Gis and spatial analysis - Research Paper Example

? GIS AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS Introduction My research is geared towards identifying an organization that uses GIS andSpatial analysis to run the business of the organization for improved productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in its provision of the products and services. The use of the two tools is informed by the economic slowdown around the world that is forcing organizations to re-strategize their operations and this is geared towards the adoption of in-house resources among which GIS and Spatial are included. The organization I have chosen is called ESRI which is an Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland, it has employed the use of GIS and Spatial to help the organization overcome some of its operational challenges hence enabled it realize improved profitability (About ESRI. (n.d.). In this paper we will tackle the topic in the order of what the organization has used GIS and Spatial analysis for in the realization of its objectives. We will then proceed to see how the organization uses the two important tools to help them achieve their desired objectives of leveraging their conceptual and empirical research in economics and sociology hence providing analysis that helps in informing both economic and social policy making. We would further look at what the benefits and challenges of GIS and Spatial analysis are to ESRI in the achievements of their objectives (Martin, 2009). Finally, the paper will conclude by making recommendations to help management improve the organization through the effective and efficient use of the two tools in the future. It is wise to note that the users of GIS and spatial analysis do so on the premise that it would help them identify and understand markets better. ESRI customers worldwide have known the products offered ESRI through GIS and spatial analysis tools (About ESRI. (n.d.). Literature review This organization in Ireland among other things is concerned with providing healthcare information to the government of Ireland and they employ the use of GIS and Spatial analysis to do this. This position is informed by the fact that geographic variation in the population and the need of the population for healthcare provides the foundation for analysis and planning of health services (Longley & Clarke, 1995). The population in Ireland is not spread evenly across the country and such population differs along many dimensions. These dimensions range from gender, age, culture and the economic status. These affect the need of the population need and distribution of healthcare in terms of their ability to travel and obtain healthcare as well as the services they are willing and able to utilize (Kurland & Gorr, 2012). GIS and spatial analysis is hence used to explore and analyze the geographical variations in the need for health services and hence develop the innovative signs of healthcare needed by the population. Through the Health Research and Information Division ESRI has the responsibility of supporting, managing and developing HIPE and NPRS which are the two National Health Databases in Ireland. This data is exhaustively available through the ease of extraction offered by GIS and Spatial analysis (Pfeiffer, 2008). The needed health information by the country and the organization is that which reflects the characteristics of people, their behaviors and their surrounding environments of work and residence. The two tools, GIS and the Spatial analysis procedure has been used for years now for the purpose of linking diverse layers of population and environmental data with the aim of the organization characterizing the main dimensions of healthcare need for the country at large. The organization has since used the two tools to create health profiles for the various communities of Ireland; these include the description of their demographics, economic and characteristics of their lifecycles as well as their exposure to hazards in their environments (Martin, 2009). To create such outcomes for use by the interested stakeholders the able use of spatial database management and the display capabilities of GIS are employed in the whole country. The use of the GIS based procedures has the ability of allowing the users to query data for user specific purposes (Kurland & Gorr, 2012). Spatial analysis of geographical data involves the measurement of the properties and the relationships while making considerations into the spatial localization of the phenomena under study. This is meant to create and maintain a bit of space in the forms of analysis being made. Through GIS and spatial analysis health calamities like diseases can be located through the clear identification of the localities that are the epicenter of the epidemics (Kurland & Gorr, 2012). Spatial analysis deals with environmental and socioeconomic data just as indicated in the case for ESRI and it will analyze three basic data types. These include: - events or point patterns which include an expression of phenomena as either point in space or dominated point processes e.g. disease occurrence. The second set is the continuous surfaces which are attributed to a set of field samples which are regularly or irregularly distributed and such data results mainly from natural resources survey. Data included also entail those from areas with counts and aggregated rates and these are inclined towards population survey (Longley & Clarke, 1995). GIS and spatial analysis strives to incorporate data from household surveys in establishing the needs assessment, data which is geocoded with residential addresses of the population and as a result we will be able to depict a detailed geographical data of variations with regards to the health records and the characteristics of the individual households. GIS and spatial analysis is employed to help in the formation of compatible data geographically (Maguire, Batty & Goodchild, 2005). These data is the one provided by the two bodies in Ireland