Unveiling dialysis centers’ vulnerability and access inequality during urban flooding

Abstract

This study uses mobility data in the context of 2017 Hurricane Harvey in Harris County to examine the impact of flooding on access to dialysis centers. We examined access dimensions using static and dynamic metrics. The static metric is the shortest distance from census block groups to the closest centers. Dynamic metrics are: 1) redundancy (daily unique number of centers visited), 2) frequency (daily number of visits to dialysis centers), and 3) proximity (visits weighted by distance to dialysis centers). The results show that: the extent of dependence of regions on dialysis centers varies; flooding significantly reduces access redundancy and frequency of dialysis centers; regions with a greater minority percentage and lower household income were likely to experience extensive disruptions; high-income regions more quickly revert to pre-disaster levels; larger centers located in non-flooded areas are critical to absorbing the unmet demand from disrupted facilities.