Impact of Accessibility on Housing Prices in Dalian City of China Based on a Geographically Weighted Regression Model

This paper studies the relationship between accessibility and housing prices in Dalian by using an improved geographically weighted regression model and house prices, traffic, remote sensing images, etc. Multi-source data improves the accuracy of the spatial differentiation that reflects the impact of traffic accessibility on house prices. The results are as follows: first, the average house price is 12 436 yuan(RMB)/m^2, and reveals a declining trend from coastal areas to inland areas. The exception was Guilin Street, which demonstrates a local peak of house prices that decreases from the center of the street to its periphery. Second, the accessibility value is 33 minutes on average, excluding northern and eastern fringe areas, which was over 50 minutes. Third, the significant spatial correlation coefficient between accessibility and house prices is 0.423, and the coefficient increases in the southeastern direction. The strongest impact of accessibility on house prices is in the southeastern coast, and can be seen in the Lehua, Yingke, and Hushan communities, while the weakest impact is in the northwestern fringe, and can be seen in the Yingchengzi, Xixiaomo, and Daheishi community areas.

Association between Geographic Accessibility of Home Care Clinics and Hospitalization in Japan Using Geographic Information Systems and Insurance Claim Data

Measuring and improving home care clinic resource volume and geographic allocation are an important public health issue regarding prolonging home care system usage among disabled elderly people. This study examined clinic volume and accessibility’s association with hospitalization duration among disabled elderly people in 13 municipalities in Japan;additionally, this study compared clinic volume and accessibility’s ability to explain hospitalization duration in this population. Home care clinics’ service volume and geographic accessibility were calculated for 17 municipalities using public data and geographic information systems. We analyzed medical claim data from October 2012;the sample included 22,662 persons who were aged ≥75 years, certified as disabled in daily living, and lived in 13 municipalities regarding which data could be obtained for all examined municipality characteristics. Multilevel logistic models with random intercepts were constructed for municipalities and individual- and municipality-level independent variables in order to examine home care clinic volume and accessibility’s correlation with hospitalization duration. Clinic volume ranged from 0 to 9.53 per 10,000 elderly people;clinic accessibility ranged from 0% to 83%. Clinic volume and accessibility were both significantly negatively correlated with hospitalization duration of ≥10 days (odds ratios, 0.944 and 0.713;confidence intervals, 0.914 - 0.974 and 0.553 - 0.921, respectively). Clinics were not homogeneously geographically distributed;clinic accessibility explained hospitalization duration better than clinic volume. Clinic accessibility may more accurately indicate care clinic allocation appropriateness than clinic volume.

Geographic Access to Working Family Planning Centers and Unintended Pregnancies among Married Women: A Community Based Nested Case Control Study

Background: Unintended pregnancies pose substantial risk to mothers and children. In Pakistan, unintended pregnancies account for 46% of all pregnancies. Lack of geographic access to open and well-supplied family planning (FP) centers may be related to the occurrence of such pregnancies, particularly in rural areas. Objective: The objective of this analysis is to determine if geographic access to family planning centers in the Thatta district of Pakistan is related to unintended pregnancy rates among married women. Methods: We conducted a community-based, nested case-control study of 800 pregnant women identified from the database of an active surveillance system, which registers and follows all pregnant women in the catchment area of Thatta district. Women were enrolled during the first trimester;those that reported their pregnancy to be unintended were selected as cases (n = 200), and those whose pregnancies were intended served as controls (n = 600). We defined geographic access as including both the distance of a family planning center from the woman’s home, and availability of personal transportation. Logistic regression was used for analysis. Results: In the multivariate model, neither distance [OR = 1.0;95% CI (0.95 - 1.05)] nor availability of transportation [OR = 1.14;95% CI (0.78 - 1.67)] were significantly associated with unintended pregnancy. In fact, women with unintended pregnancies were more likely to be aware of family planning [OR = 2.21;95% CI (1.23 - 3.97)] and more likely to have been using a contraceptive method before conceiving their index pregnancy [OR = 3.59;95% CI (1.83 - 7.06)]. Other factors related to unintended pregnancy were older maternal age [OR = 1.13;95% CI (1.08 - 1.17)], having already had at least one son [OR = 3.13;95% CI (1.93 - 5.07)];spousal opposition to contraceptive use, [OR = 3.24;95% CI (1.89 - 5.56)] and low spousal education level [OR = 1.85;95% CI (1.08 - 3.18)] as compared to women with intended pregnancy. Conclusion: Lack of geographic access to FP centers is not a risk factor for unintended pregnancy in women from the Thatta district. However, in this population, unintended pregnancies are more common among older women, women having at least one son, and those who have a spouse who does not approve of contraceptive use, and is less educated. Of note, women who reported unintended pregnancy did have knowledge about FP and were more often using contraceptives before they conceived.

Modelling geographic accessibility to Primary Health Care Facilities:combining open data and geospatial analysis

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages is the 3rd Sustainable Development Goal(SDG).Inequality in access to health care remains one of the primary challenges in achieving the goal.With the ever-increasing expansion of urban areas and population growth,there is a need to regularly examine the pattern of accessibility of basic amenities across regions,States and urban areas.This study examined geographic access to Primary Health Care Facilities(PHCF)in Nigeria using the combination of open data and geospatial analysis techniques.Thus,showcasing an approach can be replicated across different regions in Sub-Saharan Africa due to issues of information gap.Data on elevation,location of health care facilities,population and network data were utilised.The result shows that PHCF aggregate at certain locations,e.g.major urban agglomerations,and transit route leading to these places.High concentrations are found in the capital city.The average travel time to the nearest PHCF is about 14 min(Standard Deviation±13.30 min)while the maximum is about 2 hours.Pockets of low accessibility areas exist across the Akwa Ibom State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.There is an indication that most places have good geographic access.Across the 1787 settlements identified in our dataset,98.3%are with good access(<30 min),27 settlements are located in the poor access class(31–60 min),while two settlements are within the very poor access class(>60 min).Geographic access is not the main limiting factor to health care access in the region.Therefore,computation of access to health care should take into consideration other dimensions of accessibility,to create a robust measure which will support effective and efficient health care planning and delivery.

Evolution and geographic effects of high-speed rail in East Asia： An accessibility approach

The rapid development of high-speed rail（HSR） is influencing regional development, regional structure, commuting, and regional integration. East Asia is the region with the world＇s first and largest current operating and planned HSR network. In this paper, we examine the evolutionary mechanism and impacts on the transport circle and accessibility of HSR in East Asia. The results indicate that the HSR network first follows a ＂core-core＂ model and then forms a corridor in Japan, South Korea, and China Taiwan, but then forms a complete network in China Mainland. The current operating HSR lines are mostly distributed in regions with developed economies and dense populations, and more than half of the population and GDP in China can be served by HSR within 1 hour＇s travel time. The planned HSR network will expand to the western region of China and Japan and the southern region of South Korea. The development of the current operating and planned HSR network considerably enlarges the transport circle of core cities, especially cities along trunk HSR lines. This 1 h transport circle of core cities has formed continuous regions in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Tokyo, Seoul, and along trunk HSR lines. The HSR network will bring about substantial improvement in accessiblity, but also increase the inequality of nodal accessibility in China Mainland. Spatially, the spatial patterns of the weighted shortest travel time of cities in China Mainland, Japan, and South Korea all present the ＂core-peripheral structure＂, taking Zhengzhou, Tokyo, and Seoul, respectively, as core cities, and cities located along the trunk HSR lines gain large improvement in accessibility.