for the conduction of needs assessment. The driver of the above scenarios is the likelihood of the missing of the inputs for multidimensional signs of the needs in the healthcare industry in the vast geographical area of the country. Therefore, spatial analysis procedures employed by ESRI is applicable in assisting to find data through from one set of areas to the other for the sake of the representation of healthcare needs in the small areas of the country. GIS and spatial analysis as employed by ESRI has a special role in the assessment of health care needs for small areas of Ireland through facilitating the linking spatially of the diverse health, social and environmental data sets. Apart from the layering capabilities of GIS that has been used for quite some time, its analytic capability that it would help in relation data sets which can be translated to provide meaningful services to the clients or stakeholders (Longley & Clarke, 1995). Through examples reviewed by the data analyzing agencies in Ireland depicts the importance of using GIS and spatial analysis in the creation of geographically compatible data sets that are used for needs assessment with regards to healthcare needs (Martin, 2009). This is due to the difficulty in retrieving the multidimensional data needed for indicators for healthcare needs due to the diversity of the geographical make up of Ireland. Spatial analysis is therefore applicable in allocating the data from a given set of area to another and his is also evident through the representation of the small areas. If the data from the small geographical areas are joined together they form the reliability needed to conform to health record data (Maguire, Batty & Goodchild, 2005). The fact that health utilization data is increasingly needed in digital form has stimulated the increased interest in the development of needs records that indicate and incorporate health care utilization patterns. GIS and spatial analysis has important roles in the assessment of the healthcare needed for the citizens of Ireland given it takes the approach of getting the healthcare data from smaller groups and areas through a facilitated spatial linking of the diverse health, social and environmental data categories (Pfeiffer, 2008). This is due to the fact that geographical data through GIS and analysis by way of spatial analysis has been used for years and this has prompted researchers to go down into using the analytic capability as presented by spatial analysis. This relates the data sets which are predominantly from non-consistent areal units in the generation of meaningful areas of service to the stakeholders and the population at large (Martin, 2009). Through the employment of GIS and the analytic technique tools, digital information on morbidity, demographics and utilization are more widely available for the generation of health data information. After this GIS based decision is arrived at together with the support tools that allow the communities and the stake holders to involve the decision makers in the examination of questions of healthcare requirements, access of the same healthcare and its availability (Maguire, Batty & Goodchild, 2005). GIS and spatial analysis aids in the access to healthcare products through an emphasis of Geographical dimension of the same. This is influenced by the type and the quality of the services on demand from the local area identified for research. Among the other factors considered in this process are the distance, cost, time and the ease by which one is able to move for the services to ensure quality and timely healthcare delivery to the whole community (Martin, 2009). For medical conditions that require constant and regular contacts by the providers, time and distance given the geographical situation of the area can be hindrances hence the needs for the GIS and spatial analysis techniques to handle these barriers for effective use of the services (Kurland & Gorr, 2012). Analysis of the organization and its relationship to GIS and Spatial analysis ESRI is an organization in Ireland that contributes to the understanding of both economic and social change in the global context. It uses this component of its operations to inform public policy making and the civil society in the country. Since the formation of the organization, it has strived through empirical research in the fields of economics and sociology to provide analysis that helps in providing foundations upon which information on economic and social policies are based in Ireland. Key features it employs in its research are the GIS and spatial analysis of the data due to the strong empirical base of the organization as well as its policy focus and its wide coverage (Kurland & Gorr, 2012). This makes its findings quite relevant to the policy makers locally in Ireland and broadly across the whole of the EU. Since the deduction s used for policy require extensive research of quality data, through GIS and Spatial analysis the organization has been in the position of collecting such data with great convenience. The ESRI researchers have hence made use of the collected and analyzed data by help of GIS from primary data through state of the art surveys and administration of the records. The institution then sets the data in two major data banks for future use in national data sets that is the HIPE and NPRS. The use of GIS and the related spatial analysis methods give a set of tools that are used in describing and understanding the dynamic spatial organization of the healthcare system. This is enhanced through the examination of the relationships through health access and outcomes hence helping in the exploration of how healthcare can be improved. ESRI considers how the use of GIS can be used in the analysis of health care needs based on the data provided by the two national data sets (Pfeiffer, 2008). The Health Research and Information division of ESRI is the one responsible for the support management and development of the two national data sets, HIPE and NPRS. This