة نظر مدرسي التربية الرياضية فيها. - يمتلك مدرسو التربية الرياضية في المدارس الإعدادية التابعة لمديرية تربية بابل مستوى متوسط من المعتقدات التحفيزية من وجهة نظرهم الشخصية. - توجد علاقة ارتباط معنوية إيجابية مع أدوار مؤثرة مقبولة للقدرات المدرسية الرياضية في المعتقدات التحفيزية لدى مدرسي التربية الرياضية.
In the scientific community, the concept of services of general interest is relatively new, even though its components have been examined in various ways for several decades. The term "service of general interest" is a political and normative expression introduced by the European Union. While it is challenging to provide a precise definition, services of general interest are generally understood as service activities that public administration bodies in a specific country or region designate as activities contributing to the public welfare. In geographical research, individual elements of this concept are often analysed, such as the provision of infrastructure and services in settlements, the organization of central places, or the accessibility of services in a specific area. This paper aims to organize fundamental knowledge about services of general interest, as found in scientific and professional literature; with the intention of analysing definitions and classifications of these services, exploring the scientific interest in distinct service categories, examining the spatial organization of services, and investigating their accessibility and adaptation in response to modern social, economic, and technological changes.
The aim of the present study was to determine optimal locations to construct sports complexes based on ANP model in the center of Yazd city. This study was descriptive-analytical and applied and research method was field and library. In order to select an optimal location to establish a sports complex in the center of Yazd, six factors were considered. After preparing the information layers, their coefficients and values were calculated with ANP model and then overlay was carried out on based on the applied coefficients in GIS. According to the final map, southeast and southwest suburbs of Yazd city had the highest compatibility and eastern regions of Yazd which corresponded to the border of central part had the least compatibility. Therefore, according to the final map of optimal locations to construct sport complexes, it is suggested that the authorities should pay attention to these maps to construct these complexes.
Sport facilities and opportunities for emotional development, cognitive, perceptual and social groups of the society. But if these places were built without regard to principles of positioning, in addition to high costs cannot be considered people. On the basis of this study has been the place Premier League stadiums. Data gathering tools were divided into two groups of field instruments questionnaire(It was a researcher-made one whose validity was confirmed by some of the professors and its reliability was confirmed by Cornbrash’s alpha method (91%), View and interview) And software included (ARCGIS 10.2, SPSS 22, Google earth).. Data analysis is based on Geographic Information System (GIS). The population of the 12 Premier League stadiums that are evaluated in terms of human and natural factors. Human criteria including Access, development, population density sidelines of the stadium and the welfare status of criteria including geology, climate and geomorphology of the stadium is marginal. The results of the assessment indicate that the Premier League stadiums have many differences in terms of the criteria used in this study and in terms of natural and human criteria do not match fit. The results show that the human criteria Azadi Stadium for easy access, the possibility of the development of the stadium as well as on the margins are better than other stadiums, amusement and recreation facilities have more points. Also in terms of criteria, Samen Stadium Mashhad due to geological conditions, geomorphological climatic conditions suitable for the development of the highest points.
The paper draws upon open-source technologies to present methods of incorporating multiple travel modes into GIS analyses of cumulative opportunity and proximity-based metrics of accessibility. Two case studies are undertaken. The first uses isochrone analysis to evaluate national access to sport facilities expected to appeal to a broad range of ages and abilities. Predictably, urban areas and private car travel record the highest levels of access, but the revelation of geographical patterns in disparities between travel modes may allow transport planners and national and regional sporting bodies to identify where further investment in facilities and transport infrastructure might best be targeted. The second case study uses network tracing of shortest time pathways to consider city level access to greenspaces. Findings here suggest that cycling may offer similar access levels as private car travel, with much poorer outcomes for walking and public transport. Such studies demonstrate how active travel and public transport might be included in holistic GIS analyses to aid policy makers, and those who plan and monitor provision of sporting opportunities, to promote improved levels of access to, and participation in, physical activities within disadvantaged communities. They may also have value in cross-sector approaches that promote the wider health and environmental benefits of using active travel and public transport to access neighbourhood facilities.
Measuring spatial accessibility to grocery stores and identifying food deserts have been of interest to planners and policy makers. However, measuring and quantifying accessibility in a way that relates to actual travel behaviors and preferences are challenging. This study aims to promote an existing radiation model by incorporating different transportation modes and time use diaries to provide a more realistic estimation of accessibility. We proposed a survival analysis method, such as the Cox proportional hazard model, as a novel approach to develop a cost decay function based on time use diaries. A multinomial logit model was applied to estimate the portion of people walking, traveling by car, and traveling by bus. A case study of grocery stores in Travis County, Texas, is used to illustrate the approach. The results indicate that for walking accessibility to grocery stores, the majority of zip codes fall into the very low, low, and moderate accessibility classes. Moreover, in most western zip codes transit accessibility to grocery stores is found to be very low. However, the spatial accessibility for some of such zip codes has been enhanced because of the presence of cars.
Accessibility is regarded as a representative component of the quality of life (QOL), a concept used to evaluate the living conditions from various perspectives, including personal wealth, welfare, culture and environment. The trends of modern society, such as regional and personal difficulties in accessing various resources and opportunities caused by objective characteristics of living environment as well as individual socioeconomic status, and the development of information and communication technology (ICT) has diversified the techniques and targets of accessibility studies. Based on these, this paper reviewed the achievements and issues of studies that have been conducted since the 1980s on accessibility in daily lives. Consequently, we pointed out the following: first, urban and transport studies played a major role in accessibility studies focusing on mobility, and a set of analytical dimensions called the 5Ds was introduced. Second, medical geography contributed to studies focusing on the properties of destinations, such as spatial distribution, amount and type of resources, and opportunities. Novel accessibility measures accounting for the balance of supply and demand were developed and applied to various studies. Third, accessibility studies concerning individual attributes have diversified. Finally, some studies included future situations, intangible objects, or unfavorable places in their analyses. Further studies are needed to confirm the potential of these analytical methods, the potential for the application of existing research to policy, and discuss accessibility in relation to future social change. It is also important to discuss the differing individual values of accessibility to deepen our understanding of QOL.
