Tingyi’s Geob479 blog

Spatial data is of great concern to population health studies. People and entities do not exist in a vacuum, and as such are influenced by and influence those around them. This can lead to geographically correlated issues where space and place are of huge importance, hence the need for GIS in health studies.Spatial epidemiology provides a framework to examine the influences of space and place on
health. Space and place can often be used as surrogates for influences on health

Major application for GIS includes the following four:

1. Spatial epidemiology
2. Environmental hazards
3. Modeling Health Services
4. Identifying health inequalities

The use of GIS in health geography also comes with some limitations. One key issue is that of data. Flawed data leads to flawed analyses. Also, people are extremely dynamic, and it is difficult to take all the possible variables into account.

Major issues: Spatial Misalignment; Uncertainty; Best Plactices…