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The accessibility ecosystem is a vast interconnected system and concept that includes businesses and individuals directly and indirectly
Accessibility is a key factor that contributes to the probable and most profitable use of a facility or service. Accessibility links people with places, goods with markets and communities to vital services. Accessibility - whether it is to markets, schools, hospitals or water - is a precondition for the satisfaction of almost any economic need. Furthermore, accessibility is relevant at all levels, from local development to global trade.
Accessibility mapping can range from travel time to a city to availability of a ramp at a local facility. Access can be the catalyst for a better world for every person and organization in our interconnected world – and it begins in the heart! It is a technique for assessing, measuring, and depicting accessibility for members of a community and audience to identify, get to, navigate, interact with, make use of, experience, understand, or take advantage of physical facilities, infrastructures, systems, products, and services by means adaptable and appropriate to their level of physical or mental ability or situation. These maps can illustrate the juxtaposition of places of available resources to places with demonstrated need and potential.
80.7% of the Earth's population lives within one hour of a city, but accessibility varies by wealth. In high-income countries 90.7% of the population lives within an hour of a city compared to just 50.9% in low-income countries. A new global map of accessibility has been produced by University of Oxford, based on the previous map by Nelson et al, with support from the JRC through the RoadLess Forest project. Below is the Global Map of Accessibility, an interactive map to show the population of the world living within an hour of a city.
For more information on this project and/or to download the data, go to www.map.ox.ac.uk/accessibility_to_cities. You can view the interactive map just here.