Many cities face health issues that result from ineffective urban planning strategies. The chances of doing exercises in sportive venues implicate public health and citizen quality of life. With the advent of the geo-big data era, it is crucial to explore the spatial pattern of sports facilities to reflect urban health issues. This study aims to decode the street-based spatiality of gyms (one prevailing type of sportive venues) from a comprehensive perspective by both geometric methods (i.e., segment streets) and topological analytics in the context of complexity science (i.e., complex network derived from the topology of natural streets). We found that: (1) gyms are spatially clustered and distributed unevenly; (2) community-to-gym walkability fits the power-law with a heavy-tailed distribution at the 10-min and 20-min temporal scales; (3) the model for the street connectivity and the multi-distance reachability of gyms is with high polynomial fitting goodness. This article is conducive to strategies-making of healthy city planning and the further optimization of urban spatial structure.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between characteristics of neighborhood
context and the practice of physical activity in adults through a systematic review. The Scopus, Web
of Science and Pubmed database, were accessed in February 2013. We’re used the syntax (“Residence Characteristics”[Mesh] OR Neighborhood [all field]) AND (“Sedentary Lifestyle”[Mesh] OR Physical activity [all fields] OR Motor activity [Mesh]) in Pubmed database and a correspondent syntax in the others. The initial search found 5779 (2257 being duplicates). After analysis and application of inclusion criteria 19 articles were included in the review. The main instrument used for measuring physical activity was the IPAQ (16 articles). Regarding questionnaires to measure perceived neighborhood, 5 different instruments were identified. The analysis of the association between physical activity and context characteristics pointed out several inconsistencies, regardless of the instrument used to analyze, not indicating a strong relationship between neighborhood characteristics and physical activitypractice. The diversity of populations and methodologies to measure neighborhood characteristics may be one of the reasons for the differences noted. This study highlights an important gap in studies of association between physical activity and characteristics of the neighborhood context. No use of multilevel analyzes in the analyzed studies can be seen as a reason for no significant associations or inconsistencies found between studies.
Background:
Neighborhood-level environmental features have been associated with adult physical activity and weight status, but this link has not been established for adolescents.
Methods:
Community design and access to recreational facilities variables were derived using geographic information systems (GIS) for 799 adolescents (age 11 to 15 y, mean = 12.8 y, 53% girls, 43% ethnic minority). Environment variables were calculated for a 1-mile buffer around each participant's residence. Accelerometers measured min/d of physical activity.
Results:
Number of nearby recreation facilities and number of nearby parks correlated positively with girls' physical activity, and intersection density inversely related to girls' physical activity. Retail floor area ratio correlated positively with boys' physical activity. No community design or access to recreation variables were related to BMI-percentile.
Conclusions:
There was limited evidence that both community design and access to recreation facilities variables were associated with adolescent physical activity, but additional built environment variables need to be studied that have particular relevance for youth.
In many countries, financial assistance is awarded to physicians who settle in an area that is designated as a shortage area to prevent unequal accessibility to primary health care. Today, however, policy makers use fairly simple methods to define health care accessibility, with physician-to-population ratios (PPRs) within predefined administrative boundaries being overwhelmingly favoured. Our purpose is to verify whether these simple methods are accurate enough for adequately designating medical shortage areas and explore how these perform relative to more advanced GIS-based methods.
Using a geographical information system (GIS), we conduct a nation-wide study of accessibility to primary care physicians in Belgium using four different methods: PPR, distance to closest physician, cumulative opportunity, and floating catchment area (FCA) methods.
The official method used by policy makers in Belgium (calculating PPR per physician zone) offers only a crude representation of health care accessibility, especially because large contiguous areas (physician zones) are considered. We found substantial differences in the number and spatial distribution of medical shortage areas when applying different methods.
The assessment of spatial health care accessibility and concomitant policy initiatives are affected by and dependent on the methodology used. The major disadvantage of PPR methods is its aggregated approach, masking subtle local variations. Some simple GIS methods overcome this issue, but have limitations in terms of conceptualisation of physician interaction and distance decay. Conceptually, the enhanced 2-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method, an advanced FCA method, was found to be most appropriate for supporting areal health care policies, since this method is able to calculate accessibility at a small scale (e.g. census tracts), takes interaction between physicians into account, and considers distance decay. While at present in health care research methodological differences and modifiable areal unit problems have remained largely overlooked, this manuscript shows that these aspects have a significant influence on the insights obtained. Hence, it is important for policy makers to ascertain to what extent their policy evaluations hold under different scales of analysis and when different methods are used.
One main reason for promoting sports participation is the assumption that sports participation creates several positive effects for society. If so, the question arises how sports participation can be promoted effectively. Research has shown that the quantity and quality of the sport infrastructure has an impact on the sports participation of residents. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding different sizes of municipalities. This paper analyses whether there are differences in metropolitan and medium-sized municipalities using multi-level analyses. On the individual level, data from population surveys in metropolitan (n=11,715) and medium-sized municipalities (n=9,302) is used. On the infrastructure, data about sport supply was provided by the municipalities and segmented into urban districts (n=25 for the metropolis and n=53 for the medium-sized municipalities). The results show that the supply of swimming pools is of importance in metropolitan areas whereas a good supply of sports fields has a significant impact on sports participation in medium-sized municipalities. This leads to the conclusion that different types of municipalities can increase sports participation by offering a good supply of particular sports facilities to all groups of the population. These differences must be considered by policy makers.
Gravity-based spatial access models have been widely used to estimate spatial access to healthcare services in an attempt to capture the interaction of various factors. However, these models are inadequate in informing health resource allocation work due to their inappropriate assumption of healthcare demand. For the purpose of effective healthcare resource planning, this article proposes a three-step floating catchment area (3SFCA) method to minimize the healthcare-demand overestimation problem. Specifically, a spatial impedance-based competition scheme is incorporated into the enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method to account for a reasonable model of healthcare supply and demand. A case study of spatial access to primary care physicians along the Austin–San Antonio corridor area in central Texas showed that the proposed method effectively minimizes the overestimation of healthcare demand and reflects a more balanced geographic pattern of spatial access than E2SFCA. In addition, by using an adjusted spatial access index, the 3SFCA method indicates strong potential for identifying health professional shortage areas. The study concludes that 3SFCA is a promising method to provide health professionals and decision makers with useful healthcare accessibility information.
