Revisiting Food Deserts in North Carolina, USA, Using a Cloud-Based Real-Time Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Tool

Abstract

In the study of the food environment, little research has explored the spatial data quality of store locations which impacts the spatial representation of the food environment. In this paper, we created a cloud-based tool that can inspect, edit and create new supermarkets in real-time which changes the complexion of the food environment. Comparisons were made between data supplied between a CAB (Commercially Available Business) Database and those corrected after field verification. Results showed differences between the food environment using the data provided and the actual food environment after QA/QC, with a general underestimation of those who are truly food needy due to errors of temporal accuracy, misattribution and geocoding in the original data provided.