Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany

WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management

and Risk Communication
The benefit of GIS-reporting
in the context of
Water-related Health
Dr. Ina Wienand (MSc GIS)
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Why using GIS in the context
of Water & Health?
Water-related health is a matter of spatial aspects
high interoperability with environmental conditions
like precipitation, soil, aquifer, geology, temperature
chemical aspects
water infrastructure
epidemiology of water-related diseases
GIS is able to show the spatial distribution of water-
related health data as thematic maps with different
layers while using tables and data in the background
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Concept of GIS
Geo-
database
.
.
.
.
.
.
Data recording
Data
organization
+ +
Data analysis
Data output
tables
lines
+
points
polygons
vector raster attribute data
tables
maps
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS versus Web-GIS
Geo-
database
Storing data
in a geodatabase
Implementing data
into a desktop GIS
Implementing
data into
the Web-GIS
Desktop-GIS: ArcGIS 9
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
What are the advantages of GIS reporting?
GIS presentation, layout and classification
can be easily modified and adopted towards
individual data
GIS include an extensive list of functions for
analyzing and visualizing spatial data
GIS can be permanently updated and maps can be
produced in a very short time
GIS can be used by advanced professionals and
distributed to a large audience (e.g. internet)
GIS software does not have to be expensive
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Web-GIS mapping on a cross-national level
Getting information for the
selected country
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Web-GIS mapping on a cross-national level
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Development of a Web-GIS approach
on a cross-national level
Differences to other static internet maps
selecting different layers (overlay layers)
zooming in and out (dynamic map)
selecting a specific region on a map
getting information of a specific country which is
stored in the background for all years
labeling layers
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS mapping
on a national level
Giardiasis incidence in
Germany on the district
level from 2001 to 2003
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS mapping
on a national level
Extreme values of
Giardiasis incidence
in Germany

Spatial statistical analysis
(poisson distribution)
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS mapping
on a national level
Surface water
abstraction
per inhabitant in the
year 2001 in Germany
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS mapping
on a national level
Inhabitants per
drinking water
extracting plant
in Germany in 2001
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS mapping on the catchment level
Prioritizing
landuse risks
(according
to the
WSP concept)
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS mapping on the catchment level
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Desktop-GIS mapping on the catchment level
Vulnerable
population
groups and
residents
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Data required by the progress monitoring system
of the Protocol on Water and Health have a spatial
component -> GIS is an ideal reporting tool
GIS is flexible in respect of integrating and combining
other additional information into one reporting system
There are GIS standards available (OGC -> Open
Geospatial Consortium) which provide a platform for
interchanging data, models and results
Results and future prospects I
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Results and future prospects II
GIS analysis shows the identification of critical areas
and provides therefore political action on a local basis
GIS reporting can be fully adopted in the Water
Safety Plan approach (WSP)
GIS forms the basis of an effective public
communication tool
Costs can be mitigated by using Open Source
software and moving from desk-top applications to
Web-based GIS systems
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
The level of data collection differs between
countries (e.g. district or catchment areas)
Methods measuring, collecting and preprocessing
data have to be standardized
Data descriptions have to be included into the
metadata or refer to an external file of definition
As a result data can be analyzed on a cross-national
level and allow conclusions which cannot be reached
on local basis
Future needs for GIS reporting
on a cross-national level?
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Scheme of Cross-national GIS reporting
Country I Country II Country III
National Desktop GIS
Cross-
national
Web-GIS
etc.
Use standardized data
and metadata
Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, University of Bonn, Germany
WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management
and Risk Communication
Thank you for your attention! Questions?