Accessibility analysis of urban emergency shelters: Comparing gravity model and space syntax

Accessibility analysis of urban emergency shelters can help support urban disaster prevention planning. Traditional accessibility measure based on gravity model is considered as geographic accessibility. And the accessibility based on space syntax is considered as geometric accessibility. How these two accessibility measures work? Are there significant differences between the accessibility analysis results with these two methods? In this study, we attempt to measure the accessibility of emergency shelters within a certain walking time limit by using gravity model based on ARCGIS Network Analyst and space syntax. For geographic accessibility, we establish the OD cost matrix and calculate the accessibility indicators with gravity model. For geometric accessibility, the accessibility measure “integration” can be obtained through Axwoman 4.0. The accessibilities with these two methods are compared to investigate the similarity and difference. A case study has been implemented in Wuchang district, Wuhan city, China.