Tip Sheets

Mapping health data for local stories: Links to GIS software, data and resources

Compiled by Brian Kaplan, Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
ph. 404-498-0503 | fax 404-498-0089; bkaplan@cdc.gov

Download an MP3 of Kaplan's presentation. 

CDC GIS

• National Center for Health Statistics, GIS and Public Health
• Gather Map Server
• CDC's GIS and Public Health Web Page
• CDC's Public Health GIS News and Information
• Using GIS to Assess Direct Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention

Online GIS Resources and Health-Based Journals

• ESRI's GIS for Health and Human Services including links to the Healthy GIS Newsletter
• International Society of Exposure Analysis with a regular journal which has included GIS articles in their journal and conferences.
  
• International Journal of Health Geographics, an open access journal
  

Misc

• AI-GEOSTATS, a Web site for spatial statistics.

Free GIS Software

• The Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS)
• Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS)
• Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance
• GeoDa - free visualization software and statistics
• The Generic Mapping Tool - This works with the UNIX operating system which can be installed as a program running in Windows.
• Maptool works with the Generic Mapping Tool with good examples of maps.
• MapMaker
• Diva-GIS
• Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance -free software for visualization and analysis.
• SatScan - free statistical software
• EPI Info
• ArcGIS Explorer
• Google Earth
• NASA's World Wind

Other Software

• EPIAnalyst Extension: Some free software
• GeoVista Studio
• ClusterSeer: Statistical software
• MapInfo (see industry specific web pages)

Online Mapping

• http://maps.google.com/
• http://local.live.com/

Training

There are many. Here are two:

• "All About GIS and Public Health" (Selfpaced Online Learning Activity) by ATSDR (begins again January 2008)
• Advanced Boot Camp on Mapping, from IRE and NICAR

An incredible amount of data and software

• Long Island Geographic Information System (LI GIS); http://www.ligis.org/

Open source information

• http://freegis.org/
• http://opensourcegis.org/

Data

• National Atlas
• U.S. Census
• U.S. EPA Envirofacts and http://geodata.epa.gov/
• U.S. EPA Basins
• U.S. Geological Survey; http://water.usgs.gov/maps.html http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis
• Mineral resources data including soil concentrations
• GeoVista Center
• National Cancer Institute Cancer Maps
  http://www.statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/index.html
  http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/cancercontacts/npcr/contacts.asp
• NCI GIS User's Group
• CDC Wonder
• Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). CIESIN works at the intersection of the social, natural, and information sciences, and specializes in online data and information management, spatial data integration and training, and interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment.
• Inter-University Consortium For Political And Social Research (ICPSR). ICPSR is the world's largest archive of digital social science data.
• Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science
• State GIS Clearinghouses and other agency links by State
• U.S. Navy's Geospatial Information Database (GIDB®) Portal System
• Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data
• 2005 Individual Income Tax Return Statistics by Zip Code

Books

• Maps with the News, The Development of American Journalistic Cartography" by Mark Monmonier. University Of Chicago Press (March 1, 1989), 348 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0226534114
• "How to Lie with Maps, " by Mark Monmonier , H. J. de Blij. (2nd Edition) (Paperback), University Of Chicago Press; Second edition (May 1, 1996), 207 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0226534213
• "Mapping the News , Case Studies in GIS and Journalism," David Herzog. ESRI Press (July 1, 2003), 164 pages. ISBN: 1-58948-072-4.
• "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information," Edward R. Tufte. Graphics Press (January 1997).

Online Resources

• Investigative Reporters and Editors
• National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting
• JAGIS-L - JAGIS stands for "Journalism And GIS." A Yahoo Users Group hosted by Tom Johnson
• ESRI User's Group for Journalism
• ESRI ArcNews Online, Summer 2004; "Crossing Borders" Mapping the News; A quarterly column by Doug Richardson, Executive Director, Association of American Geographers
• Institute for Analytic Journalism; Tom Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Journalism with work in GIS, is co-director of the Institute of Analytic Journalism
• General GIS Links
• Environmental Health Watch with public health and maps
• National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program
  

Selected Geographers or Social Scientists using GIS

• Dr. Susan L. Cutter: Understanding Katrina Perspectives from the Social Sciences
• Hazard Research
  
• Dr. Nancy Krieger (Social Disparities of Health)
• The Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project Monograph: This Web site shows maps of social disparity and years lost due to unfavorable social economic level and methodology to create your own.

Map Library

• Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at UT Austin

Miscellaneous

• Color Selection for Maps
• Avian Flu-Declan Butler at Nature.