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Measuring rural access for SDG 9.1.1
Author(s) -
Workman Robin,
McPherson Kevin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
transactions in gis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.721
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9671
pISSN - 1361-1682
DOI - 10.1111/tgis.12721
Subject(s) - geospatial analysis , geography , population , sustainable development , consistency (knowledge bases) , environmental planning , environmental resource management , socioeconomics , business , cartography , computer science , environmental science , environmental health , political science , medicine , sociology , artificial intelligence , law
The Rural Access Index is a measure of access developed by the World Bank and has been incorporated into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as indicator 9.1.1. This measures the proportion of the rural population living within 2 km of an all‐season road, using GIS layers and relying on three data sources: population, road network location and condition. Open GIS data are used for population and road location, but there are challenges to define the all‐season status of roads. Every country measures road condition differently and against different parameters, which makes consistency of the all‐season status between countries difficult. This article reports on research to refine the GIS methodology for assessing SDG 9.1.1 to make it more sustainable, repeatable and consistent by using geospatial data and tools, based on trials in four countries—Ghana, Malawi, Myanmar and Nepal—which were selected for their diversity of environment and data.