Using secondary data from mobile phones to monitor local food market access during disasters: an Australian case study

ABSTRACT

Community food security is vital to creating inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities with zero hunger, in alignment with the United Nations' Sustainable Development. Local food economies are fundamental to community food security, but there is little knowledge of how they adapt to disruptions, such as pandemics and natural disasters. Monitoring local food market access during disasters is essential to ensuring local food economies are not accidentally impacted by policy decisions. This study established a methodological framework to monitor local food market access, integrating secondary mobility data and the novel use of readily available analytical tools. The validity of the approach was tested at two local food markets in Southeast Queensland, Australia, during disruptive events. The results show that the 2019 bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted the number of visits to both markets. The findings show mobile phone data can act as a useful proxy for directly observing visitation patterns, providing insights that can be combined with information about online purchasing and delivery services. The method can be used immediately to monitor and evaluate local food economies during and after disasters. Telecommunications companies can aid disaster response and recovery by sharing mobility data for policy decision support.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobility data
• local food resilience
• local food market access
• disasters
• COVID-19

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge the Relational Insights Data Lab specialists at Griffith University, Tom Verhelst and Rhetta Chappell, for providing the secondary mobility data. The authors would also like to acknowledge all our peers from the Cities Research Institute and the School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, for their participation and literature recommendations through the weekly HDR writing circle, particularly writing expert Karyn Gonano.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to commercial-in-confidence restrictions, supporting data for this research is not available.