Measuring Food Deserts: A Comparison of Models Measuring the Spatial Accessibility of Supermarkets in Portland, Oregon
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Date
2008-06
Authors
Sparks, Andrea
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Food deserts are low-income, urban areas that have poor spatial access to
supermarkets. To date, researchers have developed theories about the food desert
phenomenon's public health and fiscal implications in the form of diet-related health
problems and its impact on the efficiency of government transfer payments, like food
stamps. Researchers have also devised a number of ways to measure the presence and
severity of food deserts, though progress still needs to be made toward establishing
reliable, practical and feasible food desert measures. Using geographic information
systems (GIS), this study employs three measures of supermarket accessibility to
determine the presence and severity of food deserts in Portland, Oregon. It also compares the sensitivity of the measures to changes in inputs with the goal of generating advice for
planners about accurate, low-cost ways to measure supermarket access in their
communities.
Description
xiii, 75 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
Keywords
Food deserts, Supermarkets, Food access, Food accessibility, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Portland (Or.)