Rapidly Measuring Spatial Accessibility of COVID-19 Healthcare Resources: A Case Study of Illinois, USA

**Author**: Jeon-Young Kang 1,2, Alexander Michels 1,3, Fanzheng Lyu1,2, Shaohua Wang1,2 , Nelson Agbodo4, Vincent Freeman5, Shaowen Wang1,2,3,*

1 CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, Urbana, Illinois
2 Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois
3 Illinois Informatics Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois
4 Division of Health Data and Policy, Illinois Department of Public Health, Springfield, Illinois
5 Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

* Corresponding author: shaowen@illinois.edu

CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies

CyberInfrastructure & Geospatial Information Laboratory

Reference

Kang, J. Y., Michels, A. C., Lyu, F., Wang, S., Agbodo, N., Freeman, V. L., & Wang, S. (2020). Rapidly Measuring Spatial Accessibility of COVID-19 Healthcare Resources: A Case Study of Illinois, USA. medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.06.20093534

Objectives

This aims to measure spatial access for people to hospitals in Illinois. The spatial accessibiilty is measured by the use of an enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2FCA) method (Luo & Qi, 2009), which is an outcome of interactions between demands (i.e, # of potential patients; people) and supply (i.e., # of beds or physicians). As a result, the map of spatial accessibility will be produced. It identifies which regions need more healthcare resources, such as the number of beds or physicians. This notebook would serve as a guideline of which regions need more beds for fighting against COVID-19.

Data

To perform the ESFCA method, three types of data are required, as follows: (1) road network, (2) population, and (3) hospital information. The road network can be obtained from the OpenStreetMap Python Library, called OSMNX. The population data is available on the American Community Survey. Lastly, hosptial information is also publically available on the Homelanad Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data.

Method - An enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2FCA)

The catchement area for each hospital will be delineated by travel times. People living in the overlappying regions by multiple hospitals' catchment area are more accessible to hospitals than people living in other places.

Codes

import necessary librareis to run this model.

In [1]:
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import geopandas as gpd
import networkx as nx
import osmnx as ox
from shapely.geometry import Point, LineString, Polygon
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from tqdm import tqdm
import multiprocessing as mp
import itertools, os, time, warnings

warnings.filterwarnings("ignore")

The followings are necessary functions to run the E2FCA method.

In [2]:
# network setting
# the road networks obtained open street map often do not include speed limits at some road segments. 
# So, this function helps to set up the speed limits on each road segment
def network_setting(network):
    for u, v, k, data in tqdm(G.edges(data=True, keys=True),position=0):
        if 'maxspeed' in data.keys():
            speed_type = type(data['maxspeed'])
            if (speed_type==str):
                if len(data['maxspeed'].split(','))==2:
                    data['maxspeed']=float(data['maxspeed'].split(',')[0])                  
                elif data['maxspeed']=='signals':
                    data['maxspeed']=35.0 # drive speed setting as 35 miles
                else:
                    data['maxspeed']=float(data['maxspeed'].split()[0])
            else:
                data['maxspeed']=float(data['maxspeed'][0].split()[0])

        else:
            data['maxspeed']= 35.0 #miles

        data['maxspeed_meters'] = data['maxspeed']*26.8223 # convert mile to meter
        data['time'] = float(data['length'])/ data['maxspeed_meters']
    
    print('network setting is done')
    return(network)
In [3]:
# set hospitals on OSMNX street network
def hospital_setting (hospitals):
    hospitals['nearest_osm']=None
    hospitals['value'] = None
    for i in tqdm(hospitals.index, desc="Find the nearest osm from hospitals", position=0):
        point = [hospitals['LATITUDE'][i], hospitals['LONGITUDE'][i]]
        nearest_osm = ox.get_nearest_node(G, point, method='euclidean') # find the nearest node from hospital location
        hospitals['nearest_osm'][i] = nearest_osm
        hospitals['value'][i] = hospitals['BEDS'][i]
    print ('hospital setting is done')
    
    return(hospitals)
In [4]:
# to estimate the centroids of zipcode
def pop_centroid (pop_data, pop_type):
    pop_data = pop_data.to_crs({'init': 'epsg:4326'})
    
    if pop_type== "pop":
        pop_data=pop_data[pop_data['pop']>=0] 
    
    if pop_type== "covid":
        pop_data=pop_data[pop_data['cases']>=0]
    
