Identifying socially vulnerable regions with persistent low accessibility to emergency care through a spatial decision framework

ABSTRACT

During an emergency, areas with high social vulnerability suffer the most. Identifying vulnerable areas with low access to emergency services will aid in prevention and response efforts when hazardous events strike. This paper utilises both the Two-Step Floating Catchment Area and the Enhanced Two-Step Floating Catchment Area methodologies of Geographic Information Systems to measure the accessibility levels for three emergency response thresholds: zero to four minutes, four to eight minutes, and eight to fifteen minutes. An accessibility measurement using the combination of those three response times, from zero to fifteen minutes, is also computed and studied. After investigating the accessibility measurements in light of the Centre for Disease Control’s Social Vulnerability Index, we identified seven tracts in Los Angeles County that are persistently very high in social vulnerability and very low in accessibility. The findings in this research will help to optimise resource utilisation and planning efforts during an emergency.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare spatial accessibility
• emergency care management
• social vulnerability
• Los Angeles County
• geographic information systems

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1. https://www.dsm.city/city_of_des_moines_gis_data/index.php. Accessed 5/12/2020.