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Local Geographic Variation of Public Services Inequality: Does the Neighborhood Scale Matter?

Author

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  • Chunzhu Wei

    (Department of Geoinformatics—Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Schillerstrasse 30, Salzburg 5020, Austria)

  • Pablo Cabrera-Barona

    (Department of Geoinformatics—Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Schillerstrasse 30, Salzburg 5020, Austria)

  • Thomas Blaschke

    (Department of Geoinformatics—Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Schillerstrasse 30, Salzburg 5020, Austria)

Abstract

This study aims to explore the effect of the neighborhood scale when estimating public services inequality based on the aggregation of social, environmental, and health-related indicators. Inequality analyses were carried out at three neighborhood scales: the original census blocks and two aggregated neighborhood units generated by the spatial “k”luster analysis by the tree edge removal (SKATER) algorithm and the self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm. Then, we combined a set of health-related public services indicators with the geographically weighted principal components analyses (GWPCA) and the principal components analyses (PCA) to measure the public services inequality across all multi-scale neighborhood units. Finally, a statistical test was applied to evaluate the scale effects in inequality measurements by combining all available field survey data. We chose Quito as the case study area. All of the aggregated neighborhood units performed better than the original census blocks in terms of the social indicators extracted from a field survey. The SKATER and SOM algorithms can help to define the neighborhoods in inequality analyses. Moreover, GWPCA performs better than PCA in multivariate spatial inequality estimation. Understanding the scale effects is essential to sustain a social neighborhood organization, which, in turn, positively affects social determinants of public health and public quality of life.

Suggested Citation

  • Chunzhu Wei & Pablo Cabrera-Barona & Thomas Blaschke, 2016. "Local Geographic Variation of Public Services Inequality: Does the Neighborhood Scale Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:10:p:981-:d:79735
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    1. Jared Abigail Valencia-Salvador & Fabio Humberto Sepúlveda-Murillo & Miguel Alfonso Flores-Sánchez & Norely Margarita Soto Builes, 2022. "Spatial Distribution of Social Inequality in the Metropolitan District of Quito, Ecuador," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 753-769, September.

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