An accessibility-based integrated measure of relative spatial equity in urban public facilities

The achievement of equity in the distribution of urban public facilities is a goal of paramount importance to urban planners, who must analyze whether and to what degree their distribution is equitable. Recent efforts have probed into the equity of one type of facility, leaving an overall examination unconsidered. In this paper, integrated equity indices with which planners can analyze the relative equity status of facility distributions are presented, integrating GIS and spatial analysis models. Ren-de, Taiwan is the test site for this prototype method, and results show it allows users to understand the characteristics of spatial equity both for disaggregated and aggregated levels, and it demonstrates significant differences between urban public facilities. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.