This book demonstrates how GIS techniques and statistical methods can be used to emphasise the characteristics of population and its related variables, vis-à-vis care facilities and the status of vector borne diseases, as well as for malaria modeling. Concentrating on the Varanasi district of India, the main aim of the book is to determine and map the density areas of vector borne diseases using GIS techniques. The book explores how health GIS is an important sub-discipline of health science and medical geography, which is traditionally focused on the spatial aspects of disease ecology and health care facility analysis.

The geographies of health and development is an emerging sub-discipline, tying in with many of the conceptual, theoretical and practical components of other disciplines working in health, health care, economics, and international development. Spatially and theoretically grounded in geography, this collection offers a fresh perspective on the dialectic relationships between health and development. Health problems in a developing context take on much higher rates of prevalence as a result of the varied cultural, structural and economic vulnerabilities of the people they impact. This book begins by exploring some of the circumstances surrounding the distinctive health inequities currently facing many developing countries, including malaria, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS. This is followed by a discussion of how matters of physical access and human resource issues and, perhaps most importantly, the challenges of financing, together shape the access and utilization of health care. Examining how the environment interacts to influence the health of the people that live there, the next section includes discussion around challenges of food (in)security, and the importance of clean and uncontaminated water for health. Finally, the book explores the influence of globalization on health, specifically within the urban environment, against the backdrop of global health policy.