Measuring Accessibility to Medical Centers in Isfahan City Using 2SFCA Method

One of the most important challenges facing policymakers and urban planners in recent decades is the issue of accessibility to a variety of urban services. The main purpose of this study was thecalculation of the accessibility of census blocks to medical centers using the Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method in Isfahan City. In the present study, according to the conditions with and without the limitations of the accessibility radii, different types of distance decay functions were used. The results showed that the 2SFCA method with the use of the cumulative opportunity negative linear function had the highest average of correlation for calculating accessibility to medical centers in comparison with other functions. Calculation of average accessibility in the 15 main regions of Isfahan City showed that the central regions (3, 1, and 5) had the highest decrease and the marginal regions (9, 8, and 11) had the highest increase in the unlimited compared to the limited mode. In general, based on the obtained results of 2SFCA method and the calculated Gini index, the level of inequality in accessibility of census blocks to health services was high in Isfahan City and this inequality increased in terms of accessibility to both hospitals and clinics. Since the extended 2SFCA method has a high capability for assessing supply and demand, as well as catchment area, application of this method can provide a great help for managers and planners in theassessment of the population’s access to a variety of services, such as emergency services and healthcare.