Measuring Spatial Equity of Public Facilities Using Residential -Level Data in a Developing Country

With the urbanization process accelerating, there is a remarkable phenomenon of spatial mismatch between public services and the beneficiaries which is caused by the unbalanced development of public facilities and residential differentiation. In developing country, it is very important to provide an equitable system of public facilities for all residents regardless of their socioeconomic status. This paper presents a framework for measuring residential-level data of education facilities with the assistance of geographical information systems. The framework is applied to evaluate objective spatial equity regarding the accessibility and residential strata to education facilities in the city of Chongqing in China. Availability of residential-level data was found to be essential for identifying differential accessibility of social groups according to residential characteristics as well as evaluating the accessibility based on statistical data at the administrative district level. The final results could be an important guide for the placement and management of public services.