Open Source GIS: Food Deserts

This week we are working with an open source GIS tool called QGIS (Quantum GIS). Open source programs are a great way to work as a community toward a common goal. This week we are preparing data to compile a Food Desert map of Southern Escambia county. The final project will be to create a Food Desert map of an area of my choice. A food desert is defined as an urban area with a grocery store or fresh food source, that is greater than 1 mile away and in a rural area, a grocery store located greater than 10 miles away. I took the data from Escambia County and the US Census data for this area and applied a layer for grocery stores. Below are the Food Desert maps I produced. 

The first QGIS map shows Escambia County in relation to all Counties in Florida. 

  The second map created in QGIS shows the relative  location of Escambia County and the Study Area in the inset, and the two data frames with the study area that depict the Food Desert and Food Oasis locations: