Evaluating medical convenience in ethnic minority areas of Southwest China via road network vulnerability: a case study for Dehong autonomous prefecture

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research

Liang Cheng¹  Wenwen Zong²  Xuejun Liu³  Xiaoyan Wei⁴  Lele Sun⁵  Yingying Pan⁶ 

[1] Collaborative Innovation Center for the South Sea Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;Collaborative Innovation Center of Novel Software Technology and Industrialization, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;Department of Geographic Information Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;Department of Geographic Information Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment (Nanjing Normal University), Ministry of Education, 210023, Nanjing, China;State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Geographical Environment Evolution (Jiangsu Province), 210023, Nanjing, China;Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, 210023, Nanjing, China;Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment (Nanjing Normal University), Ministry of Education, 210023, Nanjing, China;State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Geographical Environment Evolution (Jiangsu Province), 210023, Nanjing, China;Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, 210023, Nanjing, China;Yunnan Provincial Archives of Surveying and Mapping, 650034, Kunming, China;Yunnan Provincial Geomatics Centre, 650034, Kunming, China;School of Tourism and Geographical Sciences, Yunnan Normal University, 650500, Kunming, China;Yunnan Provincial Archives of Surveying and Mapping, 650034, Kunming, China;Yunnan Provincial Geomatics Centre, 650034, Kunming, China;

关键词: Ethnic minority areas;    Medical convenience;    Road network;    Vulnerability;    Mountainous areas;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-017-0702-z

 received in 2017-04-10, accepted in 2017-09-17,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSouthwest China is home to more than 30 ethnic minority groups. Since most of these populations reside in mountainous areas, convenient access to medical services is an important metric of how well their livelihoods are being protected.MethodsThis paper proposes a medical convenience index (MCI) and computation model for mountain residents, taking into account various conditions including topography, geology, and climate. Data on road networks were used for comprehensive evaluation from three perspectives: vulnerability, complexity, and accessibility. The model is innovative for considering road network vulnerability in mountainous areas, and proposing a method of evaluating road network vulnerability by measuring the impacts of debris flows based on only links. The model was used to compute and rank the respective MCIs for settlements of each ethnic population in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, in 2009 and 2015. Data on the settlements over the two periods were also used to analyze the spatial differentiation of medical convenience levels within the study area.ResultsThe medical convenience levels of many settlements improved significantly. 80 settlements were greatly improved, while another 103 showed slight improvement.Areas with obvious improvement were distributed in clusters, and mainly located in the southwestern part of Yingjiang County, northern Longchuan County, eastern Lianghe County, and the region where Lianghe and Longchuan counties and Mang City intersect.ConclusionsDevelopment of the road network was found to be a major contributor to improvements in MCI for mountain residents over the six-year period.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017