Last year Fulcrum rolled out a new service named Community. They describe it as a, "no cost, short term crowdsourced data collection solution for qualified humanitarian projects." It works like Fulcrum, but you need to apply for a license. The application form is short and is right on the Community home page. In the application you need to describe your purpose and how long you will be collecting data. You also need to provide a project description. If approved you can invite any number of data collectors via email to share your App (data collection form). It is generally aimed at humanitarian agencies, non-profits, or government agencies. They restrict commercial use of this service.
We used this last fall during King Tide data collection in Miami and it was a big success. In fact there are four main categories highlighted on the Fulcrum Community page: Hurricane, Tornado, Flood and Fire. If you click on Flood, the King Tide project is the first in the list. Clicking on it brings up a map with the data collected.
One caveat is that the data collected falls into the public domain and can be downloaded freely by anyone. This is possible because the data are anonymized, meaning any private information is scrubbed. The data remain available for viewing and download after the event ends.
It won't be appropriate unless there is some sort of disaster relief or environmental issue that demands it, but it is another tool to keep in your Community Health Maps toolkit!
QGIS 3.0 To Be Released in February!
It's an exciting month for QGIS. On February 23rd there will be a major new release of QGIS: QGIS 3.0. We haven't had a major new release since 2013 when 2.0 came out. The development team has been working on this for a solid year. This version will be faster and have a lot of new features. Kurt Menke has been closely following the development of QGIS3. Over the last few months he has been experimenting with the pre-release version (v2.99). This post will cover some of the highlights that will be useful to Community Health Mappers. In general QGIS is going to be faster, more powerful and more efficient to work with. First off QGIS 3.0 comes with a new logo!
Overall the look of QGIS is very similar. There are the Layers and Browser panels to the left, a Map Canvas and lots of buttons and menus above. However, upon closer inspection there are a lot of very useful changes. For example, instead of there being a row of add data buttons down the left side, there is now a Unified Data Source Manager button which opens up a browser.
The Unified Data Source Manager can be used to access the myriad of data formats QGIS supports and add them to QGIS. This includes vector, raster, database, web services etc. You can even browse within Esri File Geodatabases. Any GIS layer you are interested in, can then be added to QGIS by dragging and dropping it onto the map. 
The Processing toolbox was completely redesigned and many tools were rewritten. This means many are now faster, more flexible and stable. There are also many new tools that didn't exist in QGIS v2.x. Additionally processing tasks also now run in the background. This means you don't have to stop working while a tool runs! Yet another new processing feature is that layers in different projections will automatically be reprojected, so there is no need to reproject beforehand.
Map Labels: It now much easier to edit labels. Previously you had to set up attribute columns and set those as data defined overrides. If you don't know what all that means, it's OK. Now all you have to do is simply put the layer into edit mode and edit labels with tools on the Label toolbar. Maps also now redraw more quickly due to cached label renderers.
There is now a Search bar in the lower left corner that can be used to search for map layers, features and processing tools. This makes finding things in QGIS quick and easy.
The QGIS print composer was completely redesigned. They are now referred to as Layouts. Map insets can now be in a different map projection than the main map. There is a new and improved system of guides which include settings in any unit of measurement you could want (mm, cm, m, in, ft, pt, pica, pix). There are new controls for choosing fonts which include recently used fonts. When you export a map, a link to the folder shows up making it easy to track down the exported map.
Other notable enhancements include:
- A fully integrated 3D environment
- Editing improvements including: a) widgets for layer attributes, b) CAD style digitizing tools that allow you to create perfect rectangles, circles, ellipses etc. and c) a new node editing tool with a lot of behavior improvements
- Previews of where each map projection can be used. This will be a big help for beginners!
- User profiles that allow you to set up QGIS with different panels, plugins and toolbars for different projects or uses.
- Improved hidpi/retina support
Where do you go from here?
- 2.18 will be considered the supported long-term release (LTR) through June.
- When 3.0 is released in a few weeks it will be considered the latest stable version.
- 3.2 will become the LTR in June when it is released.
