Zimbabwe - Accessibility Indicators
Humanitarian Data Exchange · 2026 Full Details
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Full Details
- Title
- Zimbabwe - Accessibility Indicators
- Description
- This dataset provides insights into spatial accessibility to healthcare and education services across Zimbabwe. It has been created using free and open tools such as [openrouteservice](https://openrouteservice.org/) and open data sources, primarily [OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/) (OSM). To assess accessibility to education and healthcare, we use travel-time isochrones—polygons representing areas reachable within a given time or distance by car. We overlay these isochrones with [WorldPop](https://www.worldpop.org/) population data, which provides 100m-resolution estimates. This allows us to calculate the population within time intervals from 10 to 120 minutes away from hospital services and distance intervals from 5 to 50 km away from schools. The unit of analysis is defined by [geoboundaries](https://www.geoboundaries.org/) country borders, and where available we also summarise results at finer administrative levels (ADM 1-4). Data Structure: - **name**: Region or country name. - **iso**: ISO3 country code. - **id**: Unique identifier for the administrative unit. - **country**: ISO3 country code. - **admin_level**: Administrative level of the unit. - **category**: Service category — `education`, `hospitals` or `primary_healthcare`. - **range_type**: Method used for the catchment zone — `distance` or `time`. - **range**: Distance (in meters) or Time away (in seconds) from schools used to generate the polygon. - **population**: Total population within the specified range. - **school_age_population**: Number of school-age individuals within the range. - **school_age_population_share**: Cumulative percentage of school-age population. - **school_age_population_interval**: Incremental school-age population added in the current distance band. - **school_age_population_interval_share**: Proportion of new school-age population in the current interval. - **population_share**: Cumulative percentage of total population. - **population_interval**: Incremental population added in the current distance band. - **population_interval_share**: Share of the total population represented by the current interval. This dataset is one of many [HeiGIT exports on HDX](https://data.humdata.org/organization/heidelberg-institute-for-geoinformation-technology). See the [HeiGIT](https://heigit.org/) website for more information. We are looking forward to hearing about your use-case! Feel free to reach out to us and tell us about your research at [communications@heigit.org](mailto:communications@heigit.org) - we would be happy to amplify your work. References: - [Geldsetzer, P., Reinmuth, M., Ouma, P. O., Lautenbach, S. et al. (2020)](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(20)30010-6/fulltext) - [Petricola, S., Reinmuth, M., Lautenbach, S. et al. (2022)](https://ij-healthgeographics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12942-022-00315-2) - [Klipper, I. G., Zipf, A., and Lautenbach, S. (2021)](https://agile-giss.copernicus.org/articles/2/4/2021/) - [Ruiz Sánchez, R., Reinmuth, M., Albornoz, C., Lautenbach, S., and Zipf, A. (2025)](https://agile-giss.copernicus.org/articles/6/10/2025/) Further Information: - [Open Access Lens](https://giscience.github.io/open-access-lens/#/) **Limitations**: * **OSM Completeness**: This analysis relies on OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. While OSM is the most complete open map of the world, data quality varies significantly by region. In areas with unmapped roads or facilities, accessibility may be underestimated. * **Population Estimates**: Population counts are derived from WorldPop top-down estimates (constrained). These are statistical models based on census projections and satellite imagery, not direct census counts, and may contain inaccuracies at the local pixel level. * **Travel Time Assumptions**: Isochrones are calculated using standard vehicle speeds for different road types. These models do not account for real-time traffic, seasonal weather conditions (e.g., flooding), or road surface degradation. * **Boundary Precision**: Administrative boundaries are sourced from geoBoundaries. These may differ slightly from official government demarcations or other schemas.
- Creator
- HeiGIT
- Publisher
- Humanitarian Data Exchange
- Temporal Coverage
- 2026-01-04
- Date Issued
- 2025-12-19
- License
- http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by-sa
- Access Rights
- Public
- Date Added
- January 15, 2026
- Provenance Statement
- The metadata for this resource was last retrieved from Humanitarian Data Exchange on 2026-01-15.
Location
Cite and Reference
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Citation
HeiGIT (2025). Zimbabwe - Accessibility Indicators. Humanitarian Data Exchange. (dataset) -
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