Evaluating Methodology for the Service Extent of Refugee Parks in Changchun, China

Xiaoling Li, Chunliang Xiu, Ye Wei and Hong S. He
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Xiaoling Li: School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China
Chunliang Xiu: College of Jang Ho Architecture, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110169, China
Ye Wei: School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China
Hong S. He: School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 14, 1-16

Abstract: Refugee parks are general parks that can serve as emergency shelters in cities. The core issue of refugee parks lies in their service extent they provided. Globally, the service extent of refugee parks is determined by the Euclidean or actual road network distance methods. The former lacks measurement accuracy, whereas the latter lacks the consideration of human dimension and proximity. Hence, we propose the nearest neighbor method, which considers not only the locations of refugee parks and sub-districts, but also road networks and census data. Using this method, we evaluated the service extent of refugee parks in Changchun, northern China. We compared our results with the Euclidean distance method. Results showed that the nearest neighbor method effectively accounted for the effect of road network resistance and results aligned with the refuge needs of residents. Differences in both methods were mainly affected by the size of the parks and local road network and population densities. The Euclidean approach determines the service extent based on a unified service radius, thus producing greater errors. The nearest neighbor method can reveal the spatial imbalance of refugee parks, as well as the mismatch between the park size and population distribution. Furthermore, the nearest neighbor method implements policies of spatial optimization of urban refugee parks. As a general method, it should be suited to different types of disasters.

Keywords: nearest neighbor method; gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area method; spatial layout of refugee parks; network analyst (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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