Source: NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY submitted to
GEOSPATIAL TOOLS AND ANALYSES TO ASSESS, EDUCATE AND INFORM SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF RURAL FOOD INSECURITY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1008511
Grant No.
2016-67023-24904
Project No.
NC.W-2015-07490
Proposal No.
2015-07490
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
A1661
Project Start Date
Mar 1, 2016
Project End Date
Feb 28, 2019
Grant Year
2016
Project Director
Mulrooney, T.
Recipient Organization
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
1801 FAYETTEVILLE ST
DURHAM,NC 277073129
Performing Department
Env, Earth & Geospatial Sci
Non Technical Summary
Food insecurity is a general and growing concern in the U.S.; in 2012, 14.5 percent of US households were food insecure (USDA Research, 2013), with North Carolina ranking 5th among the 10 states exhibiting significantly higher household food insecurity rates than the national average (Gunderson et al. 2013). In particular, rural food insecurity is a significant but understudied problem in the U. S. The extent and distribution of food insecure rural residents has not been well-mapped, and little work has been done on the identification of logistically and economically feasible strategies for increased access to healthy food in rural communities. Emergency food providers have taken steps to meet the rural service gap, but distributing food from food banks and food pantries to the neediest in rural areas has proven to be highly problematic (Molnar et al. 2001; Bitto et al. 2003). An important barrier to success is the lack of information about food access in rural area.Decision tools for researchers, farm markets and market systems using ever-evolving GIS technologies serves as a new approach to quantify the many facets that encompass rural food insecurity and ways to address these challenges. A Geographic Information System (GIS) serves as the means by which spatially related phenomena can be created, analyzed and rendered in the digital environment. All 100 North Carolina counties, as well as municipalities and private contractors require the use of GIS personnel, ranging in fields from land assessment, banking and zoning to environmental monitoring, school districting, crime analysis, economic analysis and sociology. Experience and skills in GIS acquired during undergraduate and graduate studies are broadly applicable in diverse fields, including health science, sustainability, sociology, demography, economics/business, transportation and allied STEM fields such as computer science, information systems and environmental science. Integrating STEM technologies with intervention planning has the potential to be a cost-effective means for assistance organizations to conduct effective planning aimed at understanding and ultimatelyimproving food and nutritional security in rural communities.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
25%
Developmental
25%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
80360992060100%
Knowledge Area
803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
2060 - Geography;
Goals / Objectives
The overarching goal of this Integrated Research project is to develop a more nuanced understanding of rural food insecurity through the use of geospatial tools, and to apply the lessons learned to facilitate practical interventions aimed at reducing rural food insecurity. The specific focus of our work will be on the collection, integration, analysis and assessment of geospatial data that is of a type and level of detail to be of practical value in the development, implementation and evaluation of interventions addressing rural food insecurity. In the course of this research, we will (1) provide formal and informal training to HBCU students in the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to address complex societal challenges; (2) conduct generalizable research on the metrics used to assess food availability, accessibility and utilization, and on the various factors that contribute to food insecurity; and (3) develop an outreach program to inform and support food assistance organizations in applying GIS tools to cost-effectively serve food-insecure rural communities and to help farmers connect with underserved rural markets. In doing this, we will explore cost-effective methods for needs assessment that take into account both causal complexity and programmatic challenges imposed by the combination of limited resources and increased demand. Integrating STEM technologies with intervention planning has the potential to be a cost-effective means for assistance organizations to conduct effective planning aimed at improving food and nutritional security in rural communities. A majority of this work will be done by a minority-serving institution and provide education, research and outreach opportunities not only to students, but also faculty and the surrounding community.This work addresses a very pressing need: researchers and food assistance providers do not currently have sufficient information about the extent and causes of rural food insecurity to plan interventions. Although there is clear evidence that rural food insecurity is a problem in rural