4 replies to this topic

[tsegi]

Hi,

I am an informatics student and i wanted to do a project on mapping malaria cases using GIS .Just to see how GIS can be helpful on controling malaria.I might not need real data,ofcours I don't have any data at hand now.So my question is Where can i start.Do i have to collect data first?I need clue on how i can start.
thanks.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Hi Tsegi, and welome to Cartotalk.

Yes, I would start with collecting data first. Get a feel for it so that you then decide what you want to do with it.

[gregsd]

Hi,

I am an informatics student and i wanted to do a project on mapping malaria cases using GIS .Just to see how GIS can be helpful on controling malaria.I might not need real data,ofcours I don't have any data at hand now.So my question is Where can i start.Do i have to collect data first?I need clue on how i can start.
thanks.

Welcome. This article over on the DirectionsMag portal might be of interest -

http://www.direction...article_id=3215

Greg.

[MapMedia]

Hi - Welcome to Cartotalk!

You want to map malaria cases for a school GIS project? I would get the data from teh UN World Health Organization (WHO) or Ethiopian government or non-profit group.

What you want is available, accurate data that you can map. You don't want to generate the data yourself - that is a science in and of itself - you want to use existing data.

Here are some good leads generated from google.

[frax]

Tsegi - ideally you would start with formulating some questions, and then look at how they can be answered. But you might be held back by the access to data that you have handy.

You don't necessarily need data for actual malaria cases, you can instead map disease-related things:
* habitats for the vector (the mosquito) - e.g. temperature, wetlands, seasonal changes, precipitation, altitude (if I remember correctly, the vector is not present above certain levels)
* population (including poverty, access to health care, population density etc, age distribution, risk groups)
* and then of course actual occurances (survival rate, incidence rate etc)

I would start with peeking at what you have easy access to of the above, then you can start to look at what questions you can investigate from there. It may get really interesting if you start to look at scenarios for temperature/precipitation changes. I wouldn't take for granted that the answer is that malaria increases, if droughts become more frequent/longer it might push the vector back.