Building more inclusive cities through data science

Everyone should have access to hospitals, schools, and other essential services. Using data science and machine-learning techniques, a team at UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning has created a tool to encourage equitable policy and planning. 

image
Photo Credit: Steve Morgan / licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0   

Edited: June 24, 2022

In a fair society, everyone — young or old, high-income or low- — would have equal access to hospitals, schools and other essential services by public transit. Such a society may soon be within closer reach thanks to a new computer tool being developed and trialed at the University of British Columbia.

The tool enables cities to use open-source data and software to determine how investments in public transportation systems and essential service facilities could be distributed more equitably.

Driven by data science and machine learning techniques, the tool enables cities to use open-source data and software to determine how investments in public transportation systems and essential service facilities could be distributed more equitably.

“In every municipality, certain groups of people are unable to benefit from key service infrastructure as fully as others,” says Martino Tran, a professor at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning and director of the study. “By further developing these data science tools, the goal is to help cities better understand who these vulnerable groups are and make planning and policy decisions accordingly.”

Using the tool to analyze and compare Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, the team discovered that while Vancouver generally offers timelier access to hospitals and walk-in clinics by public transit — likely due to its compact size and the high density of both its population and transportation network — it also imposes higher transportation costs on its residents.

The study further found that all three cities can improve healthcare access for vulnerable populations like seniors and low-income residents — particularly seniors living in low-income areas, who not only must bear disproportionately high transportation costs, but also have specialized mobility and healthcare needs.

"The members of our communities who rely on transportation and healthcare services most heavily are the ones who have the greatest difficulty accessing them... our research and data tools aim to help better balance urban economic growth with the rights of marginalized people."

- Martino Tran, UBC School of Community and Regional Planning

“The members of our communities who rely on transportation and healthcare services most heavily are the ones who have the greatest difficulty accessing them,” says Tran. “As cities around the world spend billions of dollars overhauling their transportation systems, our research and data tools aim to help better balance urban economic growth with the rights of marginalized people.”

In addition to highlighting the diversity of mobility needs existing within cities, the study demonstrates the importance of open datasets to planning research. Relevant public data is currently housed in diverse repositories and formats, but gathering it into centralized repositories in consistent formats would go a long way towards helping planners make our communities more inclusive places in which to live.

The UBC team is currently developing a computer model that will help cities predict how specific planning and policy decisions would impact access to healthcare, education and even employment, including among underserved populations.    

Learn More

To learn more about equity-focused urban predictive analytics initiatives at UBC, visit Martino Tran's SCARP page or his website             

Explore Equity, Diversity, Inclusion + Indigeneity in UBC Applied Science

Commit to creating a community where human rights are respected and equity is embedded in all areas of academic, work and campus life.

Learn more about Applied Science EDI.I
UBC Crest The official logo of the University of British Columbia. Arrow An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Caret An arrowhead indicating direction. E-commerce Cart A shopping cart. Time A clock. Chats Two speech clouds. Facebook The logo for the Facebook social media service. Social Media The globe is the default icon for a social media platform. TikTok The logo for the TikTok social media platform. Calendar Location Home A house in silhouette. Information The letter 'i' in a circle. Instagram The logo for the Instagram social media service. Linkedin The logo for the LinkedIn social media service. Location Pin A map location pin. Mail An envelope. Telephone An antique telephone. Play A media play button. Search A magnifying glass. Arrow indicating share action A directional arrow. Speech Bubble A speech bubble. Star An outline of a star. Twitter The logo for the Twitter social media service. Urgent Message An exclamation mark in a speech bubble. User A silhouette of a person. Vimeo The logo for the Vimeo video sharing service. Youtube The logo for the YouTube video sharing service. Future of work A logo for the Future of Work category. Inclusive leadership A logo for the Inclusive leadership category. Planetary health A logo for the Planetary health category. Solutions for people A logo for the Solutions for people category. Thriving cities A logo for the Thriving cities category. University for future A logo for the University for future category.