07 Jul W10 Assignment: GIS Mapping

To create your GIS map, begin with the following steps:

1. Visit .
   • To better understand Community Commons read through this  and watch the video, to better understand how to use Community Commons to do mapping.
2. On the left side menu, select Maps & Data.
3. Select a data set of interest to you.
   • The  may be a good place to start but there are many data sets you can select on Community Commons. Do some exploring.
4. Explore and compile data that is meaningful to you and map it.
   • Choose an area or region with which you are familiar and zoom into it so that you are looking at an area for which you have some context.
5. After you have created your GIS map write a summary paper that you will submit answering the following:
   1. What is the nature of the GIS data you are sharing? Discuss what it measures and why you selected the area or region you selected. Discuss where the data came from.
      • Please include a picture or a link to a video of your map in your essay.
   2. What public health issue has mapping the data set you chose revealed?
      • You might want to look at a variety of data sets and think about root causes so that you don’t come to fallacious conclusions. A small example of where data can be misleading would be Rexburg, Idaho. If you look at the  and look at Idaho you’ll see that it shows a section of poverty centered around Rexburg. But if you add a data set that looks at consumer default rates you’ll see that Rexburg has low rates of default. How is it that poverty is high but defaults are low? There is usually a strong correlation between the two. Of course, there is a simple explanation. College students have a relatively low amount of income while they are in school and they make up about 40 percent of Rexburg’s population. However, students in the United States usually have other means of support besides taxable income and their expenses are usually relatively low so while money might be a little tight for them, they aren’t really impoverished. 
   3. What are the advantages of using GIS to display the data set you created? Is GIS mapping the most appropriate and helpful way to display this data? Why or why not?
   4. Share an evidence-based program or intervention strategy that can be used to address the public health issue and why it might be helpful.

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