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The growing concern for the shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs) prompted a government legislation to designate areas where shortage in the delivery of primary care services occurs. The implemented systems (e.g., HPSA, MUA, and MUP) analyze utilization of health services within confined administrative units and fail to account for spatial interactions that occur across administrative borders. This research examines the spatial accessibility to PCPs and the underlying demographic and socioeconomic settings. With the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as a study area, this study utilized data from the U.S. Census 2000 and 2010, as well as the known locations of (PCPs) collected in 2010. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provided the tools by which the processing and analysis of the data was carried out. Specifically, network analysis was applied to estimate travel time and service area coverage. A Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method was implemented to measure spatial accessibility to PCPs. This method was applied to measure accessibility at the level (census block) that most accurately represents the spatial population of the Nashville MSA. In addition, this research implemented several distance-decay functions in addition to the dichotomous function of the standard 2SFCA method. This research has found that the majority of the population residing in the Nashville MSA enjoyed good spatial accessibility to PCPs. However, the highest percentages of those resided in areas of low accessibility were located in periphery rural areas as well as isolated areas poorly connected to the roadway network due to certain physical barriers such as lakes and streams. Moreover, this research has found that, in general, non-spatial factors intensified the most where there was good accessibility to PCPs.

Vi lever i en urbaniserad värld och mer än hälften av jordens befolkning bor i städer globalt. God tillgång och tillgänglighet till bostadsnära grönområden har påvisats öka vår psykiska och fysiska hälsa. Världshälsoorganisationen (WHO) och Förenta nationerna (FN) har båda antagit program med mål att öka och säkra tillgängligheten till grönområden. I detta examensarbete jämförs fyra olika metoder för att analysera nuläget av tillgång och tillgänglighet i Falkenberg. Analysen genomförs i tre steg. I steg 1 definieras de grönområden som ingår i analysen. I steg 2 jämförs buffert- och nätverksanalys och i steg 3 beräknas tillgängligheten med 2 modeller av Two-Step Floating Catchment Area metoden (2SFCA). De polygonbaserade beräkningar som sker med buffert- och nätverksanalys beräknar tillgången ensidigt och beräknar den spatiala tillgängligheten eller befolkningstrycket på ett grönområde. Med 2SFCA-metoderna kombineras tillgången och efterfrågan i samma analys. Analysen finner att cirka 90 % av invånarna i Falkenberg har tillgång till bostadsnära grönområden inom 300 meter, dock är både tillgång och tillgänglighet lägre i de centrala delarna av tätorten. I studien jämförs traditionella metoder för att beräkna den spatiala tillgängligheten så väl som nyare metoder. 2SFCA-metoderna beräknas med och utan avståndsviktning. I vidare studier vore det intressant att implementera en kvalitetsaspekt där så väl ett grönområdes kvalitet som dess avstånd avgör attraktionskraft. / More than half of the world population live in cities or urban areas today. Urban green spaces (UGS) have been found to have an impact on the mental and physical well-being of urban citizens. The World health organisation (WHO) and United Nations (UN) both have set goals to increase and secure the accessibility to UGS, especially for children and young people. The aim of the study is to measure the spatial accessibility to UGS in Falkenberg, Sweden. The work consists of three steps. Step 1 is to define what constitutes a green space. Step 2 aims to compare buffer and network analysis to determine which method is best suited for the third step. Step 3 is to measure the accessibility by using the Two-step Floating Catchment Area Method (2SFCA) and thereafter integrate a Gaussian distance decay to the function and conduct the measures with the Enhanced two-step floating catchment area method (E2SFCA).  Step 2 finds that there is no major difference in access to green space between the buffer and network analysis as approximately 90 % of the population have access to green space within 300 meters from their home. In step 3 the implementation of the 2SFCA Method finds that 13 % has no access to UGS and 41 % has a low accessibility score. By introducing the distance decay function the population with low-mid to high-mid accessibility score increases as well as the overall accessibility. This is due to the nature of E2SFCA which does not treat the distance threshold dichotomous. Further studies could benefit from implementing a probability function to the E2SFCA method to incorporate the attraction to a UGS by using the qualitative values in combination with the distance.