Accessibility to sport facilities in Wales: A GIS-based analysis of socio-economic variations in provision

Abstract

Previous studies concerned with investigating the relationship between levels of physical activity and aspects of the built environment have often led to inconsistent and mixed findings concerning associations between the availability of recreational or sport facilities and area socio-economic status. Further complications may arise when analysis is conducted separately for access to either publicly available or private facilities or where alternative methodological approaches to measuring accessibility are adopted. This paper provides a review of such research before exploring the potential use of methods for examining variations in accessibility based on enhanced floating catchment area (FCA) models which are increasingly being advocated in medical geography applications. Using bespoke tools developed within a commercial GIS package, which are being made publicly available by the authors, and a national database of sport facilities, variations in accessibility are investigated in relation to a widely used measure of deprivation in the UK. Findings from this analysis suggest that whilst those living in deprived areas of Wales have greater potential access to publicly available sporting opportunities, associations with privately owned facilities are reversed for some distance thresholds and at different spatial scales. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the implications of such findings given current financial pressures on local government and other sport and leisure providers and highlights how spatial analytical techniques can be used to monitor such trends.

Learning about spatial inequalities: Capturing the heterogeneity in the urban environment

“…A different behavior can be verified by the spatial pattern of accessibility to sport facilities. Higgs;Langford;Norman (2015) highlight the importance of measuring the proximity with sport facilities as a proxy of the quality of life and interaction.…”

Emerging third-sector sports organisations and navigating uncertainty in an ‘era of austerity’: a single ethnographic case study from Liverpool

“…Income deprivation has also been found to have a considerable effect on young people's access to sport and exercise in Liverpool, although the issue is not confined to this specific city. Variable access to financial resources and sports facilities have been found to promote health inequalities with respect to involvement in sport and physical activity in a number of cities across the UK, including: Glasgow (Macintyre et al 2008), Bristol (Jones et al 2009), Manchester (Blakeley and Evans 2013), Norwich (Panter et al 2008), Birmingham (Collins and Kay 2014), Cardiff (Higgs et al 2015) and Liverpool . The connection between income deprivation and youth access to sport in British localities is often dependant on whether the context is urban or rural, the travel-time threshold, and whether the facilities are private or public (Kelly, 2010).…”

“…The connection between income deprivation and youth access to sport in British localities is often dependant on whether the context is urban or rural, the travel-time threshold, and whether the facilities are private or public (Kelly, 2010). However, few studies have examined the type and quality of sport facilities in relation to the socio-economic status of the respective locality from a UK perspective (Higgs et al 2015).…”

Investigating spatial variations in access to childcare provision using network‐based Geographic Information System models

“…FCA techniques have recently been used to study spatial accessibility to primary health care (Bauer, Müller, Brüggmann, & Groneberg, 2017;Langford, Higgs, & Fry, 2016), food stores (Chen, 2017), libraries (Guo, Chan, & Yip, 2017), green spaces (Xing, Liu, Liu, Wei, & Mao, 2018), and sporting infrastructure (Higgs, Langford, & Norman, 2015). However, very few studies to date have applied E2SFCA to examine the spatial implications of variations in access to childcare or wider educational opportunities.…”