Spatial relationship between urban expansion and distribution of healthcare facilities in Morogoro municipality, Tanzania

Abstract

Background: The majority of the world's uninsured population,  1.3 billion individuals, reside in developing countries. Location disparity is a characteristic of the distribution of healthcare facilities in metropolitan regions of developing countries like Tanzania.  Spatial variation in urban expansion and population growth are critical factors influencing the establishment and distribution of healthcare facilities in urban areas.

Methods: Statistical regression techniques can be used to describe the relationship between the variables. To achieve the study's goal, a variety of techniques were used to evaluate the spatial relationship between urban growth and the distribution of healthcare services. Remote sensing data provides massive amounts of spatial data on urban expansion. Population projection and population density indexes were used to determine population growth. Using Morogoro Municipality as a case study, Geographically Weighted Regression was applied to facilitate efficient spatial assessment of the relationship between urban expansion and distribution of healthcare facilities.

 Results: The result shows that from 1990 to 2020 built-up increased from 3.9% to 18.9% of the total urban area of Morogoro Municipality while non-build class decreased from 96.1% to 81.9% of the total urban area of Morogoro Municipality. The overall coefficient determination R² was 0.599, 0.34 and 0.07 for the study period 2010-2020, 2000-2010 and 1990-2000 respectively showing that the explanatory power of variables urban expansion and population density was increasing with time.

Conclusion: The spatial relationship link of urban expansion and distribution of healthcare facilities in Morogoro Municipality within 30 years’ study period implies that there has been a progressive relationship between urban expansion and distribution of healthcare facilities during 1990-2000 there was a weak relationship same for 2000-2010 while 2010 -2020 exhibited a moderate relationship