Resumo

MORENO JIMENEZ, Antonio. Designing a socio-spatial need indicator for urban social services analysis and decision making. A case study. Invest. Geog [online]. 2015, n.87, pp.102-117. ISSN 2448-7279.  https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.43499.

Decision-making regarding social services requires, as a preliminary step, a knowledge of the needs and their spatial distribution, a particularly pressing need in under-developed areas or during periods of economic crisis. It must also be borne in mind that, having established such needs, proposals should involve and be inspired on major principles such as socio-territorial equity and efficiency, as well as those of social cohesion and socio-demographic sustainability which are often violated or sidestepped.

The task of measuring these social needs has been addressed from various disciplines (e.g. political science and public administration, economics, sociology, geography, marketing, urban planning, etc.) and with a variety of methods, owing to the wide diversity in the nature of such needs and because, in certain cases, they are elusive. Incorporating the spatial dimension adds a further challenge, but at the same time proves significantly useful for socio-spatial planning.

In line with this endeavour, this work examines the problem of estimating the needs that must be met by the municipal social service centres (CSS) of Madrid, which are set up as a civic facility to provide free assistance with social problems. Basically, they deliver information, guidance and help to resolve citizens' requests. Among their most conspicuous functions we can mention: a) Information on resources and social benefits: pensions, public grants, scholarships, infant schools, elderly people's homes, adult day-care centres, drug addiction treatment centres, minors, etc.; b) Management of social benefits, both financial (e.g. integration/insertion income), and service related (e.g. home assistance and tele-assistance); c) Social intervention, both individual and in groups; and d) Advisory services for organisations and associations operating in the field of social welfare.

For this purpose, an original statistical indicator for intraurban areas has been designed that is in keeping with the logic behind current use of the CSS and with the objectives for their provision. In short terms, it is assumed that the indicator should respond to the sum of several components generating current demand: on the one hand, the whole population, and on the other, the demographic segments most likely to have social needs: young people, the elderly and immigrants from less developed countries. The formal starting point for what we shall call the need-related or potential demand synthetic index (ISD) is the expression:

ISD = f (population, young people, the elderly and immigrants)

Each of the above components has been weighted. The weights of population groups are based on the proportion of actual users registered in one year. For the total population weight we have sought to take into account the important principle of spatial equity. As social needs, and by extension the propensity to use the CSS, spring up unevenly depending on socioeconomic status, we have postulated weighting the total population according to personal income. Consequently, the weight wpd, for a given area has been treated as a proportion of municipal income per capita with respect to that area, which may be a district or a small census unit (called census section). In formal terms:

Where RPCM = Income per capita in Madrid, and RPCd = Income per capita in the spatial unit d.

The formula finally adopted for the potential demand synthetic index for any spatial unit d, ISDd, is as follows:

Where:

Pd = Population of the spatial unit d,

wpd = Weight for population in zone d, according to its level of income per capita, as described above,

Jd = Number of young people in the spatial unit d,

Ad = Number of elderly people in the spatial unit d,

Id = Number of immigrants in the spatial unit d,

wjd = weight for the young people group (0.10),

wad = weight for the elderly people group (0.42),

wid = weight for the immigrants group (0.27).

The indicator has been applied experimentally, with the support of a geographical information system, to the city of Madrid in order to quantify the need for CSS in two types of spatial units, namely districts and census sections that provide complementary utilities for political actions.

The results reveal intraurban inequalities in this type of needs, and may serve to support public decision-making on the provision and location of these social resources. This work further includes a preliminary statistical study of the potentials and limitations of the indicator proposed for both spatial unit types.

Palavras-chave : Social needs; social indicator; social services; GIS; local public policies.

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