Use of GIS at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit Thursday May 1, 2008

Overview  Background - SMDHU  Uses of GIS at SMDHU  Example – Flooding  Lessons Learned  Q & A

Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit - Background  8,731 square kilometres of land area   479,767 people, or 55 people per square kilometre (2006 Census)   2 census divisions – Simcoe County (population 422,204) and the District of Muskoka (population 57,563)   24 census subdivisions

History of GIS at SMDHU  Began in ~2000  No dedicated staff  No formal GIS training  Recruitment of Masters in Spatial Analysis students, Ryerson University  Ad hoc basic requests  One main data source for spatial data – County of Simcoe  Began with ArcView 3.2 on one computer

Current State - GIS at SMDHU  No dedicated staff  Some formal GIS training  Have not utilized GIS students in ~ 5 years  Ad hoc basic requests  Ongoing projects – West Nile virus, mapping confirmed influenza cases  Multiple spatial data sources  Using ArcGIS 9 – 1 concurrent license   complexity (data sources, data maintenance, lack of metadata)   demand from public health staff,  expectations

GIS Applications for Emergency Response to Potential Health Hazards Flooding 2008

Hwy 169, Black River (Ramara)

Belle Contois - Angus, Ontario. April 02_2008www.theweathernetwork.com

Canal Road, Washago

King’s Sideroad, Cooper’s Falls

Purposes of Flood Mapping Project  Flooding of roads, houses, wells can potentially result in situations that can be hazardous to the public’s health  Poor drinking water quality  Raw sewage releases  Map all schools, long term care facilities, day nurseries and retirement homes that may be situated in flood-prone areas - - Quickly!!

help determine those facilities that may need to be evacuated help determine those facilities that may need to be evacuated Target health unit staffing resources to areas that are in most need Target health unit staffing resources to areas that are in most need

Methods Determine data, both spatial and attribute that need to be accessed. Determine data, both spatial and attribute that need to be accessed. Do we have what we need? Do we have what we need? Data Sources Data Sources Contact database? CISS database? Contact database? CISS database? Flood plains Flood plains Lakes Lakes Rivers Rivers Roads Roads Assess data quality Assess data quality physical location addresses vs. mailing addresses. physical location addresses vs. mailing addresses. Complete? Property numbers, x,y coordinates. Complete? Property numbers, x,y coordinates. Format? Format?

Methods cont’d All schools, long term care facilities, day nurseries rest and retirement homes in Simcoe Muskoka were mapped on separate layers. All schools, long term care facilities, day nurseries rest and retirement homes in Simcoe Muskoka were mapped on separate layers. required the correction of information from various databases, many of which did not conform to standards set for mapping purposes. required the correction of information from various databases, many of which did not conform to standards set for mapping purposes.

Zoom In

Lessons Learned  Quick access to the GIS maps can be used to tell:  what types of ‘high risk’ facilities are in the immediate vicinity of waterways  NOT what facilities are in flood prone areas  Missing critical spatial databases  100 year flood data  Terrain data  River identification  Wetlands

Lessons Learned cont’d  PHU databases – what is our gold standard?  Data quality – auditing required Incomplete addresses Incomplete addresses Incorrect addresses and address formats Incorrect addresses and address formats Policy re: database development needs to reflect this Policy re: database development needs to reflect this  Establish minimum geographic variables required in each dataset  Require a plan for data maintenance and archiving – Who?

Daily Struggles  2 county governments – Simcoe County and Muskoka District  Problems with spatial alignment  Different data sharing agreements  More training required for PHU staff – understand why data has to be collected in specific way & importance of completeness  GIS information dissemination – one-time maps, use of ArcExplorer 9.2

Conclusions  GIS is more than just mapping  Dedicated time and resources need to be in place to make it work efficiently and effectively  Health unit standards are required  Methods of sharing GIS data/maps needs to be explored  Need to consider modes of sharing service area/program specific data with others that ‘need to know’  Planning is key

Thank You! Brenda Guarda (705) Ext