GIS in Environmental Public Health: Local Perspectives Lisa Swanson, Health Officer Data Management/GIS

VOTERS ELECTED OFFICIALS (Sheriff, Attorney, Treasurer, Auditor, Recorder) ELECTED Board of Supervisors $ BOARDS $ COUNTY DEPARTMENTS (MIS, Engineer, Maintenance, Shelter, Community Serv, CPC, Veterans Affairs, Human Resources) Health Dept Conser- vation Emer. Manag. Human Services ADMINISTRATION Child Health EH Comm. Health

Environmental health comprises those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by interactions with Physical Chemical Biological Social ….factors in the environment

It also refers to the theory and practice of Assessing Correcting Controlling Preventing those factors in the environment that may adversely affect the health of present and future generations. (From the Pew Environmental Health Commission)

Virtually all of the factors that have impact on our living environment are measurable and have a spatial component that can be geographically evaluated.

Black Hawk County Environmental Health ► Water Quality ► Food Licensing/Regulatory Inspections ► Disease Prevention ► On-site Waste Management/Permitting ► Mosquito Surveillance/Prevention Tracking ► Nuisance control ► Environmental Contamination ► Air Quality ► Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention

Environmental Projects ► Childhood Lead  Blood Test Results  Problem Housing  Needs Assessment, justification for grant applications ► Private well monitoring ► Inspection routing/zoning ► Mosquito larvaciding inventory ► Leaking Underground Storage Tanks ► Proposed well sites ► Environmental assessments

Public Health Projects ► Community Health zones ► Sexually Transmitted Disease distributions ► Underage Drinking project  Crash Data, Drink Specials, Citation data  Education Efforts

Private Water Well Testing ► Grants-to-Counties program  Funds for the Grants-to-Counties program are provided as mandated by the Groundwater Protection Act of 1987 ► Testing routines ► Tracking nitrate trends, problem areas ► Post-flood revisits ► Well inspections  Attributes, condition, location (GPS) ► DNR PWTS system  Well registration

Area of recent water testing activity CEDAR FALLS Areas that haven’t had recent testing

Using GIS to generate route plans ► Select parcels with house numbers in target area  Entire township, along a street, rural development  Residential housing vs. commercial or farm land ► Remove from selection those that intersect with test results >2006  Query builder, select by attribute or location, method ► Export listing of residents left in the selection. ► Send mailing announcing testing  Mail-merge form letters & envelopes

Well Permitting ► Regulatory ► Approval based on site assessment and health department evaluation ► LUST sites database (IDNR)  1000ft issue  Plume issue ► Next level of assessment ► Separation Distance grant project

Environmental Assessments

Incorporating the Site Assessments each chemical = layer 2-5 layers per site control points used to georeference Control points

Disease Vector/Mosquito Surveillance ► West Nile Virus ► Partnerships with ISU entomologists  Light trap data  Sentinel chicken flock ► UNI biologists – graduate students ► Larvaciding efforts  Chemical tracking  Reapplication  Activity

Distribution of State Monitoring Sites

Source:

GIS benefits the surveillance effort ► Identification of problem areas  DOT data for ditch condition  Flood plain data  Program/activity history  Field officer experience ► Treatment records  Reapplication – treatment effectiveness  Inventory ► Field maps, GPS  Accuracy  Time efficiency

In Summary ► Reduced “guess work” and estimation ► Planning efficiency ► Program tracking ► Demonstration of need, trends

Health GIS Community in Iowa ► Small web-based forum for support and resource sharing among new and established GIS users in the health field ► Iowa Geographic Information Council (IGIC)

Lisa Swanson Questions?