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Innovations
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Environmental Health Issues Kellyn S. Betts Abstract
Geographic information system (GIS) technology is used to compile and present the epidemiological data required for making public health risk assessments. The data entered into a GIS database can come from a range of sources of varying resolution. Once they are layered atop one another, the GIS software clarifies the geographical relationships between the various sets of data–associating each datum with a point on a map–and acts as a tool for analyzing and exploring their spatial and temporal relationships.
The 1990 U.S. Census data were the first to be distributed in GIS form. Today, this census database includes much more than just who lives where. It also shows support structures such as roads, railroads, even schools and churches. By 1995, the Epidemiology Monitor pronounced the emerging use of GIS technology one of the ten most notable developments in the field of epidemiology.
The power of a GIS to seamlessly link together data gleaned from a wide variety of sources and present them in such an accessible and professional fashion has proven both a blessing and a curse. Everyone agrees that the software enhances researchers' ability to consider the spatial component of exposure.
Yet even the technology's most ardent enthusiasts qualify their praise, because the pictures a GIS paints can appear to convey more than they actually do ; once epidemiological and exposure data are pulled into a GIS, the polished presentation afforded by the software can make the data look more conclusive than it truly is. Unfortunately, this has resulted in some poorly executed studies, in addition to a volume of more rigorous work.
Still, there is universal consensus that a GIS can be useful at the beginning of an environmental epidemiology or risk assessment study. When chosen carefully, the data consolidated by a GIS can help environmental epidemiologists refine exposure and reduce misclassification. Coupled with statistical analysis techniques, a GIS can also support decision making.
[Full Article] Last Update: September 4, 1997
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