1. Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 Case Study: Environmental Health Surveillance System (EHSS) Athanasios Plessas Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (RACTI)

2. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 Situation Outline Problem: managing over the same area urban dwellings, industrial premises and waste management plants Great concern about adverse effects caused by air pollutants No satisfactory scientific evidence about the effects of pollutants from waste incineration on human health, nor the space dispersion

3. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 The project ENHance Health (Environmental Health Surveillance System in urban areas near incinerators and industrial premises) EU INTERREG IIIC funded Main objective: the Processing of Guidelines and Good Practices for implementing Environmental- Health Surveillance Systems More info about the project: http://thaleia.westgate.gr/enhance http://thaleia.westgate.gr/enhance

4. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHS System Overview GIS web-based survey system for environmental surveillance There are two parts –Administrative application addressed to scientific experts for data entry –Application accessible to authorized users for querying the system and monitoring pollution levels System Components –Application Web Server –Database (GIS data, environmental & meteorological data)

5. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 System Architecture

6. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Administration Pages Management of under study factors (environmental and epidemiological – e.g. CO, NO 2, ARI etc): –Insert a new factor –Delete an existent factor –Modify a factor Input of records for the measured level of a factor –Manually for each record –Automatically for many records, using a file in a predefined format Input of meteorological files as.met files

7. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Administration Pages - Screenshots New Factor Insertion Form

8. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Administration Pages - Screenshots Records Insertion Forms (manually)

9. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Surveillance Pages Query the system for the levels of the under study factors near the incinerators for a desired period –Statistics per day, month or year for the requested period –Colored map representation of the factor levels (green, yellow, red) –Two modes of surveillance: data measured in a specific point (default) and data measured in a radius around the incinerator –Alerts in case the level of the factor is higher than the maximum allowed. Meteorological data presented in this case –CUSUM alert control View all produced alerts classified per region, factor and date

10. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Surveillance Pages - Screenshots Query Form

11. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Surveillance Pages - Screenshots Map Visualization of Factor’s Levels

12. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Surveillance Pages - Screenshots Graphic Visualization of Factor’s Levels

13. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Surveillance Pages - Screenshots View Alerts Page

14. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Surveillance Pages – Combinative Analysis How is environmental pollution related to health problems? The system allows a combinative analysis that helps scientists discover possible relations In case an alert is produced after a query about an environmental factor there is the option to view the results for the same query for all epidemiological factors and vice versa Scientists can compare the levels between environmental and epidemiological factors

15. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 EHSS Surveillance Pages – CUSUM Analysis CUSUM: statistical control method in order to detect sharp changes in the level of a measured factor An alert is produced if a sharp change is detected

16. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 Case Study The system was applied for specific territories of Italy, Poland and Hungary The waste incinerator plants, are located nearby urban settlements In case of Italy, as results are combined with the scientific evidences that are part of the strategy for Risk communication to citizens, a participative and sustainable policy model is currently under development

17. ICT and Civil Protection Senigallia, 18-19 June 2007 Thank you!!!