Spatial mapping of temporal risk characteristics to improve environmental health risk identification: A case study of a dengue epidemic in Taiwan
Resource
Science of The Total Environment 367 (2-3): 631-640
Journal
Science of the Total Environment
Journal Volume
367
Journal Issue
2-3
Pages
631-640
Date Issued
2006
Author(s)
Abstract
Mapping uneven events, such as disease cases or pollutants, is a basic but important procedure for analyzing regional relationships and variation in public health and environmental agencies. The purpose of mapping is to find out the spatial clustering of uneven events and identify spatial risk areas, which could lead to potential environmental hazards or epidemics. Meanwhile, more hypotheses could be generated through mapping process for further investigations. This paper proposed a novel spatial-temporal approach to focusing on: (1) how often these uneven cases occur, (2) how long these cases persist and (3) how significant cases occur in consecutive periods across the study area. The proposed model was applied to the dengue fever epidemic in Taiwan in 2002 as a case study, which was the worst epidemic in the last 60 years. This approach provides procedures to identify spatial health risk levels with temporal characteristics and assists in generating hypothesis that will be investigated in further detail. ? 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Subjects
Geographic information systems (GIS); Spatial risk assessment; Spatial-temporal clustering
SDGs
Other Subjects
Geographic information systems (GIS); Public health and environmental agency; Spatial risk assessment; Spatial-temporal clustering; Environmental impact; Epidemiology; Hazardous materials; Health risks; Mapping; Pollution detection; Risk assessment; dengue fever; environmental risk; epidemic; health risk; risk assessment; spatial analysis; article; case finding; dengue; disease classification; disease duration; environmental health; epidemic; geographic information system; health hazard; human; model; priority journal; risk assessment; spatial discrimination; statistical significance; time perception; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Demography; Dengue; Geography; Humans; Models, Theoretical; Risk Factors; Taiwan; Time Factors; Asia; Eurasia; Far East; Taiwan
Type
journal article