Spatial Data Science for Public Health - Workshop

Day 3 & 4 of Summer School - Open Stack
Geospatial Models for Public Health
25 - 31 July, 2024 — GISE Hub, IIT Bombay

Authors
Affiliations

Prof. (Dr.) Biju Soman

Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum

Dr. Arun Mitra

All India Intstitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bibinagar, Hyderabad

Published

July 27, 2028

Welcome

  • Welcome to the Day 3 and 4 of The Summer School Open Stack - Geospatial Models for Public Health!
  • The goal for these two days is to highlight the applications of GIS in Public Health while providing the foundational concepts in Spatial Epidemiology.
  • The workshop introduces the participants to the field of Spatial Data Science through the statistical programming language R.
  • The workshop is intended as an introductory window into the world of spatial data analysis and visualization for better public health outcomes.
  • Workshop materials can be accessed from the github repository GIS4PublicHealth-Workshop

Objectives of the Workshop

  • Understand Essential Concepts in Spatial Epidemiology
  • Get the “bigger” picture of Spatial Data Science - inculcate Geographic/Spatial Thinking
  • Create interest in Spatial Data Science (We do not aim to teach you everything, rather, we want motivate you to learn on your own, so you can fill the gaps in your knowledge)
  • Learn about the Best Practices for Reproducible Spatial Data Research and Analysis
  • Gain hands-on experience with spatial data analysis and visualization (The lab-work is DIY. It is designed to bring you out of your comfort zone and initiate discussions and dialogue)

Schedule

Day 3

Day Time Session Topic
Sat 10:00 - 10:30 Welcome and Icebreaker
Sat 10:30 - 11:30 Session 1 Intro to GIS for Public Health
Sat 11:30 - 13:00 Session 2 Spatial Data Science with R
Sat 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
Sat 14:00 - 15:30 Session 3 Principles of Spatial Data Visualization
Sat 15:30 - 17:00 Session 4 HandsOn Group Activity

Day 4

Day Time Session Topic
Sun 10:00 - 10:30 Recap of previous day
Sun 10:30 - 11:30 Session 1 Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis
Sun 11:30 - 13:00 Session 2 Applications of SDS in Public Health
Sun 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
Sun 14:00 - 15:30 Session 3 SDS for Public Health: Real-World Case Studies
Sun 15:30 - 17:00 Session 4 Group Activity and Group Presentations

In preparation for the workshop

Lectures

  • Essential concepts
  • Mainly to get the big picture
  • Enthusing interest rather than teaching

Practical sessions

  • Do it yourself
  • Get skilled in the process
  • Use data for dialogue!

Software and Packages

  • R version \(\geq\) 4.3.* (https://cran.rstudio.com/)
  • Packages
    • tidyverse
    • here
    • patchwork
    • sf
    • rgeoda
    • tidygeocoder
    • exactextractr
    • ggmap
    • ggspatial
    • epitrix
    • janitor
    • leaflet
    • spdep

You can install the necessary packages using the inbuilt R function install.packages("tidyverse").

Hardware

  • Laptop in good working condition with atleast 8GB RAM (preferably 16GB)
  • Working WiFi connection

Acknowledgements