Background
Recently there has been growing interest in how neighbourhood features, such as the provision of local facilities and amenities, influence residents’ health and well-being. Prior research has measured amenity provision through subjective measures (surveying residents’ perceptions) or objective (GIS mapping of distance) methods. The latter may provide a more accurate measure of physical access, but residents may not use local amenities if they do not perceive them as ‘local’. We believe both subjective and objective measures should be explored, and use West Central Scotland data to investigate correspondence between residents’ subjective assessments of how well-placed they are for everyday amenities (food stores, primary and secondary schools, libraries, pharmacies, public recreation), and objective GIS-modelled measures, and examine correspondence by various sub-groups.
Methods
ArcMap was used to map the postal locations of ‘Transport, Health and Well-being 2010 Study’ respondents (n = 1760), and the six amenities, and the presence/absence of each of them within various straight-line and network buffers around respondents’ homes was recorded. SPSS was used to investigate whether objective presence of an amenity within a specified buffer was perceived by a respondent as being well-placed for that amenity. Kappa statistics were used to test agreement between measures for all respondents, and by sex, age, social class, area deprivation, car ownership, dog ownership, walking in the local area, and years lived in current home.
Results
In general, there was poor agreement (Kappa <0.20) between perceptions of being well-placed for each facility and objective presence, within 800 m and 1000 m straight-line and network buffers, with the exception of pharmacies (at 1000 m straight-line) (Kappa: 0.21). Results varied between respondent sub-groups, with some showing better agreement than others. Amongst sub-groups, at 800 m straight-line buffers, the highest correspondence between subjective and objective measures was for pharmacies and primary schools, and at 1000 m, for pharmacies, primary schools and libraries. For road network buffers under 1000 m, agreement was generally poor.
Conclusion
Respondents did not necessarily regard themselves as well-placed for specific amenities when these amenities were present within specified boundaries around their homes, with some exceptions; the picture is not clear-cut with varying findings between different amenities, buffers, and sub-groups.
Background
Physical activity is considered as a major component of a healthy lifestyle. However, few studies have examined the relationships between the spatial accessibility to sport facilities and sport practice with a sufficient degree of specificity. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between the spatial accessibility to specific types of sports facilities and the practice of the corresponding sports after carefully controlling for various individual socio-demographic characteristics and neighborhood socioeconomic variables.
Methods
Data from the RECORD Study involving 7290 participants recruited in 2007–2008, aged 30–79 years, and residing in the Paris metropolitan area were analyzed. Four categories of sports were studied: team sports, racket sports, swimming and related activities, and fitness. Spatial accessibility to sport facilities was measured with two complementary approaches that both take into account the street network (distance to the nearest facility and count of facilities around the dwelling). Associations between the spatial accessibility to sport facilities and the practice of the corresponding sports were assessed using multilevel logistic regression after adjusting for individual and contextual characteristics.
Results
High individual education and high household income were associated with the practice of racket sports, swimming or related activities, and fitness over the previous 7 days. The spatial accessibility to swimming pools was associated with swimming and related sports, even after adjustment for individual/contextual factors. The spatial accessibility to facilities was not related to the practice of other sports. High neighborhood income was associated with the practice of a racket sport and fitness.
Conclusions
Accessibility is a multi-dimensional concept that integrates educational, financial, and geographical aspects. Our work supports the evidence that strategies to increase participation in sport activities should improve the spatial and financial access to specific facilities, but also address educational disparities in sport practice.
Obesity and other chronic conditions linked with low levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with deprivation. One reason for this could be that it is more difficult for low-income groups to access recreational PA facilities such as swimming pools and sports centres than high-income groups. In this paper, we explore the distribution of access to PA facilities by car and bus across mainland Scotland by income deprivation at datazone level. GIS car and bus networks were created to determine the number of PA facilities accessible within travel times of 10, 20 and 30 minutes. Multilevel negative binomial regression models were then used to investigate the distribution of the number of accessible facilities, adjusting for datazone population size and local authority. Access to PA facilities by car was significantly (p<0.01) higher for the most affluent quintile of area-based income deprivation than for most other quintiles in small towns and all other quintiles in rural areas. Accessibility by bus was significantly lower for the most affluent quintile than for other quintiles in urban areas and small towns, but not in rural areas. Overall, we found that the most disadvantaged groups were those without access to a car and living in the most affluent areas or in rural areas.
Despite spending more than any other nation on medical care per person, the United States ranks behind other industrialized nations in key health performance measures. A main cause is the deep disparities in access to care and health outcomes. Federal programs such as the designations of Medically Underserved Areas/Populations and Health Professional Shortage Areas are designed to boost the number of health professionals serving these areas and to help alleviate the access problem. Their effectiveness relies first and foremost on an accurate measure of accessibility so that resources can be allocated to truly needy areas. Various measures of accessibility need to be integrated into one framework for comparison and evaluation. Optimization methods can be used to improve the distribution and supply of health care providers to maximize service coverage, minimize travel needs of patients, limit the number of facilities, and maximize health or access equality. Inequality in health care access comes at a personal and societal price, evidenced in disparities in health outcomes, including late-stage cancer diagnosis. This review surveys recent literature on the three named issues with emphasis on methodological advancements and implications for public policy.
Previous research has drawn attention to the importance of measuring accessibility to public transit services for transport planning and decision-making purposes and to the use of GIS to produce accessibility maps. Existing measures have been criticised for their lack of sophistication and reliance on simple operations such as Euclidean buffering. This article introduces an accessibility measure based on enhanced ‘floating catchment’ techniques, which have to date not been applied to measure access to public transport opportunities. We demonstrate that, after essential modifications to reflect the characteristics of transit service provision, this approach captures many detailed aspects of accessibility including proximity, the balance between service supply and demand, cumulative opportunity and temporal availability. We illustrate its application using a case study based in South Wales, integrating publicly available digital transport timetables and information on bus stop locations with geospatial analysis tools to provide a realistic appraisal of bus transit accessibility. Such measures could clearly form the basis of future studies of social exclusion and access to public transport opportunities. We conclude by drawing attention to the potential for including more intelligent demand-side and supply-side modelling inputs and by reiterating the policy importance of developing more accurate evaluations of the current and future state of the public transport network.
