This book explores how maps generated through geographical information systems (GIS) can be used to integrate principles of health equity and environmental justice into community planning and decision-making.
To do this, the book puts forward the 3Ps of GIS mapping: People, Place and Policy. For each topic, the book demonstrates how different maps reveal different spatial disparities, and therefore alternative lens through which socio-cultural, political or geographical issues can be addressed. Using a step-by-step approach, and covering the core concepts by which GIS maps can be interpreted, it builds to provide a comprehensive understanding of what a GIS generated map may tell us, though crucially also what it may not. Featuring illustrated examples throughout, the book is essentially a tool-kit to support a nuanced and holistic perspective on community planning.
It will appeal to policy-makers, planners, and public health consultants, as well as students moving towards this field.
This book explores how maps generated through geographical information systems (GIS) can be used to integrate principles of health equity and environmental justice into community planning and decision-making.
Preface. Section 1: Place. 1.Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Which Is the
Right Map of All? 2.Looking Inside Versus Outside: Natural Breaks Map.
3.Quartiles, percentiles, standard deviation maps and more: Who is above the
mean? Who is below? Section 2: Policy. 4.Maps as an outcome of measures.
5.How not to compare apples with oranges: approaches for area and point data.
6.What to Map: Choosing between Aggregated versus Disaggregated Data,
Categories versus Quantitative. 7.Measurements: Are More the Merrier?
Section 3: People. 8.Yardstick competition: Am I similar to my neighbors?
9.Do Birds with the Same Feather Flock Together? From Social Marketing to
Using Maps for Geographically Targeted Health Intervention.
Priyanka Vyas, California State University East Bay, USA.
Juan Aguilera, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, USA.