- Starting on February 23rd you will be able to download and install it. Remember you can have multiple versions installed with no conflicts. I encourage you to install it in a few weeks and begin to explore it! You won't want to go back.
NOTE: QGIS 3 projects won't be entirely backwards compatible with QGIS 2.x. So if you are going to open an existing project in QGIS 3, be sure to click Project -->Save As and save a new verion of the project for use in QGIS3.
Mapping Disasters
By Colette Hochstein (NLM)On October 12th, 2017, the National Library of Medicine Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) collaborated with Community Health Maps (CHM) to host a webinar focused on using mapping tools during disasters. The meeting was attended by 128 professionals, including first responders and receivers, emergency planners, and public health librarians, many of whom are involved, directly and indirectly, with disaster relief efforts.
DIMRC provides access to health information resources and technology for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery; CHM provides users with information and training on low-cost mapping tools that can be used to collect data related to health hazards in communities, including during disasters. Many community-based organizations can better serve their constituents when they are able to collect and maintain their own data; CHM seeks to provide them with the training and tools needed to carry out cost effective and scalable mapping.After the basic premise of CHM was explained to webinar attendees, several case studies illustrating the different applications of CHM were detailed. One took place in Seattle, Washington and centered on mapping noise pollution in different neighborhoods. The primary focus of this case study was to provide useful insight into the public health concern of noise pollution, which has been linked to various health conditions. Other goals included offering recommendations on the scalability of the Urban Indian Health Organization (UIHO) network and measuring and testing the usability of the CHM GPS/GIS workflow.Another study described how CHM was used to map “King Tides” in Miami, Florida, and was CHM’s first opportunity to work in the field with users of its workflow. The goal was to communicate health risks associated with the 2017 King Tides during their highest activity, and to demonstrate how the flooding affects local communities. It was also a good test case of successfully using the tools in challenging field conditions.Overall, the webinar provided the audience with information on the resources offered by CHM and demonstrated how different populations and communities, such as communities affected by disasters, can use CHM to collect and interpret their own data. You can watch the webinar by clicking on this link.
CHM Lab Exercises Updated!
One of the most valuable resources for Community Health Mappers remains the series of lab exercises created two years ago. Our workshops, while effective, are short and only scratch the surface of what you can do with mapping tools. They are basically a quick start guide to Community Health Mapping. The labs however, can be used as a resource to help you build your skills once you've taken the first steps towards mapping your community.The technology changes rapidly. QGIS produces a new stable version every 4 months. Annually QGIS also produces a long-term release. Carto and Fulcrum also update their tools on a regular basis. This mean the lab exercises need to be updated to keep pace.The good news is that this spring the labs were all updated and expanded. There is some foundational knowledge needed to really take the next step after a workshop. The current revised set of labs includes Lab 0: A Community Health Map Introduction and Reference. This lab has background on the Community Health Maps project and the workflow. It also contains a Glossary of GIS terms, and several appendices covering: A) available software, B) data sources and C) everything you need to know to better understand coordinate systems and projection.The remaining labs are as follows:Lab 1 covers field data collection and has been updated to work with Fulcrum. This has allowed us to unify the exercise into one document for both iOS and Android users.Lab 2 shows you how to bring your field data into QGIS. This includes a tour of the QGIS interface, and how to map coordinate data stored in a spreadsheet.Lab 3 is named Combining Field Data with other Organizational Data. It shows you how to work with coordinate systems in QGIS. It also covers how to join tabular data to the attribute table of a GIS layer. This is a step that often has to be done to merge socioeconomic data from the U.S. Census to census geography such as tracts or block groups. It concludes with a lesson on address geocoding. This is the process you use to produce points from addresses.Lab 4 shows you how to do some basic spatial analysis. You learn how to clip data to your study area, measure proximity, query your data to select features and calculate areas/ density.In Lab 5 you learn how to use some of the great data visualization techniques found in only in QGIS. The lab then walks you through how to compose a map. Along the way you learn some data styling tricks and how to use the Print Composer.The series concludes with Lab 6 Data Visualization with Carto. Carto underwent a major update and rebranding since the first edition of these labs were created. You can use this exercise to see how to work with the new Carto Builder interface and tools to create an online map of your results. It covers uploading your data, styling and sharing your map with others.The four labs that deal with QGIS have been updated to include some exciting new features that have been added to QGIS in the last year. Links to the lab data are included. So head to the Resources page and build your Community Health Mapping skills!
Community Health Maps Presenting at FOSS4G
This years international conference on Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) is in Boston from August 14-19th.
Community Health Maps (CHM) will be presenting a talk covering the CHM program along with some case studies. Come and join us! It is a fantastic venue for people of all skill levels. There are usually around 1,000 in attendance. There are keynote speakers, paper sessions, and workshops. Many are suited for beginners while some are targeted at "power" users. Not only can catch up with the latest CHM news, you can also learn a lot about Fulcrum, QGIS, Carto and other useful mapping tools, and what people are doing with them. In fact there is a co-located event hosted by Fulcrum called Fulcrum Live. This is an all day event (Tuesday August 15th) and is free for conference attendees. It will be a great learning opportunity.We hope to see you there. If you have any news on your mapping projects, please share it with Kurt or John. Perhaps we can include some slides highlighting your work at the conference!
Where To Look for Data
One of the initial stumbling blocks for Community Health Mappers post-workshop, is where to look for data. There is a lot of data available online. Most municipalities, counties and states will have some sort of GIS data portal. These are sites where publicly available mapping data can be downloaded and are best found with an internet search. Those are simply too numerous to list. However, the list below is a good starting point for commonly used national GIS datasets.OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/ Metro Extracts: https://mapzen.com/data/metro-extracts/ National Extracts: http://download.gisgraphy.com/ GeoFabrik Continental Extracts: http://download.geofabrik.de/index.htmlQuickOSM QGIS PluginNational Map: http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/Includes the following:
- Boundaries
- Elevation
- Topo Maps
- Hydrography
- Imagery
- Named Places
- Land Cover
U.S. Census TIGER Boundaries and Roads:https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger.htmlCensus TIGER Boundaries
- State boundaries
- County boundaries
- Census Tracts
- Census Block Groups
- Census Blocks
U.S. Census Socioeconomic Data: American Fact Finder: http://factfinder2.census.gov/Includes data from both the Census 2010 and Census 2000 as well as, American Community Survey (ACS) data.Use the Advanced Search to build selections for a specific topic in a specific geographic location.Geospatial Data Gateway (USDS Natural Resources Conservation Service)https://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/GDGHome_StatusMaps.aspx
- Census geography
- Climate / Precipitation
- Elevation
- Hydrology (rivers and streams)
- Land Use/Land Cover
- Aerial Photography/Imagery
- Soils
Data.gov: Portal for the U.S. Government’s open data, some tabular, some geospatialCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/index.htm CDC Geo-Spatial Resources page: https://www.cdc.gov/gis/resources.htmNational Library of Medicine TOXMAP: Data from the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory and Superfund programshttp://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov/toxmap/ NLM’s list of Data, Tools and Statistics:https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hsrinfo/datasites.htmlBig Cities Health Inventory Data: https://bchi.bigcitieshealth.org/
Remembering a Community Health Maps Milestone
By John Scott (CPSC)In June 2016, a Community Health Maps (CHM) symposium was convened by the Center for Public Service Communications and Health-Equity.Org. It was hosted by the National Library of Medicine and held at Lister Hall on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland.
The relevance of the CHM initiative to NLM’s mission has to do with improving the ability of community-oriented organizations (and researchers and other public health professionals) to collect, organize and visualize data and other health information to better-understand health conditions and support decision-making for resource allocation. While access to quality health information is frequently a focus of attention, the ability to visualize data and information -- to better understand and portray their significance to the community -- has received less attention. This is in part because the availability of affordable GIS platforms and data collection and visualization applications is relatively recent. Historically, the cost to procure platforms and applications, to train users and to sustain operations has been prohibitive for communities and community-based organizations whose health budgets are already strained.The purpose of the workshop, therefore was to share the CHM workflow with community-based and minority health organizations so that they would be in a better position to serve their populations by knowing how to collect and maintain their own data, rather than -- or at least in addition to -- having to rely solely on national/state agencies or majority-institution partners to provide data to them.Participating were seventy-six community-oriented health professionals who were drawn from throughout the country. The workshop was made possible with funding by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. During the workshop several Community Health Mapping pilot projects were highlighted, including:
- Obesity research at the University of Hawai’i School of Medicine’s Department of Native Hawaiian Health
- Research on noise pollution at the Seattle Indian Health Board/Urban Indian Health Institute
- Projects including a youth initiative measuring community water quality
- Smoking cessation
- Access to health care by migrant workers
- Building a zika awareness curriculum at the Medical University of South Carolina
- University of Washington School of Public Health graduate student capstone projects featuring the CHM workflow.
- Mapping Curb Ramp Accessibility around a Silver Spring, MD Assisted Living Facility
- Visualizing an Intervention for Tobacco Control
- Teens Map Environmental Health of Their Community (Sea Islands, South Carolina)
Kurt Menke, of Bird’s Eye View GIS, and CHM partner, also offered training in the use of CHM tools in five parts:
- Introduction to Community Health Maps
- Learn to use Fulcrum to build a data collection form
- Exercise using data collection form to collect data around the conference center
- Mapping data collected during previous exercise online in Carto
- Brief introduction to mapping the data in QGIS
Learning Objectives for the training session were:
- Describe the Community Health Maps workflow which includes low-cost and open resources for community mapping and data visualization.
- Create a data collection tool on a mobile device that can be used to collect community data.
- Learn how to map data collected online in and on the desktop.
Workshop participants were also introduced to the recently developed set of six online “labs”:
- Field Data Collection
- Bringing Field Data into QGIS
- Combining Field Data with other Organizational Data
- Basic Spatial Analysis
- Cartography with QGIS
- Data Visualization with Carto
These labs are now available on the Community Health Maps Resources page.
Other highlights of the workshop include a keynote presentation by Dr. John P Wilson, Professor and Director of the Spatial Sciences Institute at USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California. His talk was titled, "Community Health Mapping: In a World Awash with Geographic Data and Tools." His presentation can be downloaded here as a PDF (3.86Mb).
Also presenting was John Balbus, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Advisor for Public Health and Director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Science-WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. His presentation was "From the Pump Handle to Hazardous Waste: Mapping Environmental Health and Justice." It can be downloaded here as a PDF (3.48Mb)
Catch Community Health Maps at the Association for Prevention and Teaching Research Conference (APTR) in Savannah next week!
Last year Community Health Maps was invited to present at the Association for Prevention and Teaching Research (APTR) Conference in Albuquerque, NM. We brought two students from the University of Washington Department of Community Oriented Public Health, and two students from the Medical University of South Carolina, to present their capstone project posters.[gallery ids="290,292" type="rectangular"]
Myself, John Scott, Dr. Williamson and Dana Burshell also combined to create a CHM panel. The panel discussion session was packed and to our collective surprise we heard "oohs" and "ahhs" as we showed some of the mapping tools live. We were approached by some of the organizers about teaching a workshop the following year.
That brings us to this years conference in Savannah Georgia. We will again have a panel session which will both provide an overview of the project, and highlight recent successes. The panel will be on Thursday April 6th at 3pm.On Friday morning we will teach a 4 hour CHM workshop. This is a hands-on training session where you will learn how to incorporate the Community Health Mapping (CHM) workflow into your research and training programs. You will:
- Learn how to use Fulcrum to create a data collection form
- Go outside with your smartphone/tablet to collect some data around the conference center
- Map the collected data in Carto
- Work with the data in QGIS
We hope to see you there!
New Year Will Bring Updated Labs Including Lab Zero!
It has been 2 years since the Community Health Maps (CHM) lab exercises were first produced. Software changes quickly, and over the last two years the tools involved in the CHM workflow have undergone many changes. For example, this fall the pricing scheme for iForm changed. Though it is still a good product, this price increase puts it out of the category of low cost software. The companion site formhub.org no longer exists, making ODK Collect more difficult to work with. Fortunately Fulcrum is a fantastic alternative to those two data collection apps. QGIS has released 5 new versions and is now at version 2.18! CartoDb has been rebranded as Carto and has a new interface.
All these changes means it is time for all the lab exercises to be updated. Lab 1 will now be a single lab for both iOS and Android users with Fulcrum. Labs 2-5 will be updated to QGIS 2.18. Lab 6 will be updated to Carto's new interface. The set of companion videos will also be redone and updated.Many have worked through these labs and some provided feedback. This information is being used to improve the labs as they are updated. One new item will be Lab Zero. While the CHM workflow is intuitive, it has been suggested that more background information could be useful. Lab Zero will be a companion reference document to the CHM labs. It will contain: A) information on the background of the CHM project, B) software installation instructions , C) a glossary of terms, D) more thorough descriptions of some technical topics like coordinate reference systems, E) a description of how to interact with the QGIS community to get additional help, and F) a list of data resources. This work is in progress and will be ready this spring. Stay tuned!
CHM Has a Busy Fall with Workshops and Storms!
We had a busy fall giving three workshops in September and October. First Community Health Maps traveled to Spokane Washington to conduct a half day technical workshop at the National Tribal Forum for Excellence in Community Health Practice.
This event was organized by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We weren't certain who or how many would attend, and I expect attendees weren't entirely sure what Community Health Mapping was all about either. However, it turned out to be a very engaged group representing tribes from many regions of the country. Within a few hours everyone was able to:
- Create a field data collection form in Fulcrum
- Collect some data around the conference center on their smartphones/tablets
- Make a map of their data in Carto
- Learn how to bring the data into QGIS
This was a typical CHM workshop with most never having done any mapping work before. As such it was a very empowering experience for the participants to learn how to use this technology to map their community in just a few short hours.From there we traveled to Honolulu, Hawai'i to give a workshop organized by Papa Ola Lokahi. There were two hurricanes (Lester and Madeline) heading towards the islands. Fortunately they both veered off and didn't cause any damage or disruptions! The attendees came with a plethora of ideas on how mapping could fit into their work including:A) tracking scholarship recipients of the Native Hawaiian Health Scholarships program,B) supporting the Native Hawaiian Cancer Network,C) mapping Dr. Ben Young’s research on historical tracking of Native Hawaiian Health professionals,D) mapping Native Hawaiian Homelands to provide resource data to providers and community members, andE) use the CHM "train the trainer" model to increase ongoing trainings for service providers including community health outreach workers and patient community navigators in Hawai'i.
After a brief break we headed to Seattle, Washington, again there were two separate storms including, the remnants of Typhoon Songda, bearing down on the region threatening to disrupt power and services! Again fortunately the storms didn't make a direct hit on the area and the workshop proceeded on schedule.We went to train students in the capstone course of the Community Oriented Public Health Practice Program at the University of Washington. This is our second year supporting this program. The first year was a huge success with two students attending the APTR Conference and presenting their work.Like last year we had a full house with students eager to learn about community mapping. Both first year and second year students were in attendance. Several second year students will submit proposals for consideration, to receive a stipend and support for using Community Health Maps in their capstone projects. Jamie Smeland is the first of the group to be awarded the stipend for her capstone project entitled, "Honoring the Collective Wisdom: Documenting a Cross-Racial and Intergenerational Movement to Shift Power to Youth and Parent Leaders to Improve Educational and Health Outcomes for Students of Color in South Seattle & South King County." We look forward to working with these students in the coming months.
In the near future we will be offering an updated set of Community Health Mapping labs and a platform for CHM webinars. Stay tuned! In the meantime if you are interested in Community Health Maps and/or receiving CHM training contact John Scott (jcscott at cpsc.com) for more details.