Locality Service Review and Planning with GIS: A Pilot Study of Spatial Analysis of Poverty Data in Hong Kong

Although the potential utilization of geographical information system (GIS) technologies in social service planning at a community level has been suggested for more than a decade, actual applications are still rare. This article reports on a pilot study in which service user records of a short-term food assistance project operated in Hong Kong are mapped and analyzed using a geographical information system. Spatial analysis of the data set reveals an understanding of the problem of poverty in the served region that may not be observed by using conventional statistical analyses. The visualization of service data makes information more comprehensible to practitioners and community stakeholders, and helps create an empowering environment in the service review and planning processes. The project is suggested to have demonstrated a new method in locality service planning.