America, with rural food insecurity higher than the national average (Nord 2002; Bitto et al. 2003), the extent and severity of the problem is unclear. Relatively little is known about the validity and local applicability of sometimes contradictory research findings and derived assumptions regarding factors thought to influence rural food and nutritional insecurity at the household level. These knowledge gaps hinder efforts to improve food security; the effectiveness of direct food security interventions depends on accurate targeting of the vulnerable subpopulation(s) and of the causes of insecurity (Barrett 2010). A particular challenge in developing practical tools that can assist in the design of effective interventions is selection of criteria and weighting factors that provide useful insights into real and significant causal relationships.Specific supporting objectives of our proposed Integrated Research include:1. Provide resources for the development, use and validation of high-quality geospatial data used as part of this research and outreach project.2. Develop GIS-based tools and assessment strategies to explore the physical, environmental and human geography of rural food insecurity and to provide information that is useful to food researchers in explaining these patterns and to assistance providers in developing effective place-based food and nutritional interventions.3. Identify rural subpopulations at high risk of food insecurity and the most important contributing factors. These subpopulations will be primary targets for future interventions.4. Map the distribution of target subpopulations and identify geographic areas that have the greatest need of food assistance based on the various dimensions of food insecurity to identify high-priority locations for initial intervention design and piloting efforts.5. Develop methods that enable food assistance providers to prospectively predict and retrospectively assess the impact of food security intervenations. 6. Based ona case study, develop generally applicable tools and guidelines that assistance organizations can use in planning practical and effective interventions to address rural food insecurity in the U.S.7. Disseminate these findings, data and techniques to a larger audience so that they can be applied in other rural areas in the U.S.8. Provide education resources, both formal (classroom and tutorial) and informal (workshop, support and outreach) to students, faculty and the community about the use and application of geospatial technologies to the study of rural food insecurity.
Project Methods
Research will proceed as follows: (1) acquisition of publicly- available datasets; (2) ground-truthing of datasets; (3) integration of spatial and socio-economic data; (4) GIS analysis to identify correlations and potential causal factors; (5) validation of results; and (6) identification of high-value locations for food assistance programs and evaluation of the usefulness of the results to a food assistance organization. In addition to university-level coursework and NCCU student participation in research activities, educational outreach to relevant food assistance practitioners and other community actors will center on (7) a series of Community Mapping Workshops to introduce GIS capabilities and applications in the context of rural food insecurity. A short break-down of these tasks is as follows:(1) Acquisition of Datasets: Data related to the assessment and evaluation of rural food insecurity are readily available in a GIS-compatible format. Basic information about stores is provided by their NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code through the InfoUSA database. Data are provided as points and attributes describing each point include the name of the store, address, NAICS code, sales volume and number of employees.However, sales of fresh and nutritionally adequate food at some stores may not be reflected in their NAICS code; for example, General Merchandising Stores may or may not include groceries sales. In addition, direct markets (farmers markets and roadside stands) may not be included in the NAICS. While the market penetration of these establishments is debatable, they do serve as a source of fresh food to the general public. This dataset needs to be augmented through ground-truthing procedures.(2) Ground-truthing of Datasets: Sharkey and Horel (2008) showed that public data on food outlets contain significant errors that can limit the usefulness of food insecurity studies -they are not updated frequently enough to keep up as stores open or go out of business, and geographic coordinates may be erroneous. To address these challenges, we will verify and augment the NAICS data through ground truthing and perform a comprehensive accuracy assessment on the data. Accepted QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) standards will ensure that the spatial data (locations) are correct, as well as the attribute data used to describe each of the points. Geometric accuracy can be verified using satellite imagery and ground-truthing in the field.