Human service deserts are areas where people have poor access to basic services, such as health, social care and education. These deserts occur when essential services are not available or accessible due to factors like complex terrain, not enough resources, or discrimination.  

Often linked to human service deserts are food and physical exercise deserts. Food deserts are areas where people have poor access to healthy and cheap food; physical exercise deserts are areas where people find it difficult to be physically active due to problems in their build environment. Food and physical exercise deserts can be found both in big cities and small towns. Living in these deserts increases the risk of suffering obesity, diabetes and heart disease. 

Rural areas often receive less funding and have fewer services. After COVID-19, researchers have paid more attention to the difficulties that people living in rural areas face daily. But there is more to be done to fully understand this problem in Europe. The DESERT project wants to identify and locate food and physical exercise deserts in Spain, Portugal and Türkiye; it wants to describe their main characteristics; define the concept of rural physical exercise desert; promote health and social equity in rural communities; and explore strategies to help reduce inequities in these areas, in collaboration with the local communities, institutions and businesses. In time, we hope that politicians and decision-makers take the needs of people living in food and physical exercise deserts into account, increasing funding, services and support in these areas and, hence, reducing health inequities.