    pop_cent = pop_data.centroid # it make the polygon to the point without any other information
    
    pop_centroid = gpd.GeoDataFrame()
    i = 0
    for point in tqdm(pop_cent, desc='Pop Centroid File Setting', position=0):
        zip_code = pop_data.iloc[i].ZCTA5CE10

        if pop_type== "pop":
            pop = pop_data.iloc[i]['pop']
        
        if pop_type=="covid":
            pop = pop_data.iloc[i]['cases']

        geometry = point
        pop_centroid = pop_centroid.append({'zip_code': zip_code,
                                            'pop': pop,
                                            'geometry': geometry}, ignore_index=True)
        i = i+1
        
    print ('population setting is done')
    return(pop_centroid)
In [5]:
def hospital_measure_acc(_thread_id, hospital, pop_data, network):
    ## find nodes within 10 mins
    road_network_10 = nx.ego_graph(G,hospital['nearest_osm'],10, distance='time') 
    node_points_10 = [Point((data['x'], data['y'])) for node, data in road_network_10.nodes(data=True)]
    polygon_10 = gpd.GeoSeries(node_points_10).unary_union.convex_hull ## to create convex hull
    poly_10 = gpd.GeoDataFrame(gpd.GeoSeries(polygon_10)) ## change polygon to geopandas
    poly_10 = poly_10.rename(columns={0:'geometry'}).set_geometry('geometry') 
        
    ## find nodes within 20 mins 
    road_network_20 = nx.ego_graph(G, hospital['nearest_osm'],20, distance='time') 
    node_points_20 = [Point((data['x'],data['y'])) for node, data in road_network_20.nodes(data=True)]
    polygon_20 = gpd.GeoSeries(node_points_20).unary_union.convex_hull ## to create convex hull
    poly_20 = gpd.GeoDataFrame(gpd.GeoSeries(polygon_20)) ## change polygon to geopandas
    poly_20 = poly_20.rename(columns={0:'geometry'}).set_geometry('geometry')
        
    ## find nodes within 30 mins 
    road_network_30 = nx.ego_graph(G, hospital['nearest_osm'],30, distance='time')
    node_points_30 = [Point((data['x'],data['y'])) for node, data in road_network_30.nodes(data=True)]
    polygon_30 = gpd.GeoSeries(node_points_30).unary_union.convex_hull ## to create convex hull
    poly_30 = gpd.GeoDataFrame(gpd.GeoSeries(polygon_30)) ## change polygon to geopandas
    poly_30 = poly_30.rename(columns={0:'geometry'}).set_geometry('geometry')
        
    #extract not overlapping regions between 10mins and 20 mins - > 10-20 mins convex hull
    poly_10_20 = gpd.overlay(poly_20, poly_10, how='difference') 
    #extract not overlapping regions between 20mins and 30 mins; 20-30 mins convex hull
    poly_20_30 = gpd.overlay(poly_30, poly_20, how='difference')
        
    num_pops = []
        
    for j in pop_data.index:
        point = pop_data['geometry'][j]
            
        if (point.within(polygon_10)): # find the centroid within 10 mins convex hull
            pop_value = pop_data['pop'][j]
            num_pops.append(pop_value) 
            
        if len(poly_10_20)>0: # to exclude the weirdo (convex hull is not polygon)
            if (point.within(poly_10_20.iloc[0]['geometry'])): # find the centroid within 10- 20 mins convex hull
                pop_value = round(pop_data['pop'][j]*0.68)
                num_pops.append(pop_value)
            
        if len(poly_20_30)>0: # to exclude the weirdo (convex hull is not polygon)
            if (point.within(poly_20_30.iloc[0]['geometry'])): # find the centroid within 20-30 mins convex hull
                pop_value = round(pop_data['pop'][j]*0.22)
                num_pops.append(pop_value)
   
    total_pop = sum(num_pops)
        
    poly_10['time']=10
    poly_10['total_pop'] = total_pop
    poly_10['hospital_value']=hospital['value'] # number of beds
    poly_10['value'] = poly_10['hospital_value']/poly_10['total_pop'] # proportion of # of beds over pops in 10 mins
        
    poly_10_20['time']=20
    poly_10_20['total_pop']= total_pop
    poly_10_20['hospital_value']=hospital['value'] # number of beds
    poly_10_20['value'] = poly_10_20['hospital_value']/poly_10_20['total_pop'] # proportion of # of beds over pops in 10-20 mins
        
    poly_20_30['time']=30
    poly_20_30['total_pop']= total_pop
    poly_20_30['hospital_value']=hospital['value'] # number of beds
    poly_20_30['value'] = poly_20_30['hospital_value']/poly_20_30['total_pop'] # proportion of # of beds over pops in 20-30 mins
        