(3) Integration of Spatial and Socio-Economic Data: We will integrate socio-economic, transportation and environmental data into the GIS analysis with aggregation at the block group level. Mulrooney will develop GIS data and combine the travel time and food ratio mapping with statistical analysis of household data at the block group level. McGinn will explore this household information within the context of socio-economic indicators. The choice of metrics and the optimization strategy will be based on information elicited from interviews by Beratan with Second Harvest Food Bank and social service providers in the region regarding the extent and causes of food insecurity in the study area. Much public assistance, including social services and food assistance, is managed at the county level, with funding provided at the county level by federal, state, and non-profit grant sources. As a consequence, there are a number of people in each county with deep experiential knowledge of the distribution and causes of poverty and food insecurity in that county. Outputs will include county-specific descriptions of the extent and causes of food insecurity - we will identify the most at-risk subpopulations, the main factors contributing to food and nutritional insecurity in these subpopulations, and the type and effectiveness of the existing coping mechanisms through which they currently meet their food needs. For exploratory study of complex, multi-cause problems such as food insecurity, qualitative and semi-qualitative approaches can provide deeper insights than qualitative methods such as surveys, particularly when dealing with low-income, rural, elderly, and minority populations (Kitzinger 1995).(4) GIS Analysis: Mulrooney (2013) has developed an improved method for developing raster-based travel-time maps. By converting vector GIS data to raster and reclassifying a pixel's speed limit based on user-defined parameters, an indirect cost (the time it takes to drive through the area represented by that pixel) can be derived from the speed limit and pixel resolution. The resulting travel-time surface can be used as part of a cost distance computation to determine an accumulated travel cost surface relative to specified resources (such as high-quality and poor-quality food, for example) that can be grouped within any polygonal enumeration unit or computed amongst each other resulting in new surfaces.(5) Validation of Results: While the research, data, validation, and analysis do take up a brunt of this project, it would not be complete without a means to test the applicability of the methods addressed. On the backdrop of the aforementioned food insecurity analysis and dimensions of metrics to express this phenomenon, spatial optimization tools using the Least Cost Path, Cost Allocation and Path Distance Raster GIS functions, to identify a limited number of locations where food distribution centers could serve the greatest number of people in need, as well as the most cost-efficient travel routes for produce pick-up and delivery.(6) Evaluation of Usefulness: Based on the optimization data, we will identify the extent to which nutritional gaps can be met by modifying the distribution of food resources currently available to the Second Harvest Food Bank. The remaining gap will be analyzed by food category to determine how much could potentially be met with fresh produce. We will then work with USDA farm extension representatives and local farmers to assess the extent to which produce types that can meet the identified nutritional gaps can be grown locally.Once an assessment of the potential demand for increased supply of locally grown crops is developed, we will determine the prices that the farmers would need to be able to meet the demand. The potential funds available from residents to purchase increased local produce will be compared with prices needed by the farmers to develop an estimate of potentially self-sustaining increases in local production.(7) Community Mapping Workshops: This larger research problem represents a nationwide need for expanding the use of spatial analysis from STEM areas such as the geographical, information and computer sciences to non-STEM fields within the social and health sciences and into the community. The Community Workshop paradigm has been used in Milwaukee, Richmond (VA) and by the PI at Winston-Salem State University and served as the basis for prior research by the PI (Quandt et. al. 2010). The University of Milwaukee relied on students and faculty, working with city and community partners, in innovative data-gathering techniques to quantify community assets using GIS analysis as an analytical tool (CASIR 2009).A Community Mapping Workshop is a 2-3 hour, hands-on workshop designed to introduce Geographical Information Systems software and data capabilities to a wide variety of individuals and groups for the purpose of exploring dimensions of food insecurity (mapping of population, income, race, etc.). The workshop will be given approximately 4-6 times per month and will be offered and advertised to the NCCU community as well as communities with in the project area. The goal of this workshop is to introduce students, faculty and the community to GIS basics and ways that GIS can be integrated into teaching or research. This will lead to further collaboration, research or practical applications between the PIs, faculty and community.

