Enhancing Spatial Allocation of Pediatric Medical Facilities for Reduced Travel-Related CO 2 Emissions: A Case Study in Tianjin, China

Hongjie Dong, He Zhang (), Rui Wang, Yutong Zhang, Yuxue Zhang and Lisha Zhang
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Hongjie Dong: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
He Zhang: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Rui Wang: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Yutong Zhang: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Yuxue Zhang: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Lisha Zhang: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-29

Abstract: Due to the limited availability of medical facilities and the urgency and irreplaceability of medical-seeking behaviors, the transportation processes used to access these resources inherently result in high carbon emissions. Unfortunately, pediatric medical facilities are among the least substitutable destinations, making it challenging to reduce travel-related CO 2 emissions by traditional means such as decreasing travel frequency or optimizing transportation means. This study proposes enhancing the spatial allocation of pediatric medical facilities to effectively reduce travel-related CO 2 emissions. This study selects 27 hospitals with pediatric departments in Tianjin as the research subject. It introduces a model for measuring travel-related CO 2 emissions for pediatric medical-seeking, STIRPAT, and ridge regression models as well as conducts simulations under various scenarios to test the hypotheses. Therefore, methods for enhancing the spatial allocation of pediatric medical facilities are proposed. The results show that (1) travel-related CO 2 emissions for pediatric medical-seeking are the highest in the city center, outpatient-related CO 2 emissions surpass inpatient ones, and children’s hospital-related CO 2 emissions are higher than those related to comprehensive hospitals, from which potential carbon reduction points can be explored; (2) children’s hospitals with multibranch and composite functional allocations can significantly reduce CO 2 emissions; (3) comprehensive hospitals can further alleviate CO 2 emissions from children’s hospitals by enhancing the medical level, transportation infrastructure, population distribution, and other spatial environmental factors; (4) from the perspective of low-carbon travel and equity, a spatial allocation strategy should be adopted for children’s hospitals that includes multiple branches and composite functions, while comprehensive hospitals should focus on service capacity, parity, supply–demand ratio, and the population density of children.

Keywords: low-carbon travel; pediatric medical facilities; medical-seeking behavior; spatial allocation; equity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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