    # set up the projection (WGS 84)
    poly_10.crs ={'init': 'epsg:4326'} 
    poly_10_20.crs ={'init': 'epsg:4326'}
    poly_20_30.crs ={'init': 'epsg:4326'}
        
    # change the projection to UTM (for matching with GRID FILES)
    poly_10 = poly_10.to_crs({'init':'epsg:32616'})
    poly_10_20 = poly_10_20.to_crs({'init':'epsg:32616'})
    poly_20_30 = poly_20_30.to_crs({'init':'epsg:32616'})
    
    return(_thread_id, [poly_10, poly_10_20, poly_20_30])

def hospital_acc_unpacker(args):
    return hospital_measure_acc(*args)

def measure_acc_par (hospitals, pop_data, network, num_proc = 4):
    ##distance weight = 1, 0.68, 0.22
    
    output_10 = gpd.GeoDataFrame()
    output_20 = gpd.GeoDataFrame()
    output_30 = gpd.GeoDataFrame()
    
    pool = mp.Pool(processes = num_proc)
    hospital_list = [ hospitals.iloc[i] for i in range(len(hospitals)) ]
    results = pool.map(hospital_acc_unpacker, zip(range(len(hospital_list)), hospital_list, itertools.repeat(pop_data), itertools.repeat(network)))
    results.sort()
    results = [ r[1] for r in results ]
    
    for i in range(len(results)):
        output_10 = output_10.append(results[i][0], sort=False)
        output_20 = output_20.append(results[i][1], sort=False)
        output_30 = output_30.append(results[i][2], sort=False)
        
    output_10 = output_10[output_10['value']!=float('inf')] #some hospitals do not have centroid within its catchment area.
    output_20 = output_20[output_20['value']!=float('inf')]
    output_30 = output_30[output_30['value']!=float('inf')]
    return output_10, output_20, output_30  
In [6]:
from collections import Counter
def overlap_calc(_id, poly, grid_file, weight):
    if type(poly.iloc[0]['value'])!=type(None):           
            value = float(poly['value'])*weight
            intersect = gpd.overlay(grid_file, poly, how='intersection')
            intersect['overlapped']= intersect.area
            intersect['percent'] = intersect['overlapped']/intersect['area']
            intersect=intersect[intersect['percent']>=0.5]
            intersect_region = intersect['id']
            value_dict = Counter()
            for intersect_id in intersect_region:
                try:
                    value_dict[intersect_id] +=value
                except:
                    value_dict[intersect_id] = value
    return(_id, value_dict)

def overlap_calc_unpacker(args):
    return overlap_calc(*args)

def overlapping_function (grid_file, acc10, acc20, acc30, num_proc = 4):
    
    grid_file['value']=0
    weights = [1.0, 0.68, 0.22]
    time_stamps = [ time.perf_counter() ]
    
    pool = mp.Pool(processes = num_proc)
    acc_list = [ acc10[i:i+1] for i in range(len(acc10)) ] + [ acc20[i:i+1] for i in range(len(acc20)) ] + [ acc30[i:i+1] for i in range(len(acc30)) ]
    acc_weights = [weights[0]]*len(acc10) + [weights[1]]*len(acc20) + [weights[2]]*len(acc30)
    results = pool.map(overlap_calc_unpacker, zip(range(len(acc_list)), acc_list, itertools.repeat(grid_file), acc_weights))
    results.sort()
    results = [ r[1] for r in results ]
    res = results[1]
    for result in results[1:]:
        res += result
    for intersect_id, value in res.items():
        grid_file.loc[grid_file['id']==intersect_id, 'value'] += value
    time_stamps.append(time.perf_counter())
    print(f"ACC Ran in: {(time_stamps[len(time_stamps)-1]-time_stamps[len(time_stamps)-2]):0.4f} seconds")
    
    grid_file.to_crs({'init': 'epsg:4326'})
    return(grid_file)
In [7]:
def output_map (output_grid, base_map, hospitals):
    ax=output_grid.plot(column='normal_value', cmap='Blues', figsize=(12,8), legend=True, zorder=1)
    base_map.plot(ax=ax, facecolor="none", edgecolor='black', lw=0.2)
    ax.text(-88, 41.68, "Legend", fontsize=13)
    ax.text(-88, 41.65, "+ : hospital", fontsize=12)
    if hospitals is not None:
        ax.scatter(hospitals.LONGITUDE, hospitals.LATITUDE, marker="+",zorder=1, c='black', s=50)