Progress 03/01/16 to 02/28/19

Outputs
Target Audience:This project has produced two peer-reviewed journal articles with another two in review, 42 student and faculty presentations, including 6 student awards at conferences. Through the training component of this grant, 120 students and 12 faculty have been provided training in GIS. This has all been accomplished while Drs. Mulrooney and McGinn work on a "4-4" schedule, where each teaches 4 classes per semester. They work hard to facilitate student research, integrate lessons from this project into the classes they are teaching and collaborate with faculty across the NCCU campus. Two NCCU graduate students have recently graduated from the M.S. in Earth Sciences program at NCCU as a result of the direct support from this grant. Both students, each minority students, have already co-authored papers with the research team, served as Teaching Assistants for undergraduate classes and have mentored undergraduate student projects. One graduate recently began work with Esri, the leading GIS software manufacturer in the world. The other began Ph.D. program in Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University in the Fall. Changes/Problems:While not a bad thing, we ran into a number of ancillary questions related to the quantification of food deserts using geospatial technologies that we didn't think of previously. We look forward to addressing some of these upcoming quesitons in future grants to includ the following: 1- The determination of need as a means to understand food deserts 2 - An enumeration of all data sources available at their scales 3 - The accuracy of data used in these studies and and ways to field check these data. We have applied to the USDA for a grant to explore just this facet of research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We provided in-class ond out of class workshops during the afternoon to students and faculty where more than 100 students were given GIS training related to food deserts and more than 10 faculty were provided with this training How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have published 3 papers and had a number of student presentations on the topic of food deserts. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Facets of all of these objectives were accomplished within the scope of this project. We have been working with outreach to organizaions regarding our results and have developed a food security working group in Durham County as a result of this proejct.

Publications


    Progress 03/01/18 to 02/28/19

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Throughout the grant period, we have been working on project that focus on the access and availability to food. In particular, we have been working with students and faculty about rural food security and the GIS tools to help understand rural food security. This entails the education component of our work. We have given talks about food security and this grant opportunity to students and faculty across the NCCU campus. The research team has presented to 3 classes in 2 different departments and hosted 2 talks for the entire campus to speak. We have also provided internship opportunities for students and student projects in support of food security. We have also presented at both world-wide, local and regional conferences. Changes/Problems:While not a bad thing, we ran into a number of ancillary questions related to the quantification of food deserts using geospatial technologies that we didn't think of previously. We look forward to addressing some of these upcoming quesitons in future grants to includ the following: 1- The determination of need as a means to understand food deserts 2 - An enumeration of all data sources available at their scales 3 - The accuracy of data used in these studies and and ways to field check these data. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We provided in-class ond out of class workshops during the afternoon to students and faculty where more than 100 students were given GIS training related to food deserts and more than 10 faculty were provided with this training. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have published 2 papers and had a number of student presentations on the topic of food deserts. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?At the current time, we plan on outreaching to organizations with an interest in our research and keep publishing papers based on the data from this research work.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Facets of all of these objectives were accomplished within the scope of this project. We are currently working with outreach to organizaions regarding our results and would like to disseminate them and this will be forthcoming.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2019 Citation: Mulrooney, Timothy and McGinn, Chris. 2019. A Comprehensive Assessment and Evaluation of the Digital Geospatial Data Sources Used in the Study of Food Deserts and Food Swamps: A Case Study in North Carolina North Carolina Geographer.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Zdanksi, Cristan. 2018. Socio-Economic Variables Used to Define Need in the Study of Food Insecurity. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium, April 7.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Lippy, Adam. 2018. Food Deserts: A Case Study Around the NCCU Campus. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium, April 7.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wooten, Tysean. 2018. Food Security: Low Income vs. High Income Neighborhood Nutrition Sources. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium, April 7.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Holley, Edward. 2018. Conducting Geospatial Analysis on Resource Accessibility in Halifax County, North Carolina. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting. November 9.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Caddell, Cory. 2018. Utilizing ArcScan to perform Food Desert Data Comparisons in North Carolina. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting. November 9.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Foster, Richie. 2018. Exploring Drive Times to Healthy Food Options in Durham County. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting. November 9.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Holley, Edward. 2018. Developing a Geodatabase for Health Disparities in North Carolina. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium. April 7. 2nd Place (Poster Presentation  Graduate Arts and Science Division).
