SPATIAL INEQUALITIES IN BASIC SERVICE ACCESSIBILITY IN THE HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS: A GEOSPATIAL ASSESSMENT OF SAMBA DISTRICT, J&K, INDIA

Abstract

Equitable access to basic services like transport, law enforcement, healthcare, banking, and fire safety is a fundamental determinant of well-being and regional development, particularly in the ecologically fragile and topographically diverse tracts of the north-western Himalayan foothills. This study presents a geospatial assessment of the spatial distribution and accessibility of six categories of basic amenities including bus stops, police stations, primary health centres (PHCs), Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Bank branches, fire stations, and HDFC Bank ATMs — across Samba district, Jammu Province, India. Locations of 56 individual facilities were geo-tagged using GPS-referenced coordinates and mapped in ArcGIS. Euclidean buffer-zone analysis was performed around police stations, primary health centres, and fire stations to delineate service-coverage envelopes, and the resulting layers were overlaid on a Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) classification of the district to evaluate accessibility in relation to settlement pattern and terrain. The results show a pronounced core–periphery gradient: amenities cluster along the National Highway corridor and around the twin industrial-urban nodes of Samba town and Bari Brahmana, while the northern hill tracts (Purmandal, Uttervani, Nud) and the southern border belt adjoining Pakistan remain comparatively underserved, with wider buffer gaps for emergency-response facilities. Of the district's 17 primary health centres, only two fire stations (three sub-units) and six police stations exist, a facility-to-area ratio that leaves large tracts beyond a reasonable emergency-response radius. The findings echo wider evidence from the Himalayan region that low-lying, well-connected plains areas enjoy lower vulnerability and better service access than remote and hilly tracts, and they underscore the need for terrain-sensitive, equity-oriented planning of public infrastructure. The study offers a replicable GIS-based framework for identifying service-accessibility gaps and provides an evidence base for future facility siting in Samba district and comparable sub-montane regions of the Himalaya.