The aim of this study is to explore whether availability of sports facilities, parks, and neighbourhood social capital (NSC) and their interaction are associated with leisure time sports participation among Dutch adolescents.
Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on complete data from the last wave of the YouRAction evaluation trial. Adolescents (n = 852) completed a questionnaire asking for sports participation, perceived NSC and demographics. Ecometric methods were used to aggregate perceived NSC to zip code level. Availability of sports facilities and parks was assessed by means of geographic information systems within the zip-code area and within a 1600 meter buffer. Multilevel logistic regression analyses, with neighborhood and individual as levels, were conducted to examine associations between physical and social environmental factors and leisure time sports participation. Simple slopes analysis was conducted to decompose interaction effects.
NSC was significantly associated with sports participation (OR: 3.51 (95%CI: 1.18;10.41)) after adjustment for potential confounders. Availability of sports facilities and availability of parks were not associated with sports participation. A significant interaction between NSC and density of parks within the neighbourhood area (OR: 1.22 (90%CI: 1.01;1.34)) was found. Decomposition of the interaction term showed that adolescents were most likely to engage in leisure time sports when both availability of parks and NSC were highest.
The results of this study indicate that leisure time sports participation is associated with levels of NSC, but not with availability of parks or sports facilities. In addition, NSC and availability of parks in the zip code area interacted in such a way that leisure time sports participation is most likely among adolescents living in zip code areas with higher levels of NSC, and higher availability of parks. Hence, availability of parks appears only to be important for leisure time sports participation when NSC is high.
People living in neighbourhoods of lower socioeconomic status have been shown to have higher rates of obesity and a lower likelihood of meeting physical activity recommendations than their more affluent counterparts. This study examines the sociospatial distribution of access to facilities for moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity in Scotland and whether such access differs by the mode of transport available and by Urban Rural Classification.
A database of all fixed physical activity facilities was obtained from the national agency for sport in Scotland. Facilities were categorised into light, moderate and vigorous intensity activity groupings before being mapped. Transport networks were created to assess the number of each type of facility accessible from the population weighted centroid of each small area in Scotland on foot, by bicycle, by car and by bus. Multilevel modelling was used to investigate the distribution of the number of accessible facilities by small area deprivation within urban, small town and rural areas separately, adjusting for population size and local authority.
Prior to adjustment for Urban Rural Classification and local authority, the median number of accessible facilities for moderate or vigorous intensity activity increased with increasing deprivation from the most affluent or second most affluent quintile to the most deprived for all modes of transport. However, after adjustment, the modelling results suggest that those in more affluent areas have significantly higher access to moderate and vigorous intensity facilities by car than those living in more deprived areas.
The sociospatial distributions of access to facilities for both moderate intensity and vigorous intensity physical activity were similar. However, the results suggest that those living in the most affluent neighbourhoods have poorer access to facilities of either type that can be reached on foot, by bicycle or by bus than those living in less affluent areas. This poorer access from the most affluent areas appears to be reversed for those with access to a car.
Physical activity is associated with access to recreational facilities such as sports fields. Because it is not clear whether objectively- or subjectively-assessed access to facilities exerts a stronger influence on physical activity, we investigated the association between the objective and perceived accessibility of sport fields and the levels of self-reported physical activity among adults in Edmonton, Canada. A sample of 2879 respondents was surveyed regarding their socio-demographics, health status, self-efficacy, levels of physical activity, as well as their perceptions of built environment in relation to physical activity. Neighbourhood-level data were obtained for each respondent based on their residence. Accessibility to facilities was assessed using the enhanced Two-Step Floating Catchment Area method. Geographic Information Systems were employed. A logistic regression was performed to predict physical activity using individual- and neighbourhood-level variables. Women, older individuals, and individuals with higher educational attainment were less likely to be physically active. Also, individuals with higher self-efficacy and higher objectively-assessed access to facilities were more likely to be physically active. Interventions that integrate provision of relevant programs for various population groups and of improved recreational facilities may contribute to sport fields becoming catalysts for physical activity by generating movement both on the site and in the neighbourhood.
Some characteristics of the built environment have been associated with obesity in youth. Our aim was to determine whether individual and environmental socio-economic characteristics modulate the relation between youth overweight and spatial accessibility to physical activity (PA) facilities and to food outlets.
Cross-sectional study.Subjects:3293 students, aged 12 ± 0.6 years, randomly selected from eastern France middle schools.
Using geographical information systems (GIS), spatial accessibility to PA facilities (urban and nature) was assessed using the distance to PA facilities at the municipality level; spatial accessibility to food outlets (general food outlets, bakeries and fast-food outlets) was calculated at individual level using the student home address and the food outlets addresses. Relations of weight status with spatial accessibility to PA facilities and to food outlets were analysed using mixed logistic models, testing potential direct and interaction effects of individual and environmental socio-economic characteristics.
Individual socio-economic status modulated the relation between spatial accessibility to PA facilities and to general food outlets and overweight. The likelihood of being overweight was higher when spatial accessibility to urban PA facilities and to general food outlets was low, but in children of blue-collar-workers only. The odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) for being overweight of blue-collar-workers children compared with non-blue-collar-workers children was 1.76 (1.25-2.49) when spatial accessibility to urban PA facilities was low. This OR was 1.86 (1.20-2.86) when spatial accessibility to general food outlets was low. There was no significant relationship of overweight with either nature PA facilities or other food outlets (bakeries and fast-food outlets).
These results indicate that disparities in spatial accessibility to PA facilities and to general food outlets may amplify the risk of overweight in socio-economically disadvantaged youth. These data should be relevant for influencing health policies and urban planning at both a national and local level.