they do on behalf of the Health Service Executive to help in the generation of the data collected through the help of GIS and analysis by the spatial technique. While HIPE is the main source of the national data used in acute hospitals in Ireland; NPRS provides the national statistics on specific health events such as perinatal care, outcomes of pregnancies. For both the data systems, the main objective of the departments and the organization at large is to ensure that there is the availability of accurate data for policy makers and the interested parties. Through GIS and spatial analysis integration, the organization provides training on coding as applied in hospitals and to the hospital staff working in this area (Martin, 2009). This entails constant improvements on the software requirements that relate to data collection, reporting and validation. The adoption of GIS and spatial analysis by healthcare researchers and policy makers in Ireland will derive their dependence on the ability to access the spatial data on health services utilization and outcomes as well as data that cut across the human service systems (Pfeiffer, 2008). The trainings offered by ESRI hence help the major stakeholders to better understand the spatial behaviors of the healthcare providers and consumers in the rapidly changing healthcare environment and the manner in which geographic information affects the aforementioned dynamic relationships (Longley & Clarke, 1995). How GIS and spatial analysis helps ESRI Human and health organizations like ESRI worldwide share a mission with the rest of the organizations in the world and this mission are geared towards helping people across the globe achieve the highest levels of physical and well beings (Maguire, Batty & Goodchild, 2005). Therefore among others GIS and spatial analysis in organizations like ESRI has the benefits of helping the organization to leverage their limited resources while multiplying the positive impacts that would result into benefiting the relevant stakeholders who range from individuals, families and the society at large. The use of GIS and spatial analysis and their relevant tools helps improve the understanding of a given health situation (Kurland & Gorr, 2012). This ranges from an understanding of what is needed and the procedure to intervene with the required prevention and mitigation strategies when required. GIS and spatial analysis will place the organization on a platform by giving the organization and organizational and analysis tools that are geared towards the expansion of the organizations effectiveness as it strives to respond to the growing demands and limited budgets to the healthcare industry (Clarke & Stillwell, 2004). With regards to heath research conducted by ESRI, the researchers and students alike who apply GIS and spatial tools on their research for health delivery add a lot of value to the major goal of the organization of improving the human health. The fluency as provided by the GIS and spatial analysis techniques is of great help to all the stakeholders of ESRI. This is further enhanced through the provision of professional programs that enhances the skills of the applications of the tools through training, teaching and practice of the GIS applications to provide solutions to various healthcare problems on the medical, public and research fields in Ireland. GIS and spatial analysis helps ESRI to relay timely, accurate and relevant health information for the delivery of effective and high quality health solutions. The tools help the organization enhance its strategic and marketing planning as well as safety and community relations (Martin, 2009). This enables the whole of the healthcare system in a major part of Ireland to be in the position of relating complex elements and helping in reveling solutions for the crucial missions such as the location of strategic position for a health facility. In addition, they are able to estimate the demand for any required new service to help in making the sense of transmission of any new patterns of hospital-acquired infections. In this regard GIS and spatial analysis will help the healthcare system in terms of increased access, efficiency and wellness in terms of integrity which are one of the goals of ESRI. ESRI uses GIS and spatial analysis to help it better understand the relationships that exists between the providers, employers and consumers within the health care fraternity through the incorporation of analysis and data from the components of the population (Longley & Clarke, 1995). In this way the organization is in the position of knowing the needs of the health service sector within the context of the different stakeholders. Through the analysis using spatial analysis tools of the data generated through GIS mechanisms. ESRI will be in the position of determine its functional techniques such as planning, marketing and utilization review which are highly needed in the management of disease (Parker & Asencio, 2009). Within ESRI, spatial analysis is a key function when it comes to GIS; this is because the analysis involves quite a number of methods in its approach to analyzing data from GIS. The features of spatial analysis are related in a manner that it enhances our understanding hence assisting through GIS in the exploration, identification and discoveries realized by the organization (Clarke & Stillwell, 2004). Benefits of using GIS and Spatial Analysis GIS and spatial analysis are one of the modern realizations in terms of the technological developments realized in the field of technology. GIS combined with spatial analysis will hence have a range of benefits which include: - Disease distribution which results from the study of the transmissions of infectious diseases that benefits from the placement of the disease in the spatial temporal platform enhanced by GIS applications. GIS and Spatial analysis is also beneficial in the traffic and land use management and planning through real time traffic analysis in a GIS framework (Longley & Clarke, 