Adding Neighborhood Context to Hotspot Mapping: The use of Spatial Video as a Geonarrative tool

Geographic analysis of health or crime events, such as the location of sexually transmitted infections or drug arrests, is usually limited to a single point in time and space. It is unrealistic to think that a geographically defined hotspot tells “the whole story”. Current trends in both health and crime analysis are to break apart the spatial nuance within the hotspot in terms of micro places. It is important to contextualize the buildings, streets and spaces within the elevated area. The spatial video approach offers the means to capture typically unavailable ephemeral fine scale data and for multiple time periods. In addition, spatial video can be used as a tool to collect geonarratives, which can be defined as environment inspired dialogue. The insights of residents, volunteers and professionals can be used to describe the context and importance of buildings, streets, corners, and the perceived impact of different interventions. This paper will provide an overview of the method using examples from different studies: infectious and chronic disease analysis in Los Angeles, where geonarratives are used to describe activity spaces, and the “good” and “bad” places in the neighborhood. Secondly, Akron, OH will be used to illustrate how geonarratives can be overlaid to provide a comprehensive bottom-up understanding of the crime-health nexus using a variety of different perspectives, including community police, ex-offender, and local resident. This paper will describe the methodology involved, protocols that will result in a successful geonarrative, and how these spatially encoded textual streams can be mapped and analyzed.