Central to the practice of urban planning is the provision of services, which has potential public health and social welfare implications. However, service area analysis, typically, employs arbitrary travel-distance thresholds. Through this study we provide an empirical investigation into the durations and distances that respondents are willing to travel in order to engage in various sports and recreation activities. This research uses time-diary data, augmented with global positioning system information, to investigate individually based and objectively measured travel thresholds (which define travelsheds) for various sports and recreation activities in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Results accord with national time-diary data, and indicate that duration-based and distance-based travelsheds are generally in the order of 15-30 minutes and 4-20 km, respectively. Georeferenced time-diary data provide unique insights into travel thresholds, which may be used to help improve accessibility and thereby increase the frequency and duration of physical activity engagement.
Effects of sport facility services of program attractiveness, socializing opportunities customer loyalty, and the sportscape on frequency of participation at three different types of sport facilities; special purpose – health and fitness centers, single-purpose – tennis, golf or swim pool amenities, and multi-use – gymnasia were examined. The purpose of the study was to identify differences between, and effects on, participation at different types of participant sport facilities due to service quality. Data were collected on a sample of 1199 participants from a mid-sized east coast Australian city. Linear restrictions testing determined that the three sport facility types were significantly different in the ways in which the constructs affect repeat participation. The sportscape has the most impact on participation frequency at fitness facilities, and minimal impact on participation at multi-sport facilities. Implications for retaining customers at each facility type are discussed.
Research at the confluence of accessibility, equity and health is flourishing. And yet, there is only slow and modest progress in terms of improving the spatial and temporal accuracy of measuring accessibility and equity of accessibility to health care services. This paper critically reviews the latest methodological and empirical research developments and trends in this area through a transport geography lens. More specifically, this paper discusses recent accomplishments in terms of modeling accessibility and provides a systematic and comprehensive literature review of their application in empirical studies of health care delivery. Based on this literature review a research agenda is put forward, identifying knowledge gaps that transport researchers can help to fill. These knowledge gaps pertain to the need for more spatially disaggregated, individualized and temporally-aware accessibility metrics, more sophisticated geocomputational tools to operationalize such metrics and improved measurement of equity considerations in empirical research.
This paper examines sport participation from an environmental perspective by considering the dynamic role of the sportscape (built-form and supporting infrastructure) in enabling, facilitating and promoting youth sport participation. Complementing recent work by Wicker et al. (2013), we conduct a case study of the ‘geography of sport’ in the Greater Toronto Area. In the process we introduce the concept of facility ‘gravitas’ to capture the attractiveness or ‘magnetism’ of sportscape entities and thereby acknowledge the multifaceted sets of environmental factors (including the bricks-and-mortar of facilities and the supporting mechanisms such as transportation, coaches and clubs) that influence sport participation. The results demonstrate that the geography of sport is not only about where sport venue built-forms are located, but also what types of sport infrastructure are available. To develop a better understanding of sport participation it is important to assess the capacity and quality of the sportscape along with other supporting structures and facilitators. The paper points to the implications for managers and policy makers from this perspective.
The uncertain geographic context problem (UGCoP), first articulated by Kwan (201242.
Kwan , M.-P. 2012. The uncertain geographic context problem. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 102(5): 958–968. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]View all references; The uncertain geographic context problem. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 102 (5), 958–968), refers to the problem that findings about the effects of area-based contextual variables on individual behaviors or outcomes may be affected by how contextual units (e.g., neighborhoods) are geographically delineated and the extent to which these areal units deviate from the true geographic context. It is a significant methodological problem because it means that analytical results can differ for different delineations of contextual units even if everything else is the same. Drawing upon Kwan (2012)42.
Kwan , M.-P. 2012. The uncertain geographic context problem. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 102(5): 958–968. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]View all references and recent social science studies (especially environmental health and neighborhood effects research), this article further elaborates on the nature of the UGCoP and explores how recent advances in geographical information system (GIS) and geospatial technologies can help address the problem. It discusses possible means for mitigating the UGCoP, especially with regard to the collection of detailed individual space–time data with global positioning systems, construction of individual activity spaces, and the use of qualitative and web-based GIS to capture people's activity locations and everyday experiences. It also discusses the challenges for future research that seeks to address the UGCoP.
In recent years the relationship between outdoor recreation and public health has been increasingly acknowledged. One way planners and policymakers can promote physical activity within their administrative areas is to stimulate more people to engage in outdoor recreation. However, a prerequisite for outdoor recreation is accessibility to recreational landscapes. In current research, the terms ‘access’ and ‘accessibility’ are defined and used in different ways. In order to provide planners and policymakers responsible for urban green structure with useful tools for promoting outdoor recreation, there is a need to find ways for accessibility to be measured and mapped in ways reflecting the different dimensions of perceived accessibility. The literature review identifies the key dimensions describing accessibility to recreational landscapes and the related attributes that can be assessed when studying peoples' perceived accessibility. Two main dimensions of perceived accessibility are identified: physical accessibility (related to attributes in the physical landscape), and cultural, social, or sociopsychological accessibility (related to attributes of the observer). The author concludes that researchers, planners, policymakers, and others aiming to assess accessibility to a recreational landscape need to make conscious choices regarding which dimensions and attributes of perceived accessibility should be included based on the purpose of their assessment.
Uncertainty in the relevant spatial context may drive heterogeneity in findings on the built environment and energy balance. To estimate the effect of this uncertainty, we conducted a sensitivity analysis defining intersection and business densities and counts within different buffer sizes and shapes on associations with self-reported walking and body mass index. Linear regression results indicated that the scale and shape of buffers influenced study results and may partly explain the inconsistent findings in the built environment and energy balance literature.
This study assesses the influence of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) in analysis of the effect of built environment (BE) exposure on moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during walking periods. Adults (n = 55) wore a GPS unit and accelerometer for up to 7 days. More nearby green space, residential use, and open space were positively associated with MVPA after controlling for socio-demographics. Scale and zoning effects were observed in models of momentary BE-MVPA relationships using different scales and zone configurations. Compared to larger aggregation zones, proximate measures may be better for assessing green space and land use exposure during walking periods. Results do not support a prescriptive recommendation whether future studies should use a buffer- or grid-based zonal configuration.
