Spatial Equity Evaluation And Optimization Of Rural Eldercare Service Based On Accessibility

The increasing ageing of the rural population and the long-term mismatch in elderly care services have far-reaching effects on the rural economy,society,culture and politics,and represent a huge challenge for sustainable development in the new era.In the special period of urban-rural integration and development,the countryside is facing many challenges such as the widening gap between urban and rural areas and “getting old before getting rich”,etc.A scientific and reasonable response to the ageing of the rural population and the optimal allocation of elderly care services will not only help to achieve equity in the resources for elderly care services in the countryside,effectively alleviate social conflicts in the countryside,but also facilitate the further development of the Rural Revitalization Strategy.This paper takes rural elderly services as the research object,and selects Huan County in the Loess Hills area of Longdong as the research case area.Firstly,based on the data of rural elderly facilities and medical and health facilities at all levels,elderly population data and traffic and road network data,we analyze in depth the comprehensive degree of rural ageing while constructing a 500m×500m fine scale,and comprehensively analyze the spatial distribution of rural elderly population and elderly services in Huan County.The spatial accessibility of various types of rural elderly services was measured with the help of the Urban Network Analysis Tool(UNA)to clarify their spatial supply capacity and explore the spatial equity of their grid scale and village scale.Finally,12 relevant factors were selected to evaluate the suitability of optimizing rural elderly services and to propose optimizing countermeasures,the main findings of the study are as follows:(1)From the township scale,the comprehensive level of population ageing in Huan County varies significantly,with a general trend of increasing in a “circle-like”pattern from the center of the county to the periphery;in the 500m×500m grid constructed,it can be seen that the spatial distribution of the elderly population in Huan County is scattered and uneven,with the density gradually decreasing from south to north,and the central part forming a high-density distribution along the Huan River A high-density distribution belt running north-south is formed in the middle of the county along the Huanjiang River;the overall distribution of elderly services is“north-west-south-east”,with roads and rivers pointing in an obvious direction.(2)The supply capacity of rural elderly care services is spread out in a face-toface manner with the township center as the center of concentration,while the nearby townships form a contiguous area;however,there is a strong contrast between the strength and weakness of the supply capacity,with obvious differences.The accessibility of elderly care facilities in rural areas is generally higher than that of health care facilities,but the proportion of low accessibility of elderly care facilities(37.78%)is higher than that of health care facilities(16.88%).The number of accessible elderly facilities is distributed in a branch-like manner,with the accessibility of the central part of the county higher than that of the surrounding areas,while showing the spatial characteristics of multi-center clustering;whereas medical and health facilities form small aggregation points,with obvious differences in the hierarchy.(3)The overall spatial equity of rural elderly services is poor,with 42.05% of the elderly population on the grid scale having very low spatial equity in grid elderly services;on the village scale,there are 104 villages where demand > supply,accounting for 41.43% of the total number of villages.In terms of spatial distribution,spatial equity is better in the north of the county than in the south,and in the west than in the east,with a clear road tendency.The spatial equity of elderly facilities is higher than that of health care facilities,and there are large differences in equity within elderly facilities,with low-level equity dominating;there are small differences in equity within health care facilities.The spatial equity of rural elderly care services is affected by the rural elderly care model,the natural resource base,the "top-down" elderly care policy and the rural socio-economic situation.(4)By assigning weights to 12 indicators,including natural environment factor,residential area factor,spatial equity factor,transportation factor,accessibility factor,facilities factor and environment factor,the optimal suitable areas for rural elderly care services are calculated by superposition,and under the constraint of spatial barrier conditions,unsuitable optimal site selection areas,conditional optimal site selection areas and most suitable optimal site selection areas are formed,and optimal countermeasures are proposed for the optimization of suitability.