Distances to grocery stores in Richmond, Indiana

This map indicates the distance from a given location in Richmond, Indiana, to the nearest grocery store. One goal of this visualization is to highlight areas that might classify as food deserts.

There are three different levels to which a user can interact with these data, and the prerequisites and approach for each is given below.

Level 1: View the existing data

Prerequisities

None

Approach

The exisiting data can be viewed online here: https://pjireland.github.io/distance_to_stores.html

Level 2: Regenerate the data

Prerequisites

Anaconda

Approach

Run the following command at the top level of the cloned repository:

python scripts/map_distance_to_stores.py

The resulting map will be placed within the results directory under the filename distance_to_stores.html.

Level 3: Add additional data

Prerequisites

1. Anaconda

2. Python client library for Google Maps API Web Services. This can be installed via the command

pip install googlemaps

It is used to geocode (obtain the latitude and longitude) of grocery stores.

3. Sign up for a Google Maps API key.

   • Note that that while Google Maps API is a paid service, the monthly free allowances are typically sufficient for geocoding the data, but be careful to not exceed your free allowance.

Approach

1. Download logos of any new grocery stores to the data folder.

2. Add/modify grocery store data in the file ./data/grocery_stores.csv.

   • The name, address, name of downloaded logo image, and desired width and height (in pixels) of the logo image should be added/modified.

3. Geocode the addresses

   • Export your Google Maps API key to the environment variable API_KEY. On Linux and Mac machines, this can be done through the command export API_KEY=yourAPIkey.
   • Run python scripts/geocode_addresses.py from the top level of the cloned repo to geocode each address in ./data/grocery_stores.csv.

4. Map the distance to the grocery stores

   • If desired, the variables near the top of the ./scripts/map_distance_to_stores.py file can be modified to alter how the maps are drawn.

   • The command python scripts/map_distance_to_stores.py should then be run in the top level of the cloned repository.

   • The resulting map will be placed within the results directory under the filename distance_to_stores.html.