Crossing the Great Digital Divide: GIS in

Crossing the Great Digital Divide:
GIS in Community Services
Regional Municipality of Waterloo
Jennifer MacLeod
Tim van Vliet
Introduction
• GIS has been used by the Region for many years
• Use has been confined to core users in the traditional
areas of Planning & Engineering
• Social Services and Community Health have had little or
no knowledge of GIS technology
• Increase in mapping technologies due to advancements
in web based applications and freeware
• Examine various projects at the Region in the areas of
Social Services and Community Health
Social Services
Projects
• Income Support Office Site Selection
• Early Years Program
Income Support Office Site Selection
Goal: To determine the ideal location based on
maximum clients serviced from each potential site.
• Postal code mapping based on client address and
classification (ie: single parent family)
• Geocoding was performed on postal code points
•ensure privacy of the clients
•accuracy
• Potential sites were then plotted and buffer created
• Analysis determined the number of people served within
each incremental radius of selected sites
Income Support Office Site Selection
Early Years Program
Goal: To create a geographic layer from several existing
databases and compare it to census information for
children aged 0-6.
• Ontario Government initiative to create “Early Years
Centers”
• Map the locations of all currently available public
service programs
• Map the density of children aged 0-6 in the various
neighbourhoods along with the areas of higher risk
Early Years Program
Early Years Program
Early Years Program
The future:
• To use the mapping to help locate the sites for the
Early Years Centres
• To produce a web site using ArcIMS technology
that will provide this information to the public
Community Health
Projects
• Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Mapping
• Blood Drives locations
• Dental Health facilities
• Tobacco Control Act
• Public Health Inspections
• West Nile Virus
STD Mapping
Goal: To determine target areas for education
concerning STDs.
• Project performed in 1997 and 2000
• 1997 mapped incident by postal code only
• 2000 mapped locations and calculated rates for Central
Planning Districts (CPD)s
• Analyzed rates set by Ministry of Health based on
incident per 100,000 people
• CPDs with higher than average rates are targeted for
intensive education programs
STD Yearly Cases
STD Yearly Rates
Blood Drive Clinics
Goal: To produce a map of potential blood drive clinics.
• Clinics could be in schools, churches and community
centres
• Geocoding
• Location mapping
Cambridge Blood Drive Clinics
Dental Health
Goal: To determine and map dental locations.
• Geocoding of addresses
• Maps created for public showing office locations
• Used for education and awareness
• Problems encountered with address formats
Tobacco Control Act & Public Health
Inspections
Goal: To geocode all existing premises and to map the
geographic areas.
• Tobacco Control Act (TCA)
• Public Health Inspections (PHI)
Tobacco Inspections
Database
Public Health
Inspections Database
Premise Database
Tobacco Control Act & Public Health
Inspections
• Geographic Areas
• Better distribution of inspectors
• Future: integrate the database applications with the
mapping software
• Intranet ArcIMS site
West Nile Virus
Goal: To create a database and mapping to track the
collection of dead birds.
• Major public health issue
• Access database used for data collection
• Addresses geocoded
• Allows for analysis and planning
• ArcIMS service and ArcExplorer software for viewing
• Future of project
West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus
Challenges
• Standardizing address information
• No definite standard
• Standards are not always followed
• Lack of funding of social service projects
• Leads to a lack of data maintenance
• Data can become obsolete
• Duplication of work
Conclusions
• Huge benefit to using GIS in under utilized areas such
as Community Health and Social Services
• Our goal is to bridge the digital divide
• Bring new tools to non-traditional GIS users
Early Years Program
“The GIS mapping support that we have had in our project has been a
very powerful tool for expressing a great deal of information in a way
that can be easily grasped. We have found that these maps elevate the
level of discussion about action plans.”
Andrew Taylor
Centre for Research and Education in Human Services
“... has provided a new visual level of children's services data that has not
been available in our community before. This new level of information
will be invaluable for planning purposes for children's services, especially
as we begin to learn more about what additional pieces of information
can be mapped.”
Janet McCreary
Community Coordinator
Early Years Project, Waterloo Region
West Nile Virus
“The GIS system implemented helped us by producing maps of
potential mosquito breeding grounds including storm water
management ponds. We were also able to geographically identify all
dead bird submissions. Although it was not required, it would allow
us to develop address lists that could be used within predetermined
limits, around positive cases. This would allow us to concentrate
control measures in those areas by identifying breeding sites and
homes which should possibly get information regarding health risks.
The basic data also allowed us to quickly provide media and key
agencies with up to date information and look for clusters of dead
birds in certain areas. Once a dead bird is found positive for WNV
that surveillance is no longer required thus the GIS system would
allow us to concentrate on areas where virus activity is unknown.
The system that was developed met my expectations and I fully
expect this to continue as new data and layers are added to it.”
Shawn Zentner
Supervisor, Environmental Health and Lifestyle Resources Division
Community Health Department
Crossing the Great Digital Divide:
GIS in Community Services
Regional Municipality of Waterloo
Jennifer MacLeod mjennife@region.waterloo.on.ca
Tim van Vliet
vtim@region.waterloo.on.ca
RMW (GIS) Locator http:// locator.region.waterloo.on.ca