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PhD Dissertation.pdf (3.78 MB)

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Bringing Time into Measure of Food Access: Place vs. People

Chen, Xiang
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404313043

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Geography.
Access to healthful food is imperative to physical well-being and quality of life. Failing to acquire and consume healthful food on a regular basis would lead to a series of adverse health outcomes. To date, the majority of the literature concerns food access as a geographical problem and discusses the disparity in access from a pure spatial perspective. A previously overlooked facet in this interpretation is time. Time shapes food access from two distinct perspectives: place, such as opening hours of grocery stores, and people, such as time available for an individual to shop groceries. In this study, these two perspectives of time constraints are examined for a better understanding of how food procurement is impinged by both space and time barriers in the study area of Columbus, OH. From a place-based perspective, the study employs the 3D visualization method in a GIS (Geographic Information System) to illustrate the variation of food access across space and over time of a day. This space-time access to food is then formulated in a rigorous mathematical manner to differentiate access disparity by mode of travel and across geographic units with different levels of SES. From a people-based perspective, the study firstly examines people’s preference for food from their self-reported messages on social media, or specifically Twitter. With the spatiotemporally tagged Titter messages, individuals’ exposure to food environment in real time is examined to identify the correlation with their food preference. A second aspect of people-based measure pertains to travel behaviors in food procurement trips. This study investigates and formulates people’s daily travel trajectories in acquiring food, given their constraint of travel time, travel mode, and trip purposes. By including time as a determinant of food access from these two distinct perspectives, the study provides insights into how geographical methods can facilitate our understanding of the food access inequality across communities and between different social groups, and how time restricts individuals to make healthful food choices. The development of this temporal context for food science studies could assist public health professionals and government stakeholders in understanding the effects of time and improving food access for communities with limited food suppliers in policy formulation.
Morton O'Kelly (Advisor)
Ningchuan Xiao (Committee Member)
Jill Clark (Committee Member)
Desheng Liu (Committee Member)
148 p.
Food Science; Geographic Information Science; Geography
food access; food deserts; accessibility; GIS; time geography; geovisualization; VGI

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chen, X. (2014). Bringing Time into Measure of Food Access: Place vs. People [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404313043

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chen, Xiang. Bringing Time into Measure of Food Access: Place vs. People. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404313043.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chen, Xiang. "Bringing Time into Measure of Food Access: Place vs. People." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1404313043

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1404313043
811
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.