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Sciacca, Kaylee and Harris, KayLynn. 2018. Projected Transitory Food Insecurity in Durham County Following Hurricane Florence. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting. November 9th. 1st Place (Undergraduate Division).


    Progress 03/01/17 to 02/28/18

    Outputs
    Target Audience:In this time period, the research team has had 1 publication published in a peer-reviewed journal. Another has been submitted for review. There have been a number of student presentations and a new GIS community mapping workshop was developed and offered, beginning in the Spring of 2017. In that time, 53 people received GIS training, including 5 NCCU faculty members. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this reporting period, we have offered a Community Mapping workshop. 53 students attended this workshop during the Spring 2017 semester and 5 faculty members received GIS training. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Thus far, a number of presentations have been made at state, regional and national forums. These have been made by both faculty and students. Information about this research has been highlighted on the radio as well as quarterly magazine published by the university. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In our next reporting period, we have a number of plans that involve both faculty and students. Major highlights include: 1 - Have students present at the NCCU Research Symposium. We tentatively have about 9 students presenting on food accessibility, as well as related subjects such as health outcomes and employment. 2 - PI is looking to present at the World Economic Geography Forum, where an abstracton the proliferation of variety stores in rural areas has been accepted. 3 - PI will be presenting on spatial interaction models at AAEA meeting in early August. 4 - PI will be taking students to the Southeast AAG meeting in Tennessee in November. 5 - Graduate students are combining work with relative food availability with network algorithms to develop travel paths for mobile food markets that optimize need. 6 - PI is working with another graduate student on the cataloguing of data created from this research using state and local government metadata profile. 7 - More GIS training is scheduled for the Spring and Fall semester.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Many or parts of these goals are being accomplished. For the final year, data and algorithms are largely in place. We are now looking to develop methods to enable food assistance provides to prospectively predict and assess the impact of food security interventions.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mulrooney, T., McGinn, C. Branch, B., Madumere, C. and Ifediora, B. 2017. A New Raster-Based Metric to Measure Relative Food Availability in Rural Areas: A Case Study in Southeastern North Carolina. Southeastern Geographer 57(2): 151 - 178.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Mulrooney, T., McGinn, C, Madumere, C., Ifediora, B. and Beratan, K. A Comprehensive Assessment and Evaluation of the Digital Data Sources Used in the Study of Food Deserts and Food Swamps: A Case Study in North Carolina: Manuscript submitted to Health and Place.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mulrooney, Timothy, McGinn, Chris, Madumere, Richard, Beratan, Kathi and Ifediora, Byron. 2017. A Framework to Assess and Evaluate the Accuracy of Healthy and Unhealthy Food Sources Used in the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Analysis of Food Deserts. 17th Annual IMGC (International Medical Geography Conference), Angers, France, July 6.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mulrooney, Timothy. 2017. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Explore Spatial Relationships Between Relative Food Availability, Socio-Economics and Negative Health Outcomes in Rural North Carolina, United States. 17th Annual IMGC (International Medical Geography Conference), Angers, France, July 6.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mulrooney, Timothy. 2017. A Comprehensive Assessment of Geospatial Data Used in the Study of Food Deserts. Applied Agriculture and Economics Association Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, August 1.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Mulrooney, Timothy. 2017. A Comparison of Raster-Based Travel Time Surfaces Against Vector-Based Network Calculations as Applied in the Study of Rural Food Deserts. Applied Geography Conference, Port Canaveral, Florida, November 14.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mulrooney, Timothy, McGinn, Chris, Ifediora, Byron and Madumere, Chibuike. 2017. The Use and Application of the Raster GIS Data Model in the Study of Food Deserts and Food Swamps in North Carolina. Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting. Starkville, Mississippi, November 20.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gates, Katherine. 2017. Is There a Relationship Between Grocery Store Locations and Income in Orange County NC? North Carolina Central University Research Symposium, April 1.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Martin, Mykael. 2017. Mapping Coronary Heart Disease Deaths in Southeastern North Carolina. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium, April 1.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Munn, Natasha. 2017. Food Desert: Access to Healthy Food for McDougald Terrace Community, Durham, NC. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium, April 1.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Caddell, Cory. 2017. The Spatial Distribution of Ulcerative Colitis in the State of North Carolina. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, November 3th.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gates, Katherine. 2017. Socio-Economic Neighborhood Characteristics of the Food Environment in Orange County, North Carolina. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, November 3th.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ifediora, Byron. 2017. Neighborhoods and Grocery Store Chains: A GIS Approach to Studying Socio-economics. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, November 3th.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Madumere, Chibuike. 2017. A Quantitative Comparison of Rural Food Access to Health Indicators in Southeastern, North Carolina. North Carolina Geographical Society Annual Meeting, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, November 3th.
    • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Madumere, Chibuike. 2017. Estimating Service Areas For Farmers Markets In Southeastern North Carolina Using Two Main Spatial Interaction Models (Thesis). North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC.
    • Type: Websites Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Madumere, Chibuike. 2017. Website developed in support of thesis presentation. http://deegsnccu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=81b608b603c5495384291358bfb38596


    Progress 03/01/16 to 02/28/17

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Since the beginning of the grant period, we have begun solidifying activities that will take place over the next 3 years. In particular, we have been working with students and faculty about rural food security and the GIS tools to help understand rural food security. This entails the education component of our work. We have given talks about food security andthis grant opportunity to students and faculty across the NCCU campus. The research team has presented to3 classes in 2 different departmentsand hosted 2 talks for the entire campus to speak. We have also provided internship opportunities for students and student projects in support of food security. We have also presented at a regional conference. A full list of the projects is highlighted in Products. For the community mapping workshop, we have thus far presented to 10 attendees with another 40 scheduled for the rest of the semester. Changes/Problems:No major changes as of yet. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have offered training and professional development for undergraduate and graduate students. We have had 12different student presentations as a result of these grant activities thus far. Of partcular note is that one of these students, Richard Madumere, won the Best Technical Presentation at the National Society for Black Engineers Regional Conference in Charlotte. This work is based on his summer internship work with the PI for this project. He will be presenting at the National Conference in Kansas City in March. We took 3 students to the Association of American Geographers regional conference in Columbia, South Carolina, in November. All students presented at this conference and received excellent feedback. Their presentations will serve as the basis for their Master's thesis projects as they matriculate towards graduation. At the current time, 5 students have registered for the NCCU research symposium on work related to food security. At the time of this report, their abstracts have been submitted. If accepted, results will be posted in the next report that is filed for this projectc. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to student presentations at conference, the PI, co-PI and 2 collagues had a journal article publised in Applied Geography http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622816306099), a high-ranking geography journal. Another is being published in a regional journal. Since theirpublication, we've had 2 people at more prestigous universtiescontact us about future collaborative work. Welook forward to what the future holdsas a result of this. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Activities Planned Include: 1 - Starting in the Spring 2017 semester, we will be offering of Community Mapping Workshop that is open to the community and campus for people to learn about geospatial technologies and offer our services to those who wish to learn them. The first of these workshops was offered in February, 2017. At the current time, more than 50 people have registered for these workshops to be offered throughout the semester. 2 - Due to the flooding in the study area as a result of Hurricane Matthew, we will be undertaking a project to see how the food environmental has changed as a result of this flooding. This will be undertaken by the co-PI. 3-Over the summer, the research teamexplored theaccuracy of the data used in theanalysis. Weare developing a framework to qualitatively and quantitatively assess and evaluate the food environment using updated QA/QC and sampling techniques. This is beginning over the Winter Break. 4 - We recently received health outcome data at the zip code level. We will be looking ata projecttomake spatial relationships betweenfood accessibility/availability andhealth outcomes and hope to present this at the World Health Geography Forum in July. 5 -Our senior researcher will be using the availability informationfrom GIS analysis to work with Second Harvest Food Pantries to logisticsto be site mobile food pantries. We will be use qualitative interviewscombinedwith our analysis to begin this process.