A user-based approach for assessing spatial equity of attractiveness and accessibility to alternative urban parks

ABSTRACT

Spatial equity in access to urban services is a significant element of sustainable urban planning. To date, a service-based index is used to measure service attractiveness, considering attractiveness as a static concept. While from the user side view, service attractiveness is a dynamic concept related to the variation of different opportunities of users to use the services and capacities. In this paper, a user-based method for measuring service attractiveness is proposed. In this approach, the attractiveness of service for a user is modeled as a function of the user’s Travel Times (TT), Free Times (FTs), park size and relative positions of the user, local demanding population, and service. Then, the inequity of attractiveness of services for different users has been examined using three inequity indices including the Duration of Use (DU), Frequency of Visit (FV), and the Chance of Space Choice (CSC). The proposed method is applied to urban regional parks of Tehran municipality. Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs) and regional parks are respectively regarded as the users and services. In addition to considering inequity of access to the first closest park, the additional cost of accessing to the other two closest parks is also considered. Results show that the proposed method leads to the exploration of the existing inequities of DU, FV, and CSC among residents in local scales, whereas in the service-based method, all users of a service are highlighted with a single value of attractiveness. Comparison of the user-based and service-based attractiveness indices show significant differences. As an example, user-based attractiveness values of about 14% and 20% of TAZs are respectively 5 and 3 square meters more than that of the service-based attractiveness index. However, the service-based method is suitable for regional-scale comparison of the inequities. Therefore, the proposed index can complement the service-based index for inequity mapping and management in varying scales.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial equity and inequity
• service-based attractiveness index
• user-based attractiveness index
• Duration of Use
• Frequency of visits
• Chance of Space Choice
• Tehran
• Urban regional parks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study were derived from the following resources available in the public domains: “https://map.tehran.ir”; “https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7138432,51.3396774,12z” and “https://www.amar.org.ir”. These data are also available from the corresponding author, Alimohammadi, A. upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Tahere Ghaemi Rad

Tahereh Ghaemi Rad is a PhD candidate in GIS Dept. of the Faculty of Geomatics Engineering. She received the Master degree from the Center of Excellence in Geospatial Information Technology, K.N.Toosi University of Technology. Her research interests are spatial/social equity analysis and smart city problems.

Abbas Alimohammadi

Abbas Alimohammadi is an emeritus professor in GIS Dept. and Center of Excellence in Geospatial Information Technology, Faculty of Geomatics Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology. He received the PhD degree from the Australian National University. His research interests are spatial data science, GIS/spatial analysis and modeling, spatial optimization and data mining in urban and environmental modeling problems.