Geography and Quality of Life in Argentine Regions: Socioeconomic and Environmental Inequalities

Abstract

One of the major attributes of the quality of life(QOL) concept is its intrinsic interdisciplinarycharacter. Therefore, in the last decades, qualityof life studies have arisen in a wide range ofscientific disciplines. In this context, the fundamentalperspective of the role that geographyplays in QOL research seems to be precise:Based on the geographer?s expertise, to studythe spatial variations and distribution of particular,relevant components and processes, and tosubsequently synthesize the acquired knowledge.In this work, we deepen and update a quality of life index, that we have been developing with the highest level of spatial disaggregation possible for Argentina since the 1980s: 511 departments of the 23 Argentine provinces and 15 communes of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (526 units in total). We processed and incorporated into the Geographic Information System (GIS) the latest census information available (October 2010), vital statistics and fieldwork, as well as the survey of other data sources throughout the territory. The quality of life index contemplates two dimensions: socioeconomic and environmental. The first one encompasses indicators related to education, health, and housing, while the environmental dimension, includes those linked to environmental problems, as well as those associated with landscape and the “socially constructed” amenities. The results obtained show that the socioeconomic and environmental differences of the Argentine population are of significant magnitude. A sort of “latitudinal” pattern is observed, traversed by a series of differentiations of another nature, associated with urban scale, centrality and accessibility, and public policies.