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? At the current time, we have accomplished or are accomplishing goals 1 through 4. This can be shown through a journal article with Applied Geography, a high ranking geography journal. In it, we develop a methodology to express quantitative measures of food availability. We are currentlycombining this information with socio-economics, spendingpatternsand other factors to identify sub-populations at risk the effects of food security. This research has been accepted to the Souteastern Geographer journal and is ready for publication. We will use GIS tools to determine how to best disseminate food assistance services to these underserved areas. As part of the local community mapping, we purchased a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), or drone, to map high-scale changes in agriculture.Our original goal was to use the drone to map or take imagery of community garden over a period of time to lookfor changes invegetation and factors that affect these changes. However, this drone has opened up many opportunities that tie inwithother STEM subjects include environmental science, sustainability science,geodesy, modeling, photogrammetry andthe methodoligies bywhich we convert imagery togeo-rectified data, interpret it and make decisions from its analysis.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mulrooney, T., Beratan, K, McGinn, C. and Branch, B. 2017. A Comparison of Raster-Based Travel Time Surfaces against Vector-Based Network Calculations as Applied in the Study of Rural Food Insecurity. Applied Geography 78: 12  21. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622816306099)
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mulrooney, T., McGinn, C and Branch, B. 2017. A New Raster-Based Metric to Measure Relative Food Availability in Rural Areas: A Case Study in Southeastern North Carolina. Manuscript accepted with Southeastern Geographer.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Madumere, Richard. 2016. Creation of High Quality Destination Data as Part of a Spatial Interaction Model Used in Food Insecurity Research. Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting. Columbia, South Carolina, November 20.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Khademian, Mehrnaz. 2016. Geostatistical Tools to Measure the Distribution of Food Sources in Southeastern North Carolina. Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting. Columbia, South Carolina, November 20.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Ifediora, Byron. 2016. Building a GIS Database in Support of Food Security Analysis. Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting. Columbia, South Carolina, November 21.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Branch, Benjamin. 2016. Embedded Librarianship in Support of Food Insecurity. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium. April 16.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Branch, Benjamin. 2016. Community Informatics in Support of Food Insecurity (CISFI). North Carolina Central University Research Symposium. April 16.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Khademian, Mehrnaz. 2016. Mapping and Assessing the Food Environment in Southeastern North Carolina. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium. April 16.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Madumere, Richard. 2016. The Field Verification (QA/QC) of Features used in the study of food Insecurity. National Society of Black Engineers. Charlotte, North Carolina, September 30. Top Technical Presentation.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Gaillard, Stephanie. 2016. Using GIS to Better the Community Assessment Process in Public Health Education: Food Insecurity in Southeast Raleigh. North Carolina Central University Research Symposium. April 16.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Madumere, Richard. 2016. The Field Verification (QA/QC) of Features used in the study of food Insecurity. I Know What You Did Last Summer  Summer Internship Presentation, North Carolina Central University. September 16.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Mulrooney, Timothy, McGinn, Christopher, Ifediora, Byron and Madumere, Richard. 2016. An Assessment of GIS Data Used in the Study of Food Deserts. Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting. Columbia, South Carolina, November 21.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Khademian, Mehrnaz. 2017. Geostatistical Tools to Measure the Distribution of Food Sources in Southeastern North Carolina. North Carolina GIS Conference. Raleigh, NC, February 23.
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Madumere, Richard. 2017. The Application of a Spatial Interaction Model to Understand Patterns of Farmers' Market Patronage. North Carolina GIS Conference. Raleigh, NC, February 23.