The primary objective of this study was to examine relationships between neighbourhood built and social environment characteristics and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in a sample of children aged 8-11 in Vancouver, British Columbia and the surrounding lower mainland region (n = 366). A secondary objective was to assess how neighbourhood definition influences these relationships, by using measures calculated at multiple buffer sizes: 200, 400, 800 and 1600 m (1 mile). Geographic information systems -software was used to create a broad set of measures of neighbourhood environments. Physical activity was measured objectively using accelerometers. Relationships between MVPA and neighborhood characteristics were assessed using generalized estimating equations to account for the clustering of children within schools. Sex specific relationships were assessed through sex stratified models.
Defining the proper geographic scale for built environment exposures continues to present challenges. In this study, size attributes and exposure calculations from two commonly used neighborhood boundaries were compared to those from neighborhoods that were self-defined by a sample of 145 urban minority adolescents living in subsidized housing estates. Associations between five built environment exposures and physical activity, overweight and obesity were also examined across the three neighborhood definitions. Limited spatial overlap was observed across the various neighborhood definitions. Further, many places where adolescents were active were not within the participants’ neighborhoods. No statistically significant associations were found between counts of facilities and the outcomes based on exposure calculations using the self-defined boundaries; however, a few associations were evident for exposures using the 0.75 mile network buffer and census tract boundaries. Future investigation of the relationship between the built environment, physical activity and obesity will require practical and theoretically-based methods for capturing salient environmental exposures.
Purpose
Pathways by which the social and built environments affect health can be influenced by differences between perception and reality. This discordance is an important for understanding health impacts of the built environment. This study examines associations between perceived and objective measures of 12 non-residential destinations, as well as previously unexplored sociodemographic, lifestyle, neighborhood and urbanicity predictors of discordance.
Methods
Perceived neighborhood data were collected from participants of the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW), using a self-administered questionnaire. Objective data were collected using the Wisconsin Assessment of the Social and Built Environment, an audit-based instrument assessing built environment features around each participant’s residence.
Results
Overall, there was relatively high agreement, ranging from 50% for proximity to parks to >90% for golf courses. Education, positive neighborhood perceptions, and rurality were negatively associated with discordance. Associations between discordance and depression, disease status, and lifestyle factors appeared to be modified by urbanicity level.
Conclusions
These data show perceived and objective neighborhood environment data are not interchangeable and the level of discordance is associated with or modified by individual and neighborhood factors, including level of urbanicity. These results suggest that consideration should be given to including both types of measures in future studies.
Widening inequality in the distribution of resources, higher rates of unemployment and deteriorating conditions in the inner cities have concentrated attention in Britain, and elsewhere in Europe, upon the idea and exact meaning of ‘deprivation’. This scientific concept is used extensively not only in the analysis of social conditions but also, in an applied form, as an instrument of policy in allocating resources to particular regions, areas and services. This paper argues that the indicators which are chosen to represent the phenomenon are often unduly restricted and even involve double counting. As a result the distribution and severity of deprivation seems to be seriously misperceived and resources misallocated. A review of the available studies shows how the concept might be treated more coherently in relation to that of poverty.
Few measures of healthcare accessibility have considered multiple transportation modes when people seek healthcare. Based on the framework of the 2 Step Floating Catchment Area Method (2SFCAM), we proposed an innovative method to incorporate transportation modes into the accessibility estimation. Taking Florida, USA, as a study area, we illustrated the implementation of the multi-mode 2SFCAM, and compared the accessibility estimates with those from the traditional single-mode 2SFCAM. The results suggest that the multi-modal method, by accounting for heterogeneity in populations, provides more realistic accessibility estimations, and thus offers a better guidance for policy makers to mitigate health inequity issues.
It has been hypothesised that residents of deprived neighbourhoods have poorer economic access to physical activity resources, inhibiting physical activity. Here we explore whether the cost of accessing gyms and fitness centres varies by neighbourhood deprivation in Wales. The location of gyms and fitness suites were obtained, and a telephone survey of all facilities was conducted to collect entry price data. We tested associations between neighbourhood deprivation and mean entry prices for public and private facilities. The cost of accessing private facilities is lower in deprived versus affluent neighbourhoods, whereas costs are similar across all deprivation categories for public facilities.
This paper fills a gap in our knowledge of active-transport (AT) walking, by presenting detailed aspects of walking behavior for a medium-sized North American city. It analyzes the frequency and length of walking episodes, categorized by origins, purposes, and destinations, and also investigates distance-decay functions for major destinations. The study employs day-after recall time diary and questionnaire data from the 2007-8 Space Time Activity Research (STAR) survey conducted in Halifax, Canada. GPS co-ordinate data enhanced the accuracy of location information, start times, and end times of the 1790 AT walking episodes, while GIS software was used to compute a shortest-path distance between the origin and destination of each episode. Home is both the most common origin and destination for AT walks, and the most common purpose is travel-to-shop rather than travel-to-work. Most walks are to non-home locations, such as retail establishments and offices. Particularly important are restaurants and bars, grocery stores, shopping centers, banks, and other services. All major destinations show strong distance-decay effects: most walks are shorter than 600 m, and very few exceed 1200 m. The assumption employed in the walkability literature, that one should restrict the 'neighborhood of opportunity' to walking destinations within 1000 m of the home, is seen to be well justified. However, a planning policy focus on the walker's home neighborhood is revealed as questionable, since the majority of walking trips do not originate from the home. The relationship between urban land-use patterns and walkability may therefore require some rethinking. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sport policies aiming at increasing mass participation and club participation have stressed the importance of sport infrastructure. Previous research has mainly analyzed the influence of individual factors (age, income, etc.) on sport participation. Although a few studies have dealt with the impact of sport facilities on sport participation, some methodological shortcomings can be observed regarding the integration of sport infrastructure into the research design. Oftentimes, subjective measures of infrastructure are employed, leading to biased results, for example inactive people have a worse perception of the actual supply of facilities. In fact it is important to measure the available sport infrastructure objectively using a quantitative approach and integrate it into statistical models. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of individual and infrastructure variables on sport participation in general and in sport clubs using geo-coded data following a multi-level design. For this purpose, both primary data (individual level) and secondary data (infrastructure level) were collected in the city of Munich, Germany. A telephone survey of the resident population was carried out (n = 11,175) and secondary data on the available sport infrastructure in Munich were collected. Both datasets were geo-coded using Gauss–Krueger coordinates and integrated into multi-level analyses. The multi-level models show that swimming pools are of particular importance for sport participation in general and sport fields for participation in sport clubs. Challenges and implications for a more holistic modeling of sport participation including infrastructure variables are discussed.
