GIS for Health Workshop QGIS or ArcGIS Pro

Geographic information and geospatial technologies are part of our society and are vital for managing and minimizing health risks and outcomes. During this workshop participants will be introduced to the essentials of GIS including geoprivacy concerns associated with working with health data. In addition, participants will be able to learn some technical skills by conducting a mini analysis.

Software: QGIS or ArcGIS Pro

GIS Skill level: No prior GIS experience is required. Participants with prior GIS skill level are also welcome.

Workshop overview: The workshop is comprised of several parts as summarised below.

Part 1: Brief introduction to GIS. Learn the essentials and the different ways GIS and EO information are being used to gain insights into the relationship between health risks and the environment as well as managing risks during different types of events. Brief introduction to the geospatial ecosystem.

Part 2: GIS mapping and analysis in QGIS or ArcGIS Pro. During the workshop you will apply point pattern analysis to the cholera outbreak of 1850's using either QGIS or ArcGIS Pro.

·        Blanford, J.I. (2025) Geographic information, geospatial technologies and spatial data science for health. Pp376. CRC Taylor & Francis.

·        Blanford (2024) Managing vector-borne diseases in a geoAI-enabled society. Malaria as an example https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001706X24002870

·        Blanford, J.I. and Jolly, A. M. (2021) Public health needs GIScience (like now!), AGILE GIScience Ser., 2, 18.

·        Geoversity: Geospatial for Planetary Health MOOC: Disasters  and health: responding to health risks associated with disasters. https://www.geoversity.io/courses/geospatial-planetary-health/ 

·        Blanford, J.I. (2025) Teaching material. Detailed exercise of class project - temperature variations across space and time: making statistics fun with geographic information and spatial analysis. Pg 52. (see Blanford (2025) Primus publication). https://github.com/jb2018/geo_temperature