Sheldon Margen Public Health Library
1 University Hall
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/gis.html

Public Health GIS Resources

Organizations and Agencies

California Environmental Health Tracking Program

"The goal of the CEHTP is to develop a comprehensive plan for a standards-based, coordinated, and integrated system, at the state level, that enables public health actions through linkage, monitoring, reporting, and communication of health effects and environmental hazards and exposure data." GIS and other tools are integral to this process.

CEHTP Centralized Geocoding Demonstration is an example of "a centralized geocoding service that is available over the network, secure, interoperable, easy to integrate with existing reporting mechanisms, easy to implement (modular, platform independent, and extensible), and has high geocode success rates." The data is available on a map, satellite image and as raw data.

Geographic Information Science Center (UC Berkeley)

GISC coordinates the acquisition, instruction, deployment, and development of geographic information technologies on the campus. They provide computer infrastructure support; shared hardware resources; distribution of site licensed software; specialized instructional classes and seminars; data development, repository and access; consulting services; programming support; community building; and outreach. The site has links to available datasets and information on their projects and research activities.

Geographic Information Systems (National Cancer Institute)

This site has information on GIS activities at the NCI, including links to data, funding information, state cancer profiles, and more. It also includes links to GIS resources and tools.

Geographic Information Systems in Health (GIS-EPI) (Pan American Health Organization)

"This web site facilitates the dissemination of information related to GIS in Epidemiology and Public Health in the Americas, the exchange of ideas and experiences, the progress achieved and future projections in this area, and the strengthening of collaborating groups, techinical cooperation, and community of users." The five sections include: Applications, Databases, Software, Training and Dissemination.

SIGEpi is a GIS software developed by PAHO for applications in Epidemiology and Public Health. It offers a set of techniques, procedures, and methods for the analysis of epidemiological data.

GIS and Public Health (U.S. CDC)

This site provides links to Public Health GIS News and Information, mortality maps, a calendar of GIS events, and links to national atlases, mapping tools, and more.

Mapping and Analysis for Public Safety (MAPS)

"The MAPS program supports research into spatial aspects of crime, spatial data analysis, mapping and analysis for evaluating programs and policy, as well as development of mapping, data sharing, and spatial analysis tools. MAPS also sponsors conferences and workshops and publishes reports." The site contains software, publications, data, training information and more.

Poverty Mapping

This site contains dozens of maps on many topics, including health, food security, water and sanitation, and more. There are also numerous reports on poverty mapping methods, poverty and environment, and more. The numerous country case studines include reports, data and geospatial data, and maps.

Public Health Mapping and GIS Programme (WHO)

This web site describes WHO's role in promoting and implementing GIS to support decision-making for a wide range of infectious disease and public health programs. Included are tools and applications, descriptions of programs and country partners.

The Communicable Disease Global Atlas allows data queries and interactive mapping for analysis and comparison of standardized data and statistics for infectious diseases at country, regional, and global levels. The analysis and interpretation of data are further supported through information on demography, socioeconomic conditions, and environmental factors.

GeoNetwork is a database that provides access to spatial data and information produced by WHO, FAO, UNEP, CIESIN, NASA, and many others. Searchable by country or other geographic region, and by keyword.

Publications, Databases and Applications

BRFSS Maps ( National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC)

Portal to a tool that will create maps from BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System) data in over 12 categories, including exercise, alcohol consumption, health status, and more.

California Environmental Information Catalog (California Resources Agency)

CEIC "is an online directory for reporting and discovery of information resources for California. Participants include cities, counties, utilities, state and federal agencies, private businesses and academic institutions that have spatial and other types of data resources. The Catalog is a repository of information about environmental data resources in California" Data can be searched by contributor, keyword, resources type, and more.

Center for International Earth Science Information Network

CIESIN "works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in on-line data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment." Their site includes Tools and Applications (such as data conversion applications, geospatial database queries, and online mapping tools), metadata catalogs, free downloadable geospatial data, and more. The available resources are also browsable by subject.

CHAPIS (Community Health Air Pollution Information System)

An internet-based mapping tool that allows you to look at a map to view sources of air pollution.

ESRI: GIS and Mapping Software
NOTE: Access limited to UCB faculty, staff and students.

Through a promotional offer from ESRI, and in accordance with the campus-wide site license, ESRI software is available for free on a one year trial to students enrolled in GIS-related courses. The software must be requested by and delivered to a professor.

Geographic Information Systems in Public Health and Medicine:  Part 1,   Part 2  (Journal of Medical Systems, 28(3) and 28(4), 2004)
NOTE: Access limited to UCB faculty, staff and students.

These two issues contain several articles on different aspects of using GIS in public health analysis, including tools and examples of projects.

HealthyGIS

This newsletter, published by ESRI, contains news and information for GIS users in health and human services.

National Atlas of the United States

Produced by the US Geological Survey and other federal agencies, the National Atlas maps topics ranging from West Nile Virus to hazardous waste to reproductive health risk factors. It allows creation of custom maps on a vast array of subjects.

Neighborhood Knowledge California (UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge)

NKCA allows for the quick creation of multithematic GIS maps using health, economic, demographic or housing indicators. After regisering at the site, you can also save maps, create your own neighborhood areas, upload your own maps and data, and more.

PeriStats (March of Dimes)

PeriStats allows users to create custom maps of US, state, and county maternal and infant health data. Maps can be converetd to tables or bar graphs, if desired. When displayed, the maps also link to preformulated PubMed searches on relevant topics. There are also links to appropriate state agencies.

TOXMAP (U.S. National Library of Medicine)

TOXMAP allows users to create nationwide or local area maps using data from the U.S. EPA's Toxic Release Inventory. Users can search the system by chemical name, chemical name fragment, and/or location (such as city, state, or zip code). TOXMAP maps show where chemicals are released on-site into the air, water, and ground. It also identifies releasing facilities, single year releases, and chemical release trends over time. Also included are mortality data from the CDC and the National Cancer Institute, as well as age and gender data from US Census, and income data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. TOXMAP provides information/links from these resources:

- Toxic Release Inventory/TRI (EPA; NOTE: At this time, TOXMAP uses reported on-site releases only.)

- Hazardous Substances Data Bank/HSDB (NLM)

- TOXLINE and PubMed (NLM)

- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

- US EPA Superfund sites

US-Mexico Border Environmental Health Initiative

The major issues surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border involve economics and population growth that present challenges to environmental management and natural resource planning. This project's goal is to monitor trends and analyze the stresses to the environment, binational datasets and displaying the results in both data tables and in maps. You can find data tables of disease statistics by county as well as customizable maps detailing climate, infectious disease, boundaries, contaminants, etc.

Window to My Environment (US EPA)

This tool will create a map of your chosen location that shows regulated facilities, monitoring sites, water bodies, population density and more, with links to information about local water queality, Superfund sites, toxic releases, and more.

Guides

Maps and Atlases: Public Health (Humboldt State University Library)

Provides links to several public health maps and atlases, including:

Atlas of Cancer Mortality in the United States (US National Cancer Institute)

Atlas of Stroke Mortality (CDC)

Atlas of Children's Health and the Environment (WHO) and more.

Resources for Creating Public Health Maps (U.S. CDC)

This site has links to sources of geographic boundary data, U.S. state geographic data sources, demographic, health outcomes, and environmental and health risk exposure data, geostatistics and spatial analysis information, global public health GIS projects, software, public health and GIS overviews, and more.

Go to Public Health Resources on the Internet

Go to the Public Health Library Home page

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