GIS is a powerful tool that has been successfully implemented to help address a number of significant health issues ranging from disease management to improved services. Maps and spatial information technologies have three main advantages:

• They can be a means of recording and storing information.
• They are effective in presenting information and communicating findings.
• They can be used to demonstrate relationships in a way that is more striking.

Mapping techniques can be used in two main ways to show the links between environment and health. Simple overlays (comparisons) of environmental and socioeconomic (health) data can be used to identify patterns, which can then be investigated later for correlations. However, spatial models can also be developed to predict changes in health based on environmental changes.

The most commonly mapped environmental information of relevance to the health sector includes:

• Pollution sources and affected areas (including sewage, solid waste, hazardous waste, industrial pollution, smoke and other emissions, and radiation);
• Land cover and use (including vegetation type, vegetation change and condition, agriculture, forestry, and soil type and condition);
• Water availability and quality;
• Energy sources and use (including fossil fuel use, electrical connectivity, biomass use, and renewable energy sources); and
• Biological resources (including protected areas and recreational sites, endangered species, and medicinal resources).

For more than a decade, we at PCI have been using GIS to solve health issues. We can support healthcare projects using diverse set geospatial technologies and provide data-driven decisions to fight epidemics.