Modelo de espaços obesogênicos em ambientes urbanos

Abstract

Recent research has shown that the built environment can influence food choices and direct individuals’ spatial behaviors, playing a considerable role in public health. In this context, this thesis is dedicated to investigating the study of food environments, their centrality in the urban layout, and their probable relationship with obesogenicity. We use configurational approaches from urban theories as a research tool in health and urban space. Specifically, we employ Space Syntax theory and the ‘Urban Network Analysis’ tool to calculate the attraction centrality of buildings. This approach allowed us to establish and investigate the different relationships between spaces, flows, and activities, known as spatial interactions. Such interactions involve a variety of elements distributed in space, either in motion or static, that relate to and attract each other. Attraction centrality refers to points or areas where flows and uses converge and concentrate, in this case especially associated with the urban food environment. These relationships are analyzed using hybrid metrics, which combine qualitative and quantitative methodological procedures, thus demonstrating the relational level between spaces in a given geographic area. Complexity theory is addressed by seeking to foster the study of urban health with these new conceptual frameworks, critiquing the feasibility and reliability of the model proposed in this thesis. For this, we conducted a case study of the Santa Tereza neighborhood in Belo Horizonte. We georeferenced all establishments where food is stored, sold, and consumed, and used the network analysis module in the ArcMapTM/ArcGIS® software. To create a more precise attraction measure for buildings, we propose a study inspired by the Drake equation, which aims to calculate the number of civilizations in the Milky Way, developing an indexing algorithm that incorporates a comprehensive multivariate analysis and considers the probabilities of interaction between food environments and people residing or working nearby. Criteria such as the density of food sales points, the prevalence of ultra-processed, processed, and fresh food options, as well as physical accessibility, were factors that contributed to a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the obesogenic potential of urban environments. Additionally, we retrieved narratives of the studied area, contrasting them with the results when discussing these elements. As results, we discuss the mapping of centralities and the dispersion of obesogenic sites, the scheduling of public health policies, and the analysis of measures that can support policies in physical, territorial, and socioeconomic planning for obesity management through changes in land use and occupation and in resolving conflicts between physical and social forms.