Identifier

etd-04132015-123846

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Geography and Anthropology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Food accessibility refers to people’s ability to access the service of food providers. Disparities in healthy food accessibility have long been a public health concern. This study proposes a new approach modified from the popular 2-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method to measure spatial access. By incorporating a self-adaptive kernel density function extracted from the Huff Model, the proposed new method is termed the Huff-modified 2SFCA method. It is then applied to measure the healthy food accessibility in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. The research accounts for the economically disadvantaged groups that may walk or depend on public transit for transportation. Also, the relationships between spatial accessibility of healthy food and other demographic and socio-economic factors are examined. The results show that socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to have higher accessibility scores to healthy foods but population without a private vehicle suffers from poor healthy food accessibility. The research clearly differentiates spatial and non-spatial factors in food accessibility and inequalities across the study area, thus helps planners to scientifically design strategies of improving healthy food access.

Date

2015

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Wang, Fahui

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4265

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