Visualising and tracking homicide cases in New York City
Reports filed at the New York Police Department and in the courts can be now be visualized in an interactive map that has been released by the new york times. The map outlines the frequencies and more vital information on the crime report.
Read the full story from NY Times here
Source: NY Times NY REGION
http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map
Renice Obure, Research Intern, Vertices, gis@vertices.org
Mapping Toilets in Mumbai Slums Yields Unexpected Results
In the Mumbai slum known as Cheeta Camp, lavatory facilities are dismal, and this issue is quite alarming from an urban public health perspective, as it deals with sanitation.
James Potter and several students from the Harvard School of Public Health who traveled to Mumbai to research the city’s slums decided to create a map of Cheeta Camp’s toilets. Variables were investigated like where they were located, who had put them up, how they functioned, and if they were even operational. You can explore the map here.
As stated in the article, “the act of naming streets, counting citizens and mapping facilities turns information into an advocacy tool.” Certainly, gaining a better understanding of the location of toilets, availability, and ratio of toilets to people is an extremely valuable partition of information necessary in understanding urban public health in an environment of this nature.
The students have given the map to local NGO’s and the medical director of Cheeta Camp’s health center, who believe that this information will be helpful. Upon finalization of the map, the students from Harvard will present it to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, the city’s governing body.
Read the full article here.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Striking Differences in Life Expectancies in Baltimore Neighborhoods
City health data from Baltimore, Maryland illustrates a startling difference between the life expectancy of those in rich and poor neighborhoods. Life expectancy for those living the the richest neighborhoods is 20 years longer than for those in the poorest.
The Baltimore Sun used city data to develop an interactive map that illustrates these striking differences. The city of Baltimore has created Healthy Baltimore 2015, which is a plan to target the top 10 health-related ailments that are impacting people there. For the first time, the city is utilizing mapping in such a way that illustrates these specific and comprehensive goals, which include smoking cessation and obesity reduction.
Read the full article, and check out the interactive map.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
“Geo-medicine” Improving Public Health
“Geo-medicine” combines geographic information system (GIS) software with clinical databases. The resulting maps have been proven useful in providing insights that might improve individual and population health by revealing hidden disease patterns.
In healthcare, this approach is useful in finding correlations between health conditions and the geographical areas where patients live. For example, GIS maps can correlate health conditions and environmental factors in the areas where patients grew up in comparison to where they currently live to gain a better understanding of the implications of those varying environments on human health.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Mapping Women’s Reproductive Health in Texas
The Texas Tribune put together an interactive map to show how many pregnancies, births, and abortions occur across Texas. All of the data included was collected and published by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and is reflective of 2009.
The map shows some of the DSHS statistics broken down by age and race or ethnicity.
Source: The Texas Tribune
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Sunlight Maps for the City/Icarus
The Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai this week, officially becoming the tallest structure in the world. At the beginning of the 20th century, New York City adopted zoning ordinances in part to protect citizens from losing access to fresh air and sunlight from the increasingly tall buildings that were being constructed. Urban farming faces many barriers, but one of the most fundamental is available sunlight. Rural farms enjoy uninterrupted direct sunlight, but for urban farms and gardens adapting to their taller neighbors requires thought and planning. The sunlight demands of various crops can be selected by the available light hours of a site. Rooftop and vertical growing schemes can also provide improved light from ground-level lots. Urban agriculture is receiving a lot of promising attention as a means to both revitalize and humanize cities. In a December 27th article from the LA Times, investors in Detroit are considering urban farms as a means to bring the city back. For these lofty aspirations and even the humble ambitions of new urban residents that want to grow some of their own food, an urban sunlight map could prove invaluable. The nexus of GIS and sunlight in urban areas has primarily been utilized by engineering and architecture for energy efficiency and daylighting.
GIS is poised to be able to provide sunlight maps for use in agriculture, climate change reduction strategies, and even the preservation of historical buildings like churches whose stained glass windows once basked in full sunlight before being cast into shadow by skyscrapers.
Image from World Sunlight Map
For more about practical barriers to growing in the city: The New Wave of Urban Farming
For the connection between urban agriculture and combating climate change: Growing Skyscrapers
Carl Kunda, VERTICES intern
Tracking the Swine Flu Pandemic
Created on April 21, 2009 Dr. Henry Niman’s H1N1 Swine Flu Map has aggregated official sources, news reports and user-contributions to make the most accessible and accurate flu map. (http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com).
Daily, cumulative, and daily fatal statistics are provided with easy to understand bar charts that show monthly trends. The data is also offered freely for download (with lat/long coordinates for easy XY point rendering) allowing for further spatial analysis.
Swine Flu: Level 6!
So in case you have not been keeping up with recent reports, the WHO as well as the U.N. health officials have just announced and declared this week that Swine Flu is formally a pandemic. Because of this, there will be a speed up of vaccination production as well as government spending in order to combat the issue.
