Impacts of seasonal flooding on geographical access to maternal healthcare in the Barotse Floodplain, Zambia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Seasonal floods pose a commonly-recognised barrier to women's access to maternal services, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. Despite their importance, previous GIS models of healthcare access have not adequately accounted for floods. This study developed new methodologies for incorporating flood depths, velocities, and extents produced with a flood model into network- and raster-based health access models. The methodologies were applied to the Barotse Floodplain to assess flood impact on women's walking access to maternal services and vehicular emergency referrals for a monthly basis between October 2017 and October 2018.

Methods

Information on health facilities were acquired from the Ministry of Health. Population density data on women of reproducti

SUBMITTER: Mroz EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10391775 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature