Planning the Equitable Distribution of Services in Emerging Regions: Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico, and Yinchuan, China

© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.This study developed a tool to assess spatial equity of services as an indicator of urban resilience for health contingencies. We hypothesized that spatial equity of services, such as parks and local stores, rather than density, plays a role in resilience to large-scale health crises since they are essential for enduring prolonged periods of reduced mobility. The tool, which is an integrated assessment of spatial equity based on proximity to services, density, and marginalization, was applied in two rapidly developing urban zones, one in Mexico and one in China. The assessment identified distressed zones most vulnerable in large-scale lockdowns and provided proposals for improving the spatial equity in those zones by prospective planning of service location. The study¿s significance was in providing a practical and easy-to-use spatial tool for assessing equity of services that can support informed planning and decision-making aimed at resilience in emerging regions with high densities. The aggregated effect of improving spatial equity of services at the local level can have significant impacts on achieving sustainable development goals by improving the resilience of cities and communities.