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arXiv · 2511.07475

From Hubs to Deserts: Urban Cultural Accessibility Patterns with Explainable AI

Protik Bose Pranto·Minhazul Islam·Ripon Kumar Saha·Abimelec Mercado Rivera·Namig Abbasov
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Abstract

Cultural infrastructures, such as libraries, museums, theaters, and galleries, support learning, civic life, health, and local economies, yet access is uneven across cities. We present a novel, scalable, and open-data framework to measure spatial equity in cultural access. We map cultural infrastructures and compute a metric called Cultural Infrastructure Accessibility Score (CIAS) using exponential distance decay at fine spatial resolution, then aggregate the score per capita and integrate socio-demographic indicators. Interpretable tree-ensemble models with SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) are used to explain associations between accessibility, income, density, and tract-level racial/ethnic composition. Results show a pronounced core-periphery gradient, where non-library cultural infrastructures cluster near urban cores, while libraries track density and provide broader coverage. Non-library accessibility is modestly higher in higher-income tracts, and library accessibility is slightly higher in denser, lower-income areas.

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Protik Bose Pranto, Minhazul Islam, Ripon Kumar Saha, Abimelec Mercado Rivera, Namig Abbasov. 2025-11-08. From Hubs to Deserts: Urban Cultural Accessibility Patterns with Explainable AI. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07475

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