1995). Thirdly, the environmental problems will also be solved through the use of the two tools since GIS with this regards will assist in the analysis of data extracted from all the environmental components helping in the control and the mitigation of environmental hazards (Martin, 2009). The analysis of images in a GIS framework gives room for a variety of classification schemes which are applicable in the analysis of land cover hence beneficial in the landscape characterization and measurements. Furthermore, GIS and spatial analysis helps in the analysis with regards to social, cultural and economies since the practitioners in such fields are presented with the opportunities to use block and individual data in the testing of theories using spatial econometric analysis (Clarke & Stillwell, 2004). Such developments and the use of the data streams adopt the GIS frameworks hence increasing our understanding of all the sorts of socio-economic processes that include: - employment and unemployment patterns, crime rates, economic growth and the changes in population (Pfeiffer, 2008). The grand benefit of GIS and spatial analysis is its ability to improve the accessibility and equity of opportunities and services. This is derived from its ability to accommodate more sensitive information on economic processes and services offered to the public sector. The capabilities of the GIS to handle spatial data makes the researches are in the position of being able to providing detailed representations and analyses of spatial distribution with regards to the set objectives (Parker & Asencio, 2009). GIS and spatial analysis is able to reduce the distance and the time that is required for effective provision of healthcare services. They reduce such barriers through the creation of better measures of geographical access and the analysis they offer of the geographical inequalities along social and economic lines (Pfeiffer, 2008). This benefit is derived from the fact that there is a clear distinction between barriers to healthcare and their intersection to other factors like race and ethnicity; facts which may lead to complex pattern (Clarke & Stillwell, 2004). Challenges facing GIS and Spatial analysis As GIS and spatial analysis try to take head on the advantages presented by this tools, there are substantial challenges it faces. These challenges cut across from that advanced from continued rapid advancement into the field of computing and network technology, there is the other challenge of addressing the temporal dimension via the analysis of ever changing phenomena, the websites that offer GIS and rudimentary forms of spatial analysis to individuals without knowledgeable capabilities are highly popular. Finally, there is the challenge of new science philosophy formulation and this reflects the actual conditions under which GIS and spatial analysis if used today (Clarke & Stillwell, 2004). When it comes to networking and computing as a challenges, the systems which were used in GIS and spatial analysis; which were simple and less complicated have today advanced and more complex and the trend continues. There is no Consensus o the appropriate model to be used in such analysis due to the emergence of so many of such models (Clarke & Stillwell, 2004). The increased volume of data as result makes the systems and the networks being used to be less efficient and effective. There is also the challenge of inaccuracy, uncertainty and ever increasing costs. This results from the developments of the sophisticated techniques for measuring the accuracy of the instruments and hence a challenge in determine how the instruments would result into accuracy, certainty of results and cost reduction. Some of the challenges are with regards to technology while others are general challenges which calls for effective and efficient administration (Parker & Asencio, 2009). Conclusion and recommendations GIS and spatial analysis have been used vastly to improve the efficiency of operations in the society with regards to a majority of fields. The fields are many and in our case we were looking at the health sector and the contributions of the two fields. As is observable, the two tools have contributed a lot but still face a few challenges in their actions. It has provided new avenues upon which healthcare research has increased accordingly. Therefore, to improve the field further, constant research is advisable to continue unlocking new ways of planning and analyzing healthcare requirements (Maguire, Batty & Goodchild, 2005). Furthermore, GIS and spatial analysis must now be applied evenly to help in reducing the structural barriers that have hindered prosperity of the operations. The levels of privacy and confidentiality must as well be reduced as much as possible to bring more people on board. Lastly, given that the two tools are well founded upon technology an aspect which is ever dynamic, there has to be efforts to make the tools relevant by ensuring they are ever up to date with regards to technology (Martin, 2009). References About ESRI. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved April 29, 2013, from http://www.esri.ie/about_us/ Clarke, G., & Stillwell, J. C. (2004). Applied GIS and spatial analysis. Chichester, West Sussex, and England: Wiley. Kurland, K. S., & Gorr, W. L. (2012). GIS tutorial for health (4th ed.). Redlands, Calif: ESRI Press. Longley, P., & Clarke, G. (1995). GIS for business and service planning. Cambridge: GeoInformation International. Maguire, D. J., Batty, M., & Goodchild, M. F. (2005). GIS, spatial analysis, and modeling. Redlands, Calif.: ESRI Press. Martin, B. T. (2009). Opportunities for an online GIS-based wood supply management system. Blacksburg, Va.: University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Parker, R. N., & Asencio, E. K. (2009). GIS and spatial analysis for the social sciences: coding, mapping and modeling. New York: Routledge. Pfeiffer, D. (2008). Spatial analysis in epidemiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More