Load and Visualize Data

Population and COVID-19 Cases Data by County

In [8]:
pop_data = gpd.read_file('./Data/PopData/Chicago_ZIPCODE.shp')
pop_data.head()
Out[8]:
ZCTA5CE10 County State Join ZONE ZONENAME FIPS pop cases geometry
0 60660 Cook County IL Cook County IL IL_E Illinois East 1201 43242 78 POLYGON ((-87.65049 41.99735, -87.65029 41.996...
1 60640 Cook County IL Cook County IL IL_E Illinois East 1201 69715 117 POLYGON ((-87.64645 41.97965, -87.64565 41.978...
2 60614 Cook County IL Cook County IL IL_E Illinois East 1201 71308 134 MULTIPOLYGON (((-87.67703 41.91845, -87.67705 ...
3 60712 Cook County IL Cook County IL IL_E Illinois East 1201 12539 42 MULTIPOLYGON (((-87.76181 42.00465, -87.76156 ...
4 60076 Cook County IL Cook County IL IL_E Illinois East 1201 31867 114 MULTIPOLYGON (((-87.74782 42.01540, -87.74526 ...

Hospital Data

Note that 999 is treated as a "NULL"/"NA" so these hospitals are filtered out. We also only kept hospitals which would treat civilian COVID-19 cases, meaning we filtered out psychiatric, military, and rehab sites.

In [9]:
hospitals = gpd.read_file('./Data/HealthCareData/Hospital_Chicago.shp')
hospitals = hospitals[hospitals['BEDS']!=-999]
hospitals = hospitals[hospitals["TYPE"].isin(["GENERAL ACUTE CARE", "CRITICAL ACCESS","LONG TERM CARE"])]
hospitals.head()
Out[9]:
OBJECTID ID NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP ZIP4 TELEPHONE TYPE ... WEBSITE STATE_ID ALT_NAME ST_FIPS OWNER TTL_STAFF BEDS TRAUMA HELIPAD geometry
2 1516 0003660628 ROSELAND COMMUNITY HOSPITAL 45 W 111TH STREET CHICAGO IL 60628 NOT AVAILABLE (773) 995-3000 GENERAL ACUTE CARE ... http://www.roselandhospital.org 140068 NOT AVAILABLE 17 NON-PROFIT -999 115 NOT AVAILABLE N POINT (-87.62536 41.69223)
3 1517 0002360302 WEST SUBURBAN MEDICAL CENTER 3 ERIE COURT OAK PARK IL 60302 NOT AVAILABLE (708) 383-6200 GENERAL ACUTE CARE ... http://www.westsuburbanmc.com/Home.aspx 140049 NOT AVAILABLE 17 PROPRIETARY -999 172 NOT AVAILABLE N POINT (-87.77618 41.89140)
4 1890 0002860402 MACNEAL HOSPITAL 3249 SOUTH OAK PARK AVENUE BERWYN IL 60402 NOT AVAILABLE (708) 783-9100 GENERAL ACUTE CARE ... http://www.macneal.com 140054 NOT AVAILABLE 17 PROPRIETARY -999 371 LEVEL II N POINT (-87.79216 41.83198)
5 1891 0011760634 COMMUNITY FIRST MEDICAL CENTER 5645 W ADDISON CHICAGO IL 60634 NOT AVAILABLE (773) 282-7000 GENERAL ACUTE CARE ... http://www.presencehealth.org 140251 NOT AVAILABLE 17 NON-PROFIT -999 279 NOT AVAILABLE N POINT (-87.76784 41.94545)
6 4116 0007360612 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS HOSPITAL 1740 WEST TAYLOR ST, SUITE 1400 CHICAGO IL 60612 NOT AVAILABLE (312) 996-3900 GENERAL ACUTE CARE ... http://www.hospital.uillinois.edu/ 140150 NOT AVAILABLE 17 GOVERNMENT - STATE -999 483 NOT AVAILABLE N POINT (-87.67052 41.86967)

