This clear and accessible text helps public health students and officials gain a solid understanding of geographic information systems technology. Using examples drawn from public health practice, the author shows how to best harness the opportunities of this exciting technological development.

Authoritative and comprehensive, this is the leading text and professional resource on using geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze and address public health problems. Basic GIS concepts and tools are explained, including ways to access and manage spatial databases. The book presents state-of-the-art methods for mapping and analyzing data on population, health events, risk factors, and health services, and for incorporating geographical knowledge into planning and policy. Numerous maps, diagrams, and real-world applications are featured. The companion Web page provides lab exercises with data that can be downloaded for individual or course use. New to This Edition *Incorporates major technological advances, such as Internet-based mapping systems and the rise of data from cell phones and other GPS-enabled devices. *Chapter on health disparities. *Expanded coverage of public participation GIS. *Companion Web page has all-new content. *Goes beyond the United States to encompass an international focus.

This clearly written resource provides a comprehensive introduction to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in analyzing and addressing public health problems. The book guides the reader through basic GIS concepts and methods, with an emphasis on practical applications. Described are ways that GIS can be used to map health events, identify disease clusters, investigate environmental health problems, understand the spread of communicable and vector-borne infectious disease, and more. Numerous tables, figures, and concrete examples are included. The companion website features downloadable GIS databases that allow readers to practice a variety of spatial analytical techniques.

Geospatial health data are essential to inform public health and policy. These data can be used to quantify disease burden, understand geographic and temporal patterns, identify risk factors, and measure inequalities. Geospatial Health Data: Modeling and Visualization with R-INLA and Shiny describes spatial and spatio-temporal statistical methods and visualization techniques to analyze georeferenced health data in R. The book covers the following topics: Manipulate and transform point, areal, and raster data, Bayesian hierarchical models for disease mapping using areal and geostatistical data, Fit and interpret spatial and spatio-temporal models with the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximations (INLA) and the Stochastic Partial Differential Equation (SPDE) approaches, Create interactive and static visualizations such as disease maps and time plots, Reproducible R Markdown reports, interactive dashboards, and Shiny web applications that facilitate the communication of insights to collaborators and policy makers. The book features fully reproducible examples of several disease and environmental applications using real-world data such as malaria in The Gambia, cancer in Scotland and USA, and air pollution in Spain. Examples in the book focus on health applications, but the approaches covered are also applicable to other fields that use georeferenced data including epidemiology, ecology, demography or criminology. The book provides clear descriptions of the R code for data importing, manipulation, modeling and visualization, as well as the interpretation of the results. This ensures contents are fully reproducible and accessible for students, researchers and practitioners.

Health issues such as the emergence of infectious diseases, the potential influence of global warming on human health, and the escalating strain of increasing longevity and chronic conditions on healthcare systems are of growing importance in an increasingly peopled and interconnected world. A geographic approach to the study of health offers a critical perspective to these issues, considering how changing relationships between people and their environments influence human health. An Introduction to the Geography of Health provides an accessible introduction to this rapidly growing field, covering theoretical and methodological background. The text is divided into three sections which consider distinct approaches and techniques related to health geographies. Section one introduces ecological approaches, with a focus on how natural and built environments affect human health. For instance, how have irrigation projects influenced the spread of water-borne diseases? How can modern healthcare settings, such as hospitals, affect the spread and evolution of pathogens? Section two discusses social aspects of health and healthcare, considering health as not merely a biological interaction between a pathogen and human host, but as a process that is situated among social factors which ultimately drive who suffers from what, and where disease occurs. Section three then considers spatial techniques and approaches to exploring health, giving special focus to the growing role of cartography and geographic information systems (GIS) in the study of health. This clearly written text contains a range of pedagogical features including a wealth of global case studies, discussion questions and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, a colour plate section and over eighty diagrams and figures. The accompanying website also provides presentations, exercises, further resources, and tables and figures. This book is an essential introductory text for undergraduate students studying Geography, Health and Social Studies.

An integrated approach that combines essential GIS background with a practical workbook on applying the principles in ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1 Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGISintegrates a broad introduction to GIS with a software-specific workbook for Esri's ArcGIS. Where most courses make do using two separate texts, one covering GIS and another the software, this book enables students and instructors to use a single text with an integrated approach covering both in one volume with a common vocabulary and instructional style. This revised edition focuses on the latest software updates—ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1. In addition to its already successful coverage, the book allows students to experience publishing maps on the Internet through new exercises, and introduces the idea of programming in the language Esri has chosen for applications (i.e., Python). A DVD is packaged with the book, as in prior editions, containing data for working out all of the exercises. This complete, user-friendly coursebook: Is updated for the latest ArcGIS releases—ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1 Introduces the central concepts of GIS and topics needed to understand spatial information analysis Provides a considerable ability to operate important tools in ArcGIS Demonstrates new capabilities of ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1 Provides a basis for the advanced study of GIS and the study of the newly emerging field of GIScience Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS, Third Edition is the ideal guide for undergraduate students taking courses such as Introduction to GIS, Fundamentals of GIS, and Introduction to ArcGIS Desktop. It is also an important guide for professionals looking to update their skills for ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1.

Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences: Investigating Space and Place is the first book to take a cutting-edge approach to integrating spatial concepts into the social sciences. In this text, authors Steven J. Steinberg and Sheila L. Steinberg simplify GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for practitioners and students in the social sciences through the use of examples and actual program exercises so that they can become comfortable incorporating this research tool into their repertoire and scope of interest. The authors provide learning objectives for each chapter, chapter summaries, links to relevant Web sites, as well as suggestions for student research projects.