Delineating Functional Regions and Application in Health Geography

• Published in: Computational Methods and GIS Applications in Social Science - Lab Manual pp. 87 - 108
• Main Authors: Liu, Lingbo, Wang, Fahui
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom CRC Press 2024; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Column Selection; Block Group; ESDA; Spatial Adjacency Matrix; Python Script; Configuration Nodes; Component Parameters; Polygon Feature Class; Origin Id; Spatial Weights; Top Input; Zip Code Area; Case Study 4A; Case Study 4B; Input Port; Joiner Node; Bottom Input; Block Group Area; CSV File; Census Block Group; Left Table; Thiessen Polygons; Huff Model; Hospital Service Areas; File Path
• ISBN: 9781032302430; 1032302437
• DOI: 10.1201/9781003304357-4

A functional region is an area around a node, facility, or hub connected by a certain function (e.g., retail distribution, health care service, advertisement for a media company, or telecom coverage). By defining a functional region, a distinctive market area has a geographic boundary that encompasses many smaller areas more closely connected than beyond. Defining functional regions is a classic task in geography. It can be as straightforward as the proximal area method that assigns areas to their nearest facility, or the Huff model that accounts for the joint effects of facility sizes and their distances from residents. Unlike these two popular methods, two other approaches, the Refined Dartmouth Method and Spatialized Network Community Detection Methods, utilize observed service flows between areas to define functional regions, here hospital service areas (HSAs) in the case studies.