The announcement doesn’t mean that the virus is any more lethal, but only that its spread is considered unstoppable. Since the flu was first detected in late April in Mexico and the United States, swine flu has reached 74 countries, infecting nearly 29,000 people.
WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan (who is featured in the video above) made the long-awaited declaration after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts and said she was moving to phase 6 — the agency’s highest alert level — which means a pandemic is under way.
Scientists have grown to understand that the virus is generally not much more severe than the seasonal flu. So far, swine flu has caused 144 deaths, compared with ordinary flu that kills up to 500,000 people a year.But the virus can still be deadly and may change into a more frightening form in the near future, and so people should not be complacent.
For those of you wanting to keep track of the spread of the flu around the world, check out the sites below:
-
MSNBC – Flash Map showing cases of Swine Flu.
-
Google Earth – Dots shown on Google Earth that update over time.
-
Google Maps – Maps Showing locations of Flu
-
PandemicFlu.gov – The title says it all
For more information, please check out the full article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/un_un_swine_flu
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC
Rutgers Day!!
Rutgers Day on Saturday, April 25, 2009 will be great, big one-day show-and-tell for New Jersey, a celebration of our great state and a great university. There will be a lively mix of music, dance, contests, storytelling, lectures, demonstrations, and more. It’s big, it’s fun, it’s enlightening—and it’s free.
Bring your family and friends for a day of discovery. There are hundreds of things for you to do and see.
Dr. Wansoo Im will be making a special presentation at Scott Hall on the College Avenue campus throughout the day. Stop by to learn about the latest information in regards to mapping and Google Earth.
For more information, view this Rutgers Day Flyer!
Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC
HealthMap Global Disease Alert Map
HealthMap Global Disease Alert Map is a very interesting site that informs you of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This site gives credible real-time information from sources such as Google News, the World Health Organization, and ProMED and can be especially useful to public health officials, international travelers, and any one with a genuine interest in the emerging diseases around the world.
To visit this site, please click here.
Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC
GIS PILOT
If you need links regarding GIS, stop by GIS PILOT, the virtual library of GIS Links. This site gives you links that are focused on GIS from each of the 50 states. These sites include those related to assessor data and maps, satellite maps, as well as many GIS links. GIS PILOT at this point has around 2,000 GIS related links to help you find exactly what you are looking for.
Check out GIS PILOT by clicking this link.
Mapfish
Ever heard of Mapfish? No?
So what is MapFish? It is an open source development framework for the creation of web 2.0 mapping solution. MapFish has been configured to generate complex maps presenting data analysis. Mapfish provides both client and server (java and python). Client is built up on openlayers and added more functionalities. Mapfish client can be used with almost all other servers, and offers everything which open-layers has and more customised tools.
For more information on Mapfish, check out this video.
Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC
Google Maps Mobile for phones without GPS
Are you like me? Just slightly behind the times and don’t have a phone with GPS capabilities? Well, things have gotten a lot easier! The latest enhancement to Google Maps Mobile allows people that don’t have a GPS enabled phone to get approximate locations (within 1km) using mobile operator cell locations.
For more information about this, please view this informational video!
Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC
A Message from Dr. Im @ Vertices on the Geo Challenge Grants Application
Hello, all
As you may already know Google.org is providing Geo Challenge Grants Application, where your organization can apply for $5k-100k for community mapping project. Please refer to:
http://www.google.org/geochallenge.html
https://services.google.com/inquiry/geochallenge_apply
The application due date is 12/22. You need to provide no more than 5 pages of project description, which includes
- Full project description
- Detailed budget
- People required to complete the project, including those you‘ll need to hire
- Schedule with key milestones to get completion
As you already know, we specialize in public participatory geographic information system (PPGIS), aka community mapping. If you are interested in this grant, we will support as much as we can.
To help you with ideas, you can see some of our community mapping projects:
West Windsor Bike and Pedestrian Alliance Safe Route Inventory Map
Garfield Fitness, Nutrition, and Unity Project
New York Restroom
Interactive Mapping Rivers
or visit our PPGIS site http://www.ppgis.info
I look forward to talking to you in the few days.
Wansoo
Web site enables residents to find help through services
Want to know how to get help with an out-of-control child? Need assistance paying your gas bill? How about learning what youth programs are nearest your home and how to get there by bus? Well the answers are just one click away. CountyConnection.org offers users current online information about human service and health resources available in Pottawattamie County by using GIS technology paired with Google street maps. The site helps consumers locate resources and professionals find referrals for clients who need additional help. Any agencies that participate will be able to add, subtract or make changes anytime they want. It is geared for the average person using an at-home, library or agency computer system. If you don’t have a PC, no worries because agency personnel can easily print off maps and agency data for clients when needed.
