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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Marie Lynn Miranda¹, Beth Anderson², Maureen Avakian³, Mark Ellisman⁴, Meredith Golden⁵, Jonathan Goodall⁶, Abel Lin⁷, Lindell Ormsbee⁸, Keith Pezzoli⁹, Andy Hull¹, William Suk², Robert Tukey¹⁰, Claudia Thompson², and Bill Wheaton¹¹. (1) Children's Environmental Health Initiative, Duke University, Box 90328, Durham, NC 27708-0328, 919-613-8023, mmiranda@duke.edu, (2) Division of Extramural Research and Training Center for Risk and Integrated Sciences, NIEHS, MD EC-27, P.O. Box 112233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, (3) Michael D. Baker Communications, 2530 Meridian Parkway, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27713, (4) Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilmas Drive, # 0608, La Jolla, CA 92093-0608, (5) CIESIN, Science Applications Division, Geosciences, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, P.B. Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964, (6) Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Levine Science Research Center, Research Drive, A207B, Durham, NC 27708, (7) Center for Research in Biological Systems, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, # 0608, La Jolla, CA 92093-0608, (8) Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, 354F Oliver Raymond Building (CE/KTC) 0281, Lexington, KY 40506, (9) Urban Studies and Planning, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, #0517, La Jolla, CA 92093-0517, (10) Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, #0722, La Jolla, CA 92093-0722, (11) RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

The 2005 hurricane season demonstrated the importance of integrating geographic information systems (GIS) with environmental health research. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the timely collection and distribution of data concerning potential environmental health hazards became a necessity to ensure public health for both the short and long term. The NIEHS, in collaboration with the Children's Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) at Duke University, the University of California at San Diego, Columbia University, University of Kentucky, Research Triangle Institute, and San Diego State University has created an interactive web based GIS portal that integrates existing publicly available spatial data with disaster specific datasets within the context of a user-friendly and highly customizable research environment. The spatial datasets contained within the portal include basic infrastructure data such as roads and electric power plants, potential contaminant sources including Superfund and toxic release inventory sites, hurricane damage layers, census data, physiographic data, and remote sensing imagery of both pre and post Katrina.

The Hurricane Response Portal is intended to be used by groups of environmental health researchers who need a common workspace for creating, sharing, and viewing datasets as well as GIS users who need to take advantage of the varying perspectives offered by GIS. The Portal seeks to provide the resources and the environment to address the four major environmental and public health issues arising from the hurricane: respiratory health, debris management, contaminant transport, and mental health.

Learning Objectives:

• 1.Discuss how the GIS web portal can be used to help answer environmental health research questions.
• 2.Emphasize the importance of integrating GIS into all levels of research on the environmental health impacts of natural disasters.
• 3.Discuss the need for web based research environments that facilitate inter-group cooperation.

Keywords: Geographic Information Systems,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No