Geojournal of Tourism and Geosites | 2026
Authors: Montoya J.A.; Escobar D.A.; Galindo-Diaz J.
DOI: 10.30892/gtg.65234-1739
Journal: Geojournal of Tourism and Geosites
Year: 2026
Publisher: Editura Universitatii din Oradea
Document Type: Article
Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access
Cited by: 0
This study assesses the accessibility and coverage of primary facilities in Cartagena and Buenaventura, two Colombian port cities that share comparable socioeconomic profiles but exhibit contrasting urban conditions. The aim is to examine how socioeconomic classification shapes equity in access to opportunities, emphasizing the role of territorial configuration in shaping everyday access to essential services. The methodological approach integrates geographic accessibility modelling with detailed spatial analysis of sociodemographic variables, combining travel-time estimations to healthcare, education, and community facilities with the assessment of population distribution and the spatial concentration of infrastructure. This integrated framework allows the identification of territorial inequalities and highlights how urban form and service allocation interact to condition access to basic opportunities. The results show that Buenaventura faces considerably lower accessibility levels, driven by limited road connectivity, fragmented urban development, population dispersion, and a reduced supply of primary facilities, all of which generate persistent structural gaps that constrain social development and diminish quality of life. Cartagena, in contrast, benefits from a more consolidated infrastructure network and a denser distribution of services, despite sharing similar economic constraints, which reveals that disparities are shaped less by port-city status and more by long-term planning trajectories, investment patterns, and institutional capacity. The interpretation of these findings underscores the urgency of adopting equitable territorial planning strategies that respond to the specific needs of each city, promoting more balanced access to essential urban services in development in port-city environments. © 2026 by the authors.
accessibility; equity; geostatistic; port cities; socioeconomic stratification