5 rows × 33 columns

Generate and Plot Map of Hospitals

In [10]:
import folium, random
sites_cat = hospitals['TYPE'].unique().tolist() # Obtain the type of schools
sites_dict = {}
rd_color =["#"+''.join([random.choice('0123456789ABCDEF') for j in range(6)]) 
                 for i in range(len(sites_cat))]   # generate random color based on the types of schools
for i in range(len(sites_cat)):    
    hospitals.loc[hospitals['TYPE'] == sites_cat[i], 'color'] = rd_color[i]   # set value for color column
    sites_dict[sites_cat[i]] = rd_color[i]
m = folium.Map(location=[41.85, -87.65], tiles='cartodbpositron', zoom_start=11) 
for i in range(0, len(hospitals)):
    folium.CircleMarker(
      location=[hospitals.iloc[i]['geometry'].y, hospitals.iloc[i]['geometry'].x],
      popup="{}\n{}".format(hospitals.iloc[i]['NAME'],hospitals.iloc[i]['BEDS']),
      radius=5,
      color='grey',
      weight=0.1,
      fill=True,
      fill_color=hospitals.iloc[i]['color'],
      fill_opacity=0.6,
      legend_name = 'Hospitals'
    ).add_to(m)

legend_html =   '''<div style="position: fixed; width: 20%; heigh: auto;
                            bottom: 10px; left: 10px;
                            solid grey; z-index:9999; font-size:14px;
                            ">&nbsp; Legend<br>'''
color_leg = ""
for key, value in sites_dict.items():
    color_leg += '&nbsp; <i class="fa fa-circle" style="font-size:10px;color: '+ value + '"></i>' +'&nbsp;'
    color_leg += key + '<br>'
legend_html += color_leg + '</div>'''
m.get_root().html.add_child(folium.Element(legend_html))
m.save('img/Chicago_hospitals_interactive_map.html')

Load and Plot Hexagon Grids (500-meter resolution)

In [12]:
grid_file = gpd.read_file('./Data/GridFile/Chicago_Grid.shp')
grid_file.plot(figsize=(8,8))
Out[12]:
<matplotlib.axes._subplots.AxesSubplot at 0x1a22483710>

Load and Plot the Street Network

In [13]:
if not os.path.exists("Data/Chicago_Network.graphml"):
    G = ox.graph_from_place('Chicago', network_type='drive')
    ox.save_graphml(G, 'Chicago_Network.graphml', folder="Data")
else:
    G = ox.load_graphml('Chicago_Network.graphml', folder="Data", node_type=str)
G = network_setting (G)
ox.plot_graph(G, fig_height=10)
100%|██████████| 75957/75957 [00:00<00:00, 622165.62it/s]
network setting is done
Out[13]:
(<Figure size 632.291x720 with 1 Axes>,
 <matplotlib.axes._subplots.AxesSubplot at 0x1a3b0e15f8>)

Run the model

In [14]:
import ipywidgets
from IPython.display import display
population_dropdown = ipywidgets.Dropdown(
    options=[("General Population", "pop"), ("COVID-19 Patients", "covid") ],
    value = "pop",
    description = "Population to Measure Accessibility of: ",
)
display(population_dropdown)
In [15]:
##### NUMBER OF PROCESSORS #####
NUM_PROC = 4

print("Calculating Accessibility for {}".format(population_dropdown.label))
start_time = time.perf_counter()
grid_file = gpd.read_file('./Data/GridFile/Chicago_Grid.shp')
pop_data = gpd.read_file('./Data/PopData/Chicago_ZIPCODE.shp')
zip_data = gpd.read_file('./Data/PopData/Chicago_ZIPCODE.shp')
pop_data = pop_centroid(pop_data,population_dropdown.value)
hospitals = gpd.read_file('./Data/HealthCareData/Hospital_Chicago.shp')
hospitals = hospitals[hospitals['BEDS']!=-999]
hospitals = hospitals[hospitals["TYPE"].isin(["GENERAL ACUTE CARE", "CRITICAL ACCESS","LONG TERM CARE"])]
hospitals = hospital_setting(hospitals)
G = ox.load_graphml('Chicago_Network.graphml', folder="Data", node_type=str)
G = network_setting (G)
output_10, output_20, output_30 = measure_acc_par(hospitals, pop_data, G, NUM_PROC)
result=overlapping_function (grid_file, output_10, output_20, output_30, NUM_PROC)

