Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data

Rural accessibility is the only metric used in the Sustainable Development Goals to track progress toward better transport services in low- and middle-income countries. This paper estimates the rural accessibility index, defined as the proportion o...

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Main Authors: Mikou, Mehdi, Rozenberg, Julie, Koks, Elco, Fox, Charles, Peralta Quiros, Tatiana
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/759461550242864626/Assessing-Rural-Accessibility-and-Rural-Roads-Investment-Needs-Using-Open-Source-Data
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31309
id okr-10986-31309
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-313092022-09-20T00:14:51Z Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data Mikou, Mehdi Rozenberg, Julie Koks, Elco Fox, Charles Peralta Quiros, Tatiana RURAL ACCESSIBILITY OPEN STREET MAP SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9 TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE DRONES INTERNET ACCESS ROADS CONNECTIVITY POPULATION DISTRIBUTION PAVED ROADS Rural accessibility is the only metric used in the Sustainable Development Goals to track progress toward better transport services in low- and middle-income countries. This paper estimates the rural accessibility index, defined as the proportion of the rural population who live within 2 kilometers of an all-season road, in 166 countries using open data. It then explores the cost of increasing the rural accessibility index in 19 countries, using an algorithm that prioritizes rural roads investments based on their impact on rural access and connectivity. Investment costs quickly balloon as the rural accessibility index increases, questioning the affordability of universal access to paved roads for many countries by 2030. If countries spent 1 percent of their gross domestic product annually on the upgrade of rural roads, even under optimistic assumptions on growth of gross domestic product, rural accessibility would only increase from 39 to 52 percent by 2030 across all developing countries. Alternative solutions to rural integration must thus be implemented in the short run until countries can afford to increase significantly access to all weather roads. For example, drones that supply regular food and medicine supply to remote communities are much more affordable than roads in the short term. 2019-02-21T15:36:44Z 2019-02-21T15:36:44Z 2019-02 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/759461550242864626/Assessing-Rural-Accessibility-and-Rural-Roads-Investment-Needs-Using-Open-Source-Data http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31309 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8746 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic RURAL ACCESSIBILITY
OPEN STREET MAP
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
DRONES
INTERNET ACCESS
ROADS
CONNECTIVITY
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
PAVED ROADS
spellingShingle RURAL ACCESSIBILITY
OPEN STREET MAP
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 9
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
DRONES
INTERNET ACCESS
ROADS
CONNECTIVITY
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
PAVED ROADS
Mikou, Mehdi
Rozenberg, Julie
Koks, Elco
Fox, Charles
Peralta Quiros, Tatiana
Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8746
description Rural accessibility is the only metric used in the Sustainable Development Goals to track progress toward better transport services in low- and middle-income countries. This paper estimates the rural accessibility index, defined as the proportion of the rural population who live within 2 kilometers of an all-season road, in 166 countries using open data. It then explores the cost of increasing the rural accessibility index in 19 countries, using an algorithm that prioritizes rural roads investments based on their impact on rural access and connectivity. Investment costs quickly balloon as the rural accessibility index increases, questioning the affordability of universal access to paved roads for many countries by 2030. If countries spent 1 percent of their gross domestic product annually on the upgrade of rural roads, even under optimistic assumptions on growth of gross domestic product, rural accessibility would only increase from 39 to 52 percent by 2030 across all developing countries. Alternative solutions to rural integration must thus be implemented in the short run until countries can afford to increase significantly access to all weather roads. For example, drones that supply regular food and medicine supply to remote communities are much more affordable than roads in the short term.
format Working Paper
author Mikou, Mehdi
Rozenberg, Julie
Koks, Elco
Fox, Charles
Peralta Quiros, Tatiana
author_facet Mikou, Mehdi
Rozenberg, Julie
Koks, Elco
Fox, Charles
Peralta Quiros, Tatiana
author_sort Mikou, Mehdi
title Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data
title_short Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data
title_full Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data
title_fullStr Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Rural Accessibility and Rural Roads Investment Needs Using Open Source Data
title_sort assessing rural accessibility and rural roads investment needs using open source data
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/759461550242864626/Assessing-Rural-Accessibility-and-Rural-Roads-Investment-Needs-Using-Open-Source-Data
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31309
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