Utilisation of Geo-Spatial Technology to Study the Variation in Access of Urban Health Care Centres in Kamrup Metropolitan, Assam, India

Abstract

AbstractNowadays, Geographic information system (GIS) has become a more efficient technology in applications of many fields in medical research. As health is always the primary concern of human beings, everyone wishes to access better health care for his family. As an emerging tool to solve every complex query in various fields of earth sciences, social sciences as well as in medical sciences. GIS plays a vital role in storing, monitoring, mapping, managing and developing huge amounts of spatial and non-spatial data. Recent increases in the availability of GIS and its modelling approaches have provided a base for the planning of different public services in a metropolitan context. Kamrup Metropolitan of Assam has been selected as the area of interest for the study. The present study aims to show the distribution pattern of all health centres, hospitals including government and private sector, accessibility to the health care centre from different population concentration zones. The study also identifies those locations which are vulnerable with respect to having fewer number of hospitals using geospatial technology. The study aims to the planning and management of the city to avail of a better health facility for the residents, as well as outsiders, which will lead to the smartest development of the city. A Geodatabase has been created which includes the total numbers of government and private health centres along with spatial and non-spatial attribute data, population distribution of the district and road networks. The study involves the use of some basic GIS functions like: Network analysis, proximity analysis, vulnerability analysis, as well as statistical analysis, using ARC GIS, QGIS software. The vulnerability analysis will give us a general conception about the need of health care centres for the city, as the use of geospatial technology can solve complex public issues.KeywordsGeographic information system (GIS)Health care centrePopulation concentration ZoneNetwork analysisHotspot analysis