Sport management should contribute to making sport accessible for people
of all ages. Therefore, sport management research must analyse the impact of different
managerial opportunities. A special focus lies on the effects of infrastructural
conditions. In this paper, the impact of sport infrastructure on sport participation
has been analysed using data from a population survey in the city of Stuttgart, which
are related to infrastructural data. The results show that the availability of sport
infrastructure, regardless of individual socio-economic conditions, influences patterns
of sport activity significantly. However, the influence of certain types of sport
infrastructure varies between age groups. For example, the availability of swimming
pools is important during childhood and adolescence, whereas the availability of fitness
centres, gymnasia and sports fields is of greater importance in young adulthood. These
findings have significance for the ways in which sport managers can influence patterns
of lifelong sports activity.
Quantifying spatial accessibility in relation to the provision of rural health services has proven difficult. This article critically appraises the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, a recent solution for measuring primary care service accessibility across rural areas of Victoria, Australia. The 2SFCA method is demonstrated to have two fundamental shortcomings – specifically the use of only one catchment size for all populations, and secondly the assumption that proximity is undifferentiated within a catchment (especially problematic when the catchment is large). Despite its advantages over simple population-to-provider ratios, the 2SFCA method needs to be used with caution.
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify promoting and inhibiting correlates associated with the physical activity (PA) of children and adolescents (aged 3–18). The intention was to demonstrate the complexity of correlates of PA and to determine possible influencing factors.
Design: A systematic review of reviews.
Methods: Systematic database research was carried out in Medline, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PsycInfo, Springer Link and Thieme Connect. Inclusion criteria were that the study: (a) was classified as a systematic review with or without meta-analysis; (b) was published between 2000 and 2009; (c) dealt with children and adolescents aged 3–18; (d) had as its dependent variable any measure of overall PA; and (e) reviewed associations between quantitatively measured variables and PA. The internal validity of the systematic reviews thus identified was evaluated using a validated quality instrument.
Results: Nine systematic reviews without meta-analysis and one systematic review with meta-analysis were selected. Altogether 16 correlates were identified which were consistently associated with PA of children and/or adolescents: sex, age, ethnicity, parental education, family income, socioeconomic status, perceived competence, self-efficacy, goal orientation/motivation, perceived barriers, participation in community sports, parental support, support from significant others, access to sport/recreational facilities und time outdoors.
Conclusions: Although the findings of the reviews covered are to some extent heterogeneous, it is possible to identify consistent correlates of PA in children and adolescents. The results show that PA is a complex and multi-dimensional behaviour determined by numerous biological, psychological, sociocultural and environmental factors.
Considers the nature of the modifiable areal unit problem. A survey is made of the prevailing ambivalent attitudes that geographers display and the general absence of any sense of verisimilitude is emphasized. A critical review is made of several alternative approaches to handling the problem.-from Authors
This article reviews literature from the health field investigat- ing the characteristics of environments that support or hinder physical activity. This literature shows that physical activity is associated with objective and subjective measures of acces- sibility to recreational facilities and local destinations, as well as with neighborhood safety and visual quality. Walking and biking emerge as prominent forms of physical activity and occur primarily in neighborhood streets and public facilities, suggesting that building walkable and bikable communities can address health as well as transportation concerns. The studies help advance environment-behavior research related to urban and transportation planning. They identify behav- ioral and environmental determinants of physical activity and employ rigorous data collection methods and theoretical frameworks that are new to the planning field. The article concludes that multidisciplinary research will likely yield promising results in identifying the aspects of environments that can be modified to encourage physical activity and physi- cally active travel.
The analysis of the economic determinants of participation in sports is
considered to be a promising research topic in general. Although time is a constitutive
part of sports consumption, there has been only limited empirical analysis of the
determinants of time investments in recreational sports. This article focuses on revealing
the determinants of sports consumers’ travel time spending behaviour in recreational
sports. The study is based on survey data from two studies, one in Stuttgart and the
second in Cologne. By applying a Heckit model, several socio-demographic (e.g., gender,
age) and involvement (e.g., frequency a sport is practised) variables influencing the sports
consumers’ travel time investments are detected. Practical implications with regard to
sports facility management/planning (e.g., sports facility allocation as well as closure,
relocation and renovation of existing sports facilities) are discussed.
Constraints on leisure and recreation have become the subject of wide investigation in the leisure studies literature but have received little attention from recreation geographers. However, if geographical variables such as accessibility, mobility, and the relative location of recreational facilities and resources are conceived of as constraints, it becomes fruitful for geographers to approach these issues using frameworks that have been developed elsewhere in leisure studies. A secondary analysis of data from an Alberta survey (N = 4044) is used to investigate two geographical aspects of leisure constraints: (a) perceptions of the relative importance of geographical constraints versus other types of constraints; and (b) regional variations in the unfulfilled desire to participate in a new activity, the types of activities desired, and a set of 15 constraints items. The findings show that, while they affect recreational choices, geographical constraints are less influential than other types of constraints, such as cost, lack of time, and lack of facilities. Also, notwithstanding geographical variations in some constraints categories, other factors (e.g., respondents' age) play a stronger role in shaping perceptions of constraints on leisure. In turn, these findings suggest that recreation geographers could profit by adopting an interdisciplinary approach characterized by ties with other disciplines within the field of leisure studies.
Spatial accessibility measures are an important policy tool for managing healthcare provision and reducing health inequality. The two-step floating catchment area technique, in common with many alternative methodologies, requires that demand-side population be estimated using spatial interpolation techniques. This article studies the implications of adopting differing spatial representations of population on healthcare accessibility modeling outcomes. Results indicate that a dasymetric model yields lower accessibility scores than a standard pro rata model. More important, the difference is spatially disproportionate, suggesting that the degree of disadvantage experienced in rural areas may be greater than has previously been recognized.
