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<p>Food security represents a critical challenge in contemporary rural environments, where spatial barriers significantly influence food accessibility patterns. While spatial food accessibility research has largely focused on urban areas, rural agrarian landscapes of South Asia remain significantly underexplored. Addressing this gap, the present study employs comprehensive geospatial analysis to examine the relationships between habitat density, market distribution (processed and unprocessed), and travel time accessibility in Nalanda district, Bihar, India. The methodology integrated multi-source datasets including Cartosat-2 and Cartosat-3 imagery, Google Open Buildings, Microsoft building footprints, ESA World Cover land use/land cover data, and OpenStreetMap road networks with food market locations geotagged through a KoboToolbox field survey conducted from November to December 2022. Habitat density clusters were delineated using object-based image analysis (OBIA), after which building density mapping, food market distribution analysis and raster-based network travel time modelling were applied on a common 250&#xa0;m × 250&#xa0;m grid to analyse food accessibility patterns across diverse rural settlement contexts. This comprehensive geospatial framework, which is rarely applied in rural food system studies, introduces a novel perspective for understanding spatial inequalities in food access. The research identified 1698 food markets (490 processed, 1208 unprocessed) across varying habitat density zones, revealing significant spatial heterogeneity in food access opportunities. Results revealed that processed markets strongly correlate with habitat density (<i>r</i> = 0.987, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05), unprocessed showed no significant correlation (<i>r</i> = 0.877), thereby, highlighting food deserts in remote areas. Processed stores exhibited a higher mean travel time as compared to unprocessed outlets. The findings revealed spatial inequalities in rural food access with significant implications for environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The integrated geospatial approach demonstrates the value of considering multiple dimensions of accessibility simultaneously and provides a robust framework for policy-relevant food access assessment. These results support the need for region-based intervention strategies that address transportation, infrastructure and market distribution patterns to achieve equitable and sustainable rural food systems. Beyond regional relevance, the findings point to broader implications for strengthening climate resilience and enhancing rural livelihoods.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>

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Unfolding Food Access in a Predominantly Rural Landscape: Geospatial Insights into Habitat Segments and Food Linkages

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月10日

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  • Amit Kumar Srivastava,
  • Tanu Kumari,
  • Prakashan Chellattan Veettil,
  • Kranthi Kumar Challa,
  • Pavan Kumar Yeggina,
  • Afrin Zainab

摘要

Food security represents a critical challenge in contemporary rural environments, where spatial barriers significantly influence food accessibility patterns. While spatial food accessibility research has largely focused on urban areas, rural agrarian landscapes of South Asia remain significantly underexplored. Addressing this gap, the present study employs comprehensive geospatial analysis to examine the relationships between habitat density, market distribution (processed and unprocessed), and travel time accessibility in Nalanda district, Bihar, India. The methodology integrated multi-source datasets including Cartosat-2 and Cartosat-3 imagery, Google Open Buildings, Microsoft building footprints, ESA World Cover land use/land cover data, and OpenStreetMap road networks with food market locations geotagged through a KoboToolbox field survey conducted from November to December 2022. Habitat density clusters were delineated using object-based image analysis (OBIA), after which building density mapping, food market distribution analysis and raster-based network travel time modelling were applied on a common 250 m × 250 m grid to analyse food accessibility patterns across diverse rural settlement contexts. This comprehensive geospatial framework, which is rarely applied in rural food system studies, introduces a novel perspective for understanding spatial inequalities in food access. The research identified 1698 food markets (490 processed, 1208 unprocessed) across varying habitat density zones, revealing significant spatial heterogeneity in food access opportunities. Results revealed that processed markets strongly correlate with habitat density (r = 0.987, p < 0.05), unprocessed showed no significant correlation (r = 0.877), thereby, highlighting food deserts in remote areas. Processed stores exhibited a higher mean travel time as compared to unprocessed outlets. The findings revealed spatial inequalities in rural food access with significant implications for environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The integrated geospatial approach demonstrates the value of considering multiple dimensions of accessibility simultaneously and provides a robust framework for policy-relevant food access assessment. These results support the need for region-based intervention strategies that address transportation, infrastructure and market distribution patterns to achieve equitable and sustainable rural food systems. Beyond regional relevance, the findings point to broader implications for strengthening climate resilience and enhancing rural livelihoods.

Graphical Abstract