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Special Issue "The Application of Geographical Information Systems to Important Public Health Problems"

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Special Issue Editors

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Guest Editor

School of Geospatial Engineering and Science, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangdong 510275, China
Interests: spatio-temporal analysis; smart healthy city; urban mobility; land use/cover mapping; remote sensing

Dr. Izzy Yi Jian
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: public health and healthy city; public space; urban design; spatial justice

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Public health is one of the most significant topics that has witnessed an increased use of geographical information system (GIS). Worldwide health care organisations increasingly adopt GIS to develop descriptive and analytical solutions for public health problems. Given the tremendous power in spatial data processing and visualisation, GIS is widely used to map, reveal and analyse the geographical distribution patterns of populations suffering from health-related issues, and to understand the dynamic interactions between environmental factors and people’s well-being. Thus, GIS provides a digital lens for studying spatiotemporal patterns of diseases and tailoring effective public health interventions. Moreover, novel sources of geospatial big data, including social media, satellite remote sensing, and personal sensing, have significantly promoted the science of public health in the context of ‘smart healthy cities’ and brought opportunities to more sophisticated applications of GIS to answer new emerging public health questions.

This Special Issue aims to collect original research/review works presenting policy-informative concepts, advanced theories, methodological innovations or effectual practices using GIS techniques. Interdisciplinary perspectives are strongly encouraged.

Research questions/ topics include but are not limited to:

Health behaviours and their effects evaluation
Health economics and outcomes research
Practices in balancing privacy and public health
Critical views of the role of GIS in addressing public health issues
Spatial (in)justice in the built environment and its impact on health and well-being
Health care accessibility and location-allocation optimisation
Spatial analytics for the epidemiology of infectious/chronic diseases
Social and environmental determinants of health
Innovative methodology for representing health information
Spatial-temporal pattern mining of health events
Public participation GIS and community health

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Pengfei Chen
Dr. Izzy Yi Jian
Guest Editors

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

geographic information systems
public health
spatial analysis
location-allocation
accessibility

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Linking the Urban Environment and Health: An Innovative Methodology for Measuring Individual-Level Environmental Exposures

Kimon Krenz

Ashley Dhanani

Rosemary R. C. McEachan

Kuldeep Sohal

John Wright

and

Laura Vaughan

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 1953; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031953 - 20 Jan 2023

Viewed by 3030

Abstract

Environmental exposures (EE) are increasingly recognised as important determinants of health and well-being. Understanding the influences of EE on health is critical for effective policymaking, but better-quality spatial data is needed. This article outlines the theoretical and technical foundations used for the construction of individual-level environmental exposure measurements for the population of a northern English city, Bradford. The work supports ‘Connected Bradford’, an entire population database linking health, education, social care, environmental and other local government data over a period of forty years. We argue that our current understanding of environmental effects on health outcomes is limited both by methodological shortcomings in the quantification of the environment and by a lack of consistency in the measurement of built environment features. To address these shortcomings, we measure the environmental exposure for a series of different domains including air quality, greenspace and greenness, public transport, walkability, traffic, buildings and the built form, street centrality, land-use intensity, and food environments as well as indoor dwelling qualities. We utilise general practitioners’ historical patient information to identify the precise geolocation and duration of a person’s residence. We model a person’s local neighbourhood, and the probable routes to key urban functions aggregated across the city. We outline the specific geospatial procedure used to quantify the environmental exposure for each domain and use the example of exposure to fast-food outlets to illustrate the methodological challenges in the creation of city and nationwide environmental exposure databases. The proposed EE measures will enable critical research into the relationship and causal links between the built environment and health, informing planning and policy-making. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Application of Geographical Information Systems to Important Public Health Problems)

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Open AccessArticle

Incorporating the Co-Creation Method into Social Innovation Design to Promote Intergenerational Integration: A Case Study of a Public Square

Jianbin Wu

Linghao Zhang

and

Xiangfang Ren

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12908; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912908 - 09 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1512

Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world, there is an increased focus on intergenerational relationships, community mental health issues, and well-being in community contexts. This paper assesses the effectiveness of a co-creation approach for intergenerational integration at the theoretical level. The study used a collaborative co-creation design method in the community design process to explore whether the participation of community residents of all ages in addressing community issues promoted communication and alleviated stereotyping between the various generations. This study was conducted in Shanghai’s Hongqiao New Village square, where we conducted participatory research and co-creation workshops in response to the demand for the use of the public space as a location for social interactions. The results showed that intervention in community creation through collaborative design is conducive to promoting friendly relations among different age groups, forming a sense of social security and thus enhancing social well-being. Finally, this paper combines practical cases and theoretical models of collaborative co-creative design approaches to promote the intergenerational integration of communities and is summarized from the input and output parts as well as the influencing factors and constraints of the collaborative co-creative. In addition, it provides new ideas on how to improve intergenerational relationships and form a positive and sustainable community mental health environment in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Application of Geographical Information Systems to Important Public Health Problems)

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