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GeoHealth: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Public Health and Epidemiology
GeoHealth: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Public Health and Epidemiology
GeoHealth is the integration of geographic information, technologies and spatial concepts with epidemiology. Health and disease is complex and requires a dynamic approach to understanding the interactions driving the patterns that we see. Geospatial technologies and GIScience play a vital role in adding context: visualizing where and when diseases occur in space and time, understanding why they may be prevalent, who may be affected and how to respond.
Maps allow us to contextualize and understand what is taking place at a particular location at a particular time.
GIS allows us to explore the interactions and relationships.
Cholera Outbreak 1854
Cholera Outbreak 1854
In 1854 John Snow used a paper map to visualise the spatial distribution of cholera deaths. Today we can use a variety of methods in a GIS to analyse the spatial distribution of a disease outbreak as captured in this video
Ebola Outbreak 2014-2016
Ebola Outbreak 2014-2016
In 2014 the ebola outbreak took place in West Africa. We used descriptive spatial analysis methods to map the spatial and temporal distribution of ebola for each week during the outbreak. Here you can see how the outbreak moved based on the animation using phylogenetic information provided by Nextstrain. Each of these provides insights into the diffusion of the outbreak. We also created different visualisations and animations to explore what information to communicate and in what format. See the following ebola video.
GIS for Health
GIS for Health
the air we breathe
the food we eat
the water we drink
the viruses we are exposed to
the health services we access
MATTER
Learn how GIS, Geographic Information, Earth Observation data can be used for understanding health risks and outcomes
ATMODOR
ATMODOR
ATMODOR project (Atmospheric pollution and integration of odor management in European cities: where are we?) funded by ECIU enabled for us to get training in Le langage des Nez (The langage of noses) as captured by our box of smells in this photo.
Since the environment and what we are exposed to can affect our health, understanding the air quality and how odors can inform us of what we are being exposed to is valuable.
Stay tuned. More to come on air quality and Odors and how odors be used to capture air quality?
For more information visit: https://atmodor.wordpress.com/
GIS / Geospatial 4 Health
GIS / Geospatial 4 Health
Interested in learning how GIS and Earth Observation data and geospatial technologies can be used for better understanding health risks and outcomes?
This book provides health professionals with the necessary GIS and data analysis skills. A variety of case studies using different methods to address a wide range of infectious diseases are used to provide a solid understanding and hands-on practice. In this book you will learn how to use GIS to map health risks, identify patterns of disease in time and place and assess accessibility to health care services.
Work through this book to develop the critical GIS analytical skills to build the knowledge you need for tackle a variety of public health challenges. Each chapter ends with an activity that integrates GIS skills and GIScience theory with epidemiology. Not only will you be developing the necessary GIS skills but also the relevant data science skills and how these integrate with epidemiology.
Geographic information and geospatial technologies: applicability for health and disease
Epidemiology of disease
Statistics, analysis, visualizations and more
Disaster Epidemiology. Health Emergencies and Hazard Considerations: surveillance to communication
Data in a nutshell: Geospatial data, structuring data, managing data and ethics
Health and disease in dynamically changing environments: mapping and modelling vector borne diseases
Clustering of health risks: Global to Local
Accessibility Methods: Spatial accessibility to health services and essential health care
Geographic Information for Planetary Health action
Note - this text is used in the courses that I teach.
For more information watch this video with information about each chapter and explore the topics covered.
Some health themes and topics we cover
Some health themes and topics we cover
Vector-borne diseases
Accessibility to health services
Disasters and health
Communication & data infrastructure
Heat Risks
Heat and Health
Extreme weather vulnerabilities
Flooding and Mental Health
Check out what we have been up to on this page
GeoHealth, Planetary Health, Global Health, Public Health, Climate Health, Disaster Health, One Health?
Although 60% of all human infectious diseases are transmitted from animals and microbes of animal origin. Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity. Now more than ever we need to understand what changes are taking place in our environment spatially and temporally, locally and globally. Many health challenges are complex crossing social-ecological systems (SES) that are comprised of many components distributed across scales, often compounded by different socio-economic and environmental drivers operating non-linearly. The circulation, transmission and evolution of diseases are driven by a range of factors such as those that relate to the environment, host, pathogen and how they interact in space and time. The outcome of these interactions can be further mitigated or exacerbated by cofounding factors that may be related to socio-economic factors (and other vulnerabilities), coping capacity of the individual or community and the hazard and exposure.
