Accessibility to essential services and facilities by aged population in the local government area of Monash: a GIS-based case study
Creators: name: Bai, Ju
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: Population aging is a global trend and a world-wide challenge to many governments, including the Australian government. To deal with challenges brought about by the unprecedented population ageing, the Australian government has taken an ‘ageing in place’ strategy, encouraging aged people to live in their own housing for as long as possible, with only minimal support from public authorities. <br><br>To ensure the effective implementation of the 'ageing in place' strategy, easy access to needed services/facilities to the aged population, and an adequate and efficient provision of these services/facilities to the aged population, policy makers would need accurate, up-to-date and reliable measures of: spatial variations in services and facilities provision; demand from the aged population; and access to these services/facilities by the aged population. However, to date, very little research has been undertaken to reveal the detailed, high resolution spatial variation in access to essential services and facilities by the aged population in Australia, especially in the metropolitan area.<br><br>Being able to access services/facilities outside of the home is deemed essential to one's well-being and quality of life. However, non-uniform spatial distribution of services and facilities, and the spatially dispersed aged population with restricted personal mobility often exhibit mismatches in certain parts of the urban space, often in locations towards the outskirts of major urban centres, where public transport infrastructure is inadequate and services and facilities are generally only readily accessible by car. For the aged people who are less able to drive or have already surrendered their driver’s licences and live in transportation disadvantaged areas, accessibility to a range of services and facilities will become a major issue for them. Due to difficulties associated with travelling outside their homes to access services and facilities, these aged people are more likely to be subjected to social exclusion.<br><br>Aiming at revealing fine resolution spatial variations in services and facilities provision to aged population in the local government area (LGA) of Monash in the Melbourne metropolitan area, this study applies GIS-based spatial analytical procedures, in conjunction with mesh block level 2011 population data, service/facility data and transportation network data, to measure and map spatial variations in potential accessibility to services and facilities deemed essential to the aged population. Service facilities considered in the study include bus stops, train stations, bank facilities, shopping centres, post offices, churches, parks, public libraries, community centres, pharmacies, GP clinics and hospitals in Monash LGA.<br><br>The approaches taken and the findings made in this study should be supportive to public policy makers, government and non-government service providers for the effective implementation and continuous improvement of the outcome of the ‘ageing in place’ strategy. It would also be useful to aged people and their family as a guidance to select their suitable place of residence. With proper modifications of the data sets and analytical settings, the methodology developed in this study would be applicable to other population groups, themes/issues/challenges, time periods and geographical settings.<br><br>