If you have become interested in this service and would like to check it out further, please click here to read the full article.
Melissa Lawrence, Rutgers Student Intern, VERTICES, LLC
Malaria Atlas Project
The Malaria Atlas Project is a research project that was done at Oxford University. It included information dating back to the 80’s. This map gives us a better understanding of the places where malaria can be found throughout the world. Click here to get more information.
~ Evens
Tracking Dengue Fever In Singapore
SinGeo that is a new blog highlighted google earth resources relating to Singapore has put together a very useful geographical presentation of Dengue Fever in Singapore. Dengue fever is a febrile illness that affects infants, young children and adults. Dengue is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with any one of the four-dengue viruses. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. Symptoms appear 3 to 14 days after the infective bite (WHO). Through this map, we can see where in Singapore Dengue Fever has occurred in the year of 2007.
By Evens
Influenza and Pneumonia
This google map shows influenza and pneumonia (I&P) seasonality circulation throughout Brazil by modeling influenza related mortality and laboratory surveillance data. It provides information for monthly time series of I&P mortality for each of the 27 Brazilian states, started from December 31, 1996 to December 31 1999. One of the most important things to notice is how the influenza and pneumonia circulations match with the coldest season in the South, but not in the Equatorial region. De trended times series were analyzed to describe the amplitude and timing of annual and semiannual epidemic cycles. Each year, in each Brazilian state, mortality data were transforming from zero to one for a better visualization (Alonso).
By Evens
Phylogeny of Avian Influenza.
Phylogeny is the study of the evolution of a genetically related group of organisms as distinguished from the development of the individual organism (Merriam-Webster). To examine Avian Influenza or bird flu evolution, Biologist performed a phylogenetic analysis of the H5NI genome from 291 isolates, 259 of which were complete genomes. This map helps us to visualize when and where this incident took place.
By Evens
Who is sick in your area.
The new Google Maps Mashup is a good application that can helps you to find information on how healthy your community is. It helps you to track symptoms such as colds, flues and other bugs in your area. Google Maps Mashup is really easy to use but not accurate. You must start by entering your city and Zip code to see if other users have reported any sicknesses. You can aslo post your own illness and add any comment. The site has statistics and discussion forums for individual states and cities. The information is anonymous(Broida). The main idea is that if you learn about any symptom that is circulating in your community, you can take extra steps to avoid it. Who is Sick? By Evens Salomon
How Google Earth, Google Map and Ms Virutual Earth are being used
According to the International Journal of Health Geographics, the Web GIS in practice III is creating a simple interactive map of England’s Strategic Health Authorities using Google Maps API, Google Earth KML, and MSN Virtual Earth Map Control. Click here to read the electronic version of this article.
GIS is addressing Health Disparities in Access to Health Care.
What is Health Disparity?
Health Disparity is a failure of the healhcare system to provide equal, high quality health care to all individuals, regardless of ethnicity, race and other factors. Health Disparity should be viewed as a chain of events signified by a difference health status for racial and ethnic minority patients, access to health care, treatment, outcomes, the patient-physician relationship; the healthcare delivery system; language problems; understanding of cultural and folk illnesses; patient beliefs; provider biases and environment (Wikipedia). Whenever we talk about disparity we automatically see those two terms came up inequality and inequity.
New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in United State within a majority of the population; of which are mostly minorities are affected by health disparities. Minorities in New Jersey (NJ) are at a greater risk compared to whites for premature death and preventable disease. New Jersey was one of the first states to establish the Office of Minority Health in 1992. Nowadays, Geography information System (GIS) helps us to locate and to have a better understanding about language services NJ hospitals.
According Howard Waitzkin, a physician and medical sociologist, studied information given in medical care and found that social class and cultures differences, and language barriers were the most important factors in doctors-patients communications. However, with theuage help of GIS people are able to find a hospital in their area that is accommodating to their cultures, that respects their customs and speaks their languages, or provides a translator, so that they receive the best healthcare experience possible.
Click here to find more about how GIS is actively addressing Health Disparities in access to Health Care.
by
Evens Salomon
Health Map
The health map is a global disease alert map that helps the world to be aware of any infectious disease outbreaks and any disparaties. It provides a lot of information about many infectious diseases outbreaks, influenza, vaccines, health outcomes and their severities as well. In addition, the health map helps the world to understand how many infectious diseases impact people health,the environment and the economies . It also provides useful information about many epidemiological studies that have being done in the past by many organizations such as CDC and WHO about infectious diseases and on how to response to any expected and unexpected outbreaks. This map is a way that many countries used to share and to gain information about any incoming infectious disease outbreaks, vaccines and any health disparities in other to keep the world safe and healthy place to leave (healthmap.org).
For more information about Health Map please visit this following website http://www.healthmap.org