Geographic Information Science (GIScience) approaches enable us to take an integrated health approach to address a range of local and global health challenges that cross social-ecological systems. We do this by integrating and layering a variety of data (some novel, some volunteered, some authoritative, some big and messy) in a GIS and use a mix of spatial analysis, data science, social science and machine learning methods with mathematical, statistical and geocomputational models to address applied research questions across a wide range of health topics.
We take an integrated geospatial approach to health where we consider the ecology of the disease, the response and what and how to communicate.
We take an integrated geospatial approach to health where we consider the ecology of the disease, the response and what and how to communicate.
integrated geospatial health approach
integrated geospatial health approach
when we consider health and disease we need to think of three elements:
Ecology: (what &where & when & why) understanding the disease and drivers of the disease?
Response (Control & Prevention and Diagnosis & Treatment): (who is affected, what we do about it) how do we minimize risks? what actions do we need to take? (what healthcare and infrastructure are available and how to access) how can we access the treatment we need in a timely manner? what policies, planning and infrastructure are needed?
Communication: inform the public of where and when risks are; actions to take and availability of treatment
ecology of disease
ecology of disease
Understanding health and disease is really all about the interactions. Interactions between the (host (behaviour/lifestyle) and a pathogen (agent) in the environment where the intensity can be influenced by exposure and incubation period of the agent.
GeoHealthr+o = ((A ∩ H ∩ E )+((HE) x V x CC))) time
Understanding health and disease is complex. We have to think simultaneously about the interactions between an agent and a host at various spatial and temporal scales in a dynamically changing environment.
To understand these complexities at a local or global scale we need to fuse varied data sources that capture different geographies as well as be able to perform a wide variety of analyses at different spatial and temporal scales.
It is only through this integrated approach that we can understand the ecology of disease and the determinants that are driving the health risks and outcomes.
response
response
Response (Control & Prevention and Diagnosis & Treatment): (who is affected, what we do about it) how do we minimize risks? what actions do we need to take? (what healthcare and infrastructure are available and how to access) how can we access the treatment we need in a timely manner? what policies, planning and infrastructure are needed and at what scale?
Ensuring equality in access to health facilities and critical infrastructure to minimize health risks.
communication
communication
Visualisations and symbolisation with statistic and dynamically interactive maps and graphs. Transforming data from excel spreadsheets, outbreak reports into geo-enabled structured data that can be used to create statistic, interactive or dynamic maps.
Not only is communication about the visualisation and symbolisation but also about having the data structured and organised in a way that allows for real-time, efficient and effective information sharing.
Geospatial for a geoAI-enabled society
Geospatial for a geoAI-enabled society
Interested in learning more about how GIS, AI and geographic information can be used for managing health?
Check out: 2024 Managing vector-borne diseases in a geoAI enabled society: malaria as an example, Acta Tropica
more below
Interested in learning more?
Interested in learning more?
Education and Literature
Education and Literature
Geohealth can be quite diverse and requires a range of skills from data collection (fusion), analytics to modeling, predictions, app development and communication.
Interested in learning more? Check out the courses listed or get in touch and we can tailor-make a course to suite your needs.
Check out these courses:
Check out these courses:
Check out these articles and book
Check out these articles and book
Book - Justine Blanford (2024) Geographic information, geospatial technologies and spatial data science for health. Pp376. CRC Taylor & Francis.
2025 Mapping the Risk of Tick-Borne Encephalitis in Europe for Informed Vaccination Decisions, Journal of Travel Medicine
2025 Malaria survey data and geospatial suitability mapping for understanding spatial and temporal variations of risk across Kenya. (Parasite Epidemiology and Control)
2024 Managing vector-borne diseases in a geoAI enabled society: malaria as an example, Acta Tropica
2024 The power of interactive maps for communicating spatio-temporal data to health professionals. Geospatial Health
2023 ENDIG. Interactive GeoVisualisation of Notifiable Diseases for Disease Surveillance Systems in Europe. AGILE GIScience Ser., 4, 46, https://doi.org/10.5194/agile-giss-4-46-2023
2021 Public health needs GIScience (like now), AGILE GIScience Ser
for more examples check out the publications
justine blanford GIS Geography GIScience Health Disaster planetary health geohealth vaccination malaria geoAI klass geographic information medicine measles cholera flood heat temperature WASH bicycle accessibility earth observation remote sensing UAV drones worms parasite mental health education python esri arcgis geoda arcgispro geospatial
geohealth ITC
geohealth university twente
Justine Blanford
spatial data rainfall green spaces
Google Sites
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