## normalization of accessibility measure
result['normal_value'] = (result['value']- min(result['value']))/(max(result['value'])-min(result['value']))

result = result.to_crs({'init': 'epsg:4269'})
print("Total Time: {}".format(time.perf_counter()-start_time))
Calculating Accessibility for General Population
Pop Centroid File Setting: 100%|██████████| 86/86 [00:00<00:00, 270.32it/s]
Find the nearest osm from hospitals:   0%|          | 0/41 [00:00<?, ?it/s]
population setting is done
Find the nearest osm from hospitals: 100%|██████████| 41/41 [00:02<00:00, 17.65it/s]
hospital setting is done
100%|██████████| 75957/75957 [00:00<00:00, 580201.22it/s]
network setting is done

ACC Ran in: 41.7781 seconds
Total Time: 135.730793274

Accessibility Results

In [16]:
result
Out[16]:
left top right bottom id area geometry value normal_value
0 440843.416087 4.638515e+06 441420.766356 4.638015e+06 4158 216661.173 POLYGON ((-87.71312 41.89411, -87.71140 41.896... 0.004850 0.920472
1 440843.416087 4.638015e+06 441420.766356 4.637515e+06 4159 216661.168 POLYGON ((-87.71307 41.88961, -87.71135 41.891... 0.004907 0.931306
2 440843.416087 4.639515e+06 441420.766356 4.639015e+06 4156 216661.169 POLYGON ((-87.71322 41.90312, -87.71150 41.905... 0.004902 0.930434
3 440843.416087 4.639015e+06 441420.766356 4.638515e+06 4157 216661.171 POLYGON ((-87.71317 41.89861, -87.71145 41.900... 0.004926 0.934940
4 440843.416087 4.640515e+06 441420.766356 4.640015e+06 4154 216661.171 POLYGON ((-87.71332 41.91212, -87.71160 41.914... 0.004902 0.930434
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
3274 440843.416087 4.643015e+06 441420.766356 4.642515e+06 4149 216661.175 POLYGON ((-87.71357 41.93464, -87.71185 41.936... 0.004715 0.894957
3275 440843.416087 4.644515e+06 441420.766356 4.644015e+06 4146 216661.183 POLYGON ((-87.71372 41.94815, -87.71200 41.950... 0.004690 0.890062
3276 440843.416087 4.644015e+06 441420.766356 4.643515e+06 4147 216661.155 POLYGON ((-87.71367 41.94364, -87.71195 41.945... 0.004677 0.887661
3277 440843.416087 4.645515e+06 441420.766356 4.645015e+06 4144 216661.179 POLYGON ((-87.71382 41.95715, -87.71210 41.959... 0.004559 0.865188
3278 440843.416087 4.645015e+06 441420.766356 4.644515e+06 4145 216661.182 POLYGON ((-87.71377 41.95265, -87.71205 41.954... 0.004504 0.854794

3279 rows × 9 columns

In [17]:
if not os.path.exists("Result"):
    os.makedirs("Result")
result.to_file('./Result/ACC_Chicago_2018_ZIP_POP.shp')

Visualization & Conclusion

The black dots represent hospitals. People living in the darker-colored regions are more accessible to the hospitals than those living in the lighter-colored regions. To cope with this health inequality issue, policy makers need to consider about placing more hospitals in the ligher-colored regions. This can also be applicable to COVID-19. To be more specific, people living in southern Chicago are less accessible to get tested and to be hospitalized, under assumption that people are more likely to visit to the nearby hospitals from their home.

In [18]:
def output_map (output_grid, base_map, hospitals):
    ax=output_grid.plot(column='normal_value', cmap='Blues', figsize=(12,8), legend=True, zorder=1)
    base_map.plot(ax=ax, facecolor="none", edgecolor='black', lw=0.2)
    ax.text(-88, 41.68, "Legend", fontsize=13)
    ax.text(-88, 41.65, "+ : hospital", fontsize=12)
    if hospitals is not None:
        ax.scatter(hospitals.LONGITUDE, hospitals.LATITUDE, marker="+",zorder=1, c='black', s=50)
In [19]:
output_map(result, zip_data, hospitals)