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

1. Use of GIS at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health UnitThursday May 1, 2008

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

3. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. GIS Applications for Emergency Response to Potential Health HazardsFlooding 2008

8. Hwy 169, Black River (Ramara)

9. Belle Contois - Angus, Ontario . www.theweathernetwork.com April 02_2008

10. Canal Road, Washago

11. King’s Sideroad, Cooper’s Falls

12. 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!!

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

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

15. Methods cont’d • 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.

19. Zoom In

22. 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

23. Lessons Learned cont’d • PHU databases – what is our gold standard? • Data quality – auditing required • Incomplete addresses • Incorrect addresses and address formats • 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?

24. 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

25. 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

26. Thank You! Brenda Guarda (705) 721-7520 Ext. 7284 Brenda.Guarda@smdhu.org