Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


ucin1337351602.pdf (2.45 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Improving the USDA's Definition of Food Deserts via a Spatial Interaction Approach A Case Study of Hamilton County, Ohio

Ning, Jingwei
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1337351602

Abstract Details

2012, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Geography.
Adequate consumption of healthy and high-quality foods is essential for the prevention and management of public health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. Access to healthy foods is a critical public-health concern, and, consequently, there is an increasing interest in mapping the food environment and identifying food deserts, or those areas where people have significantly limited access to retail sources of healthy, nutritious and affordable food because of spatial distance and/or socioeconomic deprivation. In May 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a food desert locator that pinpoints the location of food deserts across the country by census tract units. A clear definition of “food deserts”, together with the criteria and methods applied for the identification were announced, based on the national-level analysis conducted by the Economic Research Service (ERS-USDA). A census tract that qualifies as both a “low-income community” and as a “low-access community” is defined as a food desert. However, the arbitrary criteria for identifying the “low-access community” have been criticized for their inability to account for both the detailed spatial variations of population demand and food supply within the aggregated geographic units (census tracts), and the interactions between them. To address these criticism and evaluate the integrity of the USDA’s definition of food deserts, this study applies a GIS-based two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method to measure spatial accessibility to food sources, employing a higher resolution grid-based population data, and identifying what comprises a “low-access community” based on the weighted mean of accessibility scores at the census tract level. Combining this with the same criteria for the “low-income community”, the modified spatial interaction based approach is utilized to assess the local food environment in Hamilton County, Ohio. Differences between the re-identified food-desert census tracts and the official “food deserts” as defined by the USDA is demonstrated, the examination of which argues for improvements in identification practices currently in use by the USDA. The proposed method in this study has the potential to help policy makers or community planners to more explicitly identify and delineate food deserts, thus enabling greater accuracy and identification of the real problems in local food environments.
Lin Liu, PhD (Committee Chair)
Changjoo Kim, PhD (Committee Member)
Kevin Raleigh, PhD (Committee Member)
82 p.
Geography
Food Deserts; Food Access; Spatial Accessibility; GIS; ; ;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ning, J. (2012). Improving the USDA's Definition of Food Deserts via a Spatial Interaction Approach A Case Study of Hamilton County, Ohio [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1337351602

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ning, Jingwei. Improving the USDA's Definition of Food Deserts via a Spatial Interaction Approach A Case Study of Hamilton County, Ohio. 2012. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1337351602.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ning, Jingwei. "Improving the USDA's Definition of Food Deserts via a Spatial Interaction Approach A Case Study of Hamilton County, Ohio." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1337351602

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1337351602
973
© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.