Abstract
Measuring change in the spatial arrangement of deprivation over time, and making international, inter-city comparisons, is technically challenging. Meeting these challenges offers a means of furthering understanding and providing new insights into the geography of urban poverty and deprivation. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to mapping and analysing spatio-temporal patterns of household deprivation, assessing the distribution at the landscape level. The approach we develop has advantages over existing techniques because it is applicable in situations where i) conventional approaches based on choropleth mapping are not feasible due to boundary change and/or ii) where spatial relationships at a landscape level are of interest. Through the application of surface mapping techniques to disaggregate census count data, and by applying spatial metrics commonly used in ecology, we were able to compare the development of the spatial arrangement of deprivation between 1971 and 2011 in three UK cities of particular interest: Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool. Applying three spatial metrics – spatial extent, patch density, and mean patch size – revealed that over the 40 year period household deprivation has been more spatially dispersed in Glasgow. This novel approach has enabled an analysis of deprivation distributions over time which is less affected by boundary change and which accurately assesses and quantifies the spatial relationships between those living with differing levels of deprivation. It thereby offers a new approach for researchers working in this area.
Highlights
Measuring change in the spatial arrangement of deprivation over time, and making international inter-city comparisons, is technically challenging
The approach could, be applied to any situation in which there is a need to examine the spatial distribution of population or population characteristics at landscape level over time, where boundary changes have occurred which preclude using the same areal units over time, and/or where the nature of the areal units for which data are available differs between study areas
In 1971 Liverpool did not have any areas with high levels of all the indicators. This does not mean that households in Liverpool were exempt from experiencing high levels of household deprivation in 1971; rather it indicates that there were no areas in which all three indicators coincided at a high level
Summary
Measuring change in the spatial arrangement of deprivation over time, and making international inter-city comparisons (i.e. comparing cities from different countries), is technically challenging. To meet these challenges, this study created and tested a new approach by drawing together two existing techniques not applied to this field before. The methods used to conduct spatial analysis of Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 72 (2018) 124–133 poverty and deprivation have evolved; a key feature of such maps remains that they demonstrate that poverty and deprivation are not randomly distributed across urban areas – they are spatially arranged Examining this spatial arrangement has furthered understanding of deprivation and poverty and, importantly, their impact on urban populations.
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