Geographic Information Science for Public and Environmental Health

Geographic information systems (GIS) have emerged as an important tool for performing health and environmental analyses. GIS is generally seen as a spatial analysis system for the organization, storage, retrieval, and analysis of data for which the location and other spatial attributes are considered important (e.g., incidence of a specific disease condition in relation to a pollution source). GIS also encompasses the organizational structure, personnel, software, and hardware needed to support spatial analysis. For many health and social scientists, GIS has evolved into a new lens for viewing their work. The course will provide students with an introduction to this exciting and expanding field of inquiry. On successful completion of the course you should possess the following skills and knowledge: 1) A basic understanding of the fundamental geographic and cartographic concepts that underlie GIS. 2) Working knowledge of ArcGIS, a powerful desktop GIS software package that runs in a Windows environment. 3) Introductory knowledge of past, present, and possible future applications of GIS for health and environmental studies.