Mapping Challenging Environments: How can mobile geospatial technologies be used to support intervention strategies in Crime, Disaster, Epidemic, and Informal (Slum) landscapes?

This presentation will focus on three broad research areas drawn from “challenging” environments where fine scale spatial and temporal data collection is either missing or limited. It will present an overview of current research projects being conducted by the GIS, Health & Hazards Lab at Kent State University where novel geospatial field collection approaches, especially the use of spatial video, are being used to overcome such limitations. The topical areas covered in this presentation include the health-crime nexus in declining cities of the United States, post-disaster damaged and recovering landscapes, and emerging epidemics as well as other health concerns associated with poverty in the developing world. The variety in these research areas has been chosen to show common threads in methodological development designed to overcome data collection challenges, and to (hopefully) spark interest from a broad range of conference participants. Indeed, the purpose of the talk is to suggest potential collaboration with rather than lecture at biometeorological researchers.

In this spirit, each subject area will be discussed from a perspective of the "scale of intervention", meaning data collection, analysis and insight dissemination will occur at a scale relevant for stakeholders focused on intervention. This scale primarily consists of micro-geographies. In developing world environments this scale might include a pathway through an informal settlement, or the location of standing water and trash both of which have disease implications. The "scale of intervention" also presents excellent opportunities for collaboration, because the focus, irrespective of discipline, is on what factors cause the problem, and then how to fix it. Traditionally this has meant project participation not only by researchers, but by communities, residents, experts and officials.

The presentation will focus mainly on novel geospatial data collection technologies, especially spatial video that can be used to collect fine scale spatial data suitable for spatial analysis where previously either no data was available, was extremely expensive to collect, or existed at too coarse an aggregation for effective intervention. These new mobile mapping approaches also facilitate longitudinal analysis, which is an imperative for dynamic landscapes. In addition, they can also be used to enhance integration of additional technology such as mobile air quality monitors, or to adapt different theoretical or methodological approaches, such as mixed methods, and in this case, geonarratives.

Within these three topical areas, a series of case studies will showcase ongoing research projects: nine years of Hurricane Katrina research, spatial patterns of damage and recovery from tornadoes, a post-earthquake cholera-impacted town in Haiti, assessing health risks in the informal settlements of Bangladesh and Kenya, and the crime and health nexus in the declining urban neighborhoods of Akron, Cleveland and Youngstown.

The presentation will conclude with a few words regarding spatial confidentiality, and emerging ethical concerns in the broadly defined area of GIS, Health and Hazards.