Automated zone-design methods are increasingly being used to create zoning systems for a range of purposes, such as the release of census statistics or the investigation of neighbourhood effects on health. Inevitably, the characteristics originally underpinning the design of a zoning system (eg, population size or homogeneity of the built environment) change through time. Rather than designing a completely new system every time substantive change occurs, or retaining an existing system which will become increasingly unfit for purpose, an alternative is to modify the existing system such that zones which still meet the design criteria are retained, but those which are no longer fit for purpose are split or merged. This paper defines the first generic methodology for the automated maintenance of existing zoning systems. Using bespoke, publicly available, software (AZTool), the methodology is employed to modify the 2001 Census output geographies within six local authority districts in England and Wales in order to make them suitable for the release of contemporary population-related data. Automated maintenance of an existing system is found to be a more iterative and constrained problem than designing a completely new system; design constraints frequently have to be relaxed and manual intervention is occasionally required. Nonetheless, existing zone-design techniques can be successfully adapted and implemented to automatically maintain an existing system. The findings of this paper are of direct relevance both to the Office for National Statistics in their design of the 2011 Census output geographies for England and Wales and to any other countries or organisations seeking to maintain an existing zoning system.
The sharp increase in obesity in recent years has prompted researchers to examine the various pathways through which urban built environments influence population-level physical activity. Walking access to everyday destinations is one such pathway. This paper describes a measure of pedestrian access to neighbourhood destinations. Using eight domains of neighbourhood destinations (education, transport, recreation, social and cultural, food retail, financial, health, and other retail) we developed a GIS-based ‘Neighbourhood Destination Accessibility Index’ (NDAI) for four New Zealand cities. We found that the intensity of neighbourhood destination opportunities varied considerably among cities and between neighbourhoods within cities. Further, access to neighbourhood infrastructural support tends to be better in more socially deprived places. Potential explanations for the sociospatial distribution of neighbourhood destinations in New Zealand cities include historical processes of residential and economic development and infrastructural investment.
The increasing availability of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in health organisations, together with the proliferation
of spatially disaggregate data, has led to a number of studies that have been concerned with developing measures of access
to health care services. The main aim of this paper is to review the use of GIS-based measures in exploring the relationship
between geographic access, utilisation, quality and health outcomes. The varieties of approaches taken by researchers concerned
with teasing out the relative importance of geographical factors that may influence access are examined. To date, in the absence
of detailed data on health utilisation patterns, much of this research has focused on developing measures of potential accessibility.
This paper then critically evaluates the situation with regard to the use of such measures in a broad range of accessibility
studies. In particular, there has been less research to date that examines the relationship between such measures and health
outcomes. In the final sections of the paper, I draw on the review to outline areas where a broader research agenda is needed,
particularly in relation to more recent innovations in health care delivery.
Accessibility to health services at the local or community level is an effective approach to measuring health care delivery in various constituencies in Canada and the United States. GIS and spatial methods play an important role in measuring potential access to health services. The Three-Step Floating Catchment Area (3SFCA) method is a GIS based procedure developed to calculate potential (spatial) accessibility as a ratio of primary health care (PHC) providers to the surrounding population in urban settings. This method uses PHC provider locations in textual/address format supplied by local, regional, or national health authorities. An automated geocoding procedure is normally used to convert such addresses to a pair of geographic coordinates. The accuracy of geocoding depends on the type of reference data and the amount of value-added effort applied. This research investigates the success and accuracy of six geocoding methods as well as how geocoding error affects the 3SFCA method. ArcGIS software is used for geocoding and spatial accessibility estimation. Results will focus on two implications of geocoding: (1) the success and accuracy of different automated and value-added geocoding; and (2) the implications of these geocoding methods for GIS-based methods that generalise results based on location data.
This nationwide Swedish study used geocoded data from all businesses in Sweden to examine the distribution of 12 main categories of goods, services, and resources in 6986 neighborhoods, categorized as low, moderate, and high neighborhood deprivation. The main findings were that high- and moderate-deprivation neighborhoods had a significantly higher prevalence of all types of goods, services, and resources than low-deprivation neighborhoods. These findings do not support previous research that hypothesizes that poorer health among people in deprived neighborhoods is explained by a lack of health-promoting resources, although a higher presence of health-damaging resources may play a role.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the association of the availability of sports facilities and socioeconomic environment with jogging, swimming and gym use in Spain. The indicators of availability of sports facilities were the number of swimming pools and the number of gyms per 10,000 population. The indicators of socioeconomic environment were average provincial income and provincial unemployment rate. The number of sports facilities was not related with either swimming or gym use and the indicators of socioeconomic environment were not associated with swimming in either sex, or with gym use in men. The findings of this study do not support the hypotheses proposed in previous investigations to explain the consistent relation between socioeconomic environment and lack of physical activity.
Objectives:
This study investigated the correspondence between measures of physical activity facilities obtained through self-report and objective audits; and identified the socio-demographic, cognitive and behavioral characteristics of those who perceive their physical activity environment to be less supportive than objective measures indicate.
Methods:
Self-report surveys were completed by 1540 women recruited from 45 neighborhoods in Melbourne, Australia. Women reported perceived access to physical activity facilities within 2 km from home, and also socio-demographic, cognitive and behavioral factors. Objective data on physical activity facilities within a 2 km pedestrian catchment area around women's homes were sourced.
Results:
There was relatively poor agreement between measures of access to physical activity facilities obtained via self-report and objective assessment. Mismatch between perceived and objectively-assessed environments was more common amongst younger and older women, and women of low income, with low self-efficacy for physical activity, who were less active, who reported using fewer facilities and who had lived in the neighborhood for less than 2 years.
Conclusions:
Future studies of environmental determinants of physical activity should consider incorporating objective indices of access to facilities, or accounting for the systematic bias that may result from relying on self-report perceptions as an indicator of the actual physical activity environment.