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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES

Volume 3, No 1, 2012

© Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0

Research article ISSN 0976 – 4380

Submitted on March 2012 published on July 2012 97

Development of an economical Spatial health information system Prateek Rajput

1, Ram Mohan Rao. K

2, Naveen Kumar Sidda

3

1- Geoinformatics division, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, India

2- Geoinformatics division, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, India

3- Department of Computer Science and System engineering, University of Zaragoza, Spain

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

This study outlines the economical development of Dehradun Malaria Information System

(DMIS) using open source internet GIS technologies and concepts. The application is

developed with three objectives i) real time updating of malaria data from various health

centers in Dehradun, India into one central information system ii) providing access and

dissemination of the data in a spatial interactive environment iii) Usage of various state of art

freely available technologies in building an information management system economically.

The web application development is instrumental in the malaria research, control and health

service communities at different locations for effective planning and operational activities.

Keywords: Health, open source, spatial data, Malaria, WebGIS.

1. Introduction

Malaria is a mosquito borne disease which is most common in hot tropical regions like India.

To monitor, control and prevention of these diseases is very vital to the citizens. In this study

we developed an economical spatial system using open source technologies for the effective

communicating of health information to the citizens of Dehradun, the capital of Uttrakhand.

For the last couple of years malaria has become one of most harmful disease in the Dehradun

District. Various activities like irrigation, urbanization, and agricultural have readily

increased in the city and this has led to increase in the rate of malaria parasites by favoring

the conditions for its growth particularly in the monsoon season. Owing to heavy rainfall and

changes in temperature in Dehradun, various breeding grounds for mosquitoes have emerged

recently and led to a grave problem (N. Pemola Devi, 2006).

The state of the art Information Technology (IT) and the advent of Geo spatial Information

System (GIS) which is widely used in various fields (Peng, ZR, 2003) opened up many new

possibilities for monitoring case sensitive scenarios like natural calamities and health issues.

Availability and usage of free and open source GIS software’s made GIS more usable for

diverse application domains. GIS system includes software, hardware, and designed

procedure to shelter the manipulation, modelling and database management and display the

cases unified by geographical area (Gao et al., 2009). Distributed GIS is a concept in GIS for

sharing and transmitting the data for spatial analysis to visualize GIS presentation over the

web . Web-GIS which is similar to the client and server architecture, client are a web browser

and server consists of a web server, database and Web GIS software. These all services are

conducted within three-tier architecture. These tiers are a client, web server and map server

and database. If administrators add or update data in the database, then it dynamic (runtime)

update on the each network and people can access the updated information (Peng, ZR, 2003).

Using these GIS concepts an intuitive understanding of the malaria affected areas and their

impact can be assessed that can be crucial in decision making and tackling the spread of the

Economical development of spatial health information system

Prateek Rajput et al

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

Volume 3 Issue 1, 2012 98

disease. Based on the anatomy of the above mentioned concepts this paper demonstrates the

development of Dehradun Malaria Information System (DMIS) for the government and

public health centers.

Jean-Baptiste et. al, (2003) made an “A Web-Based GIS for Health Care Decision-Support”

making Use of Geographical Information System (GIS) they developed a public health

decision making system for End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) it could be dynamically

Visualized and was used to analyze ESRD and then supplied for public health. The basic

tools and software’s used for it were a Web-GIS, PHP, flash, Data Warehouse and Data

mining technologies which were used for improving public health decision making. They

developed a web-based interface to ERSD professionals and for decision-makers. For the

purpose of map publishing MapXtrem was applied and for interfacing PHP and FLASH were

used which was then connected with MySql database. The thematic map that was developed

dynamically visualizes where the attributes of geographic features are displayed on the map

and through pie chat the population density of the area was depicted.

Xiaolin Lu (2009) did a fantastic work to create “A GIS –based Based Integrated Platform for

E-Government Application” through their paper a clear and lucid understanding regarding the

role of GIS in E-Government Information System has been depicted By using the spatial

analysis, data mining technology, they established geo-spatial information centric models, for

the use of decision making support system for the government. Their work included Web-

GIS for broadcasting, data management, statistical analysis and decision support with geo-

spatial information. The framework is based on J2EE for platform independent and

distributed database. A GIS uses Java applet technology to show the graphical maps in the

browser. The final results show the distributed map with grade color to express quantities of

infectious situation and pie charts to convey the public health percentage information. Dong

Weihua et al, (2006) worked on “construction of E-Government GIS based on .Net Platform

and Web Service” .Net framework for public users and for creating XML web-services.

Using Microsoft .Net and web services they changed the presentation of the E-government

GIS, interoperability and geographic information sharing. This platform solves the

compatibility problem of heterogeneous computers and Web services technology provides

interoperability across programming language, operating system, runtime environment and

hardware. By using this platform E-Governance can be done with sharing of information at a

reduced cost of system development, debug and maintenance.

Jesse Blanton et. al, (2006) completed their work and brought forward the project named

“Development of a GIS-based, real-time Internet mapping tool for rabies surveillance” a real

time internet mapping tool for rabies surveillance for this system they used ArcSDE for

database schema and AcrIMS used to generate map images. The results are shown on the

map and affected people can be visualized by the dote (RED & BLUE), Blue dots indicate

the negative and Red dot shows the positive results. Hitesh Gupta (2005) Developed a

“District Health Management Information System associated GIS for health Services in

Rajasthan”. In his study he developed a district health management system software using

Visual Basic as front-end and database prepared in Microsoft Access. This software helps in

health-GIS for decision making and suggests better planning to manage health problems. It

only stores the information in the database, and it’s not used for mapping, user can't visualize

the information on the map.





2. Study area

The site selected for this study is Dehradun district (Figure 1) geographically it lies at 30°

19’ N latitude and 78° 20’ E longitude. It is a capital of recently declared (in November

2000) new state Uttrakhand (earlier Uttaranchal) as well as the district headquarters. It is

situated in south central part of the state Uttrakhand. It is located at an altitude of 640 meters

(2100 feet) above sea level. It has an area of 3088 square kilometers. It is surrounded by the

alluring valleys of the Great Himalaya has very nice site scenes (Annonymous, 2001).

Figure 1: Map of study area

2.1 Data used

For making DMIS, we collected and prepared both the spatial and non spatial data.

Nonspatial malaria data for the year 2008, 2009, and 2010 has been collected from the

Malaria Health Department, and for spatial data we used Ward Area and Area Population

maps.

2.2 Technologies used:

The following open source technologies have been used for DMIS.

S.NO. Name Description

1. Q-GIS Used to create spatial data forward in Dehradun.

2. PostgreSQL PostgreSQl used for database management and

table relationships.

3. PostGIS To load spatial data into database.

4. Geo-Server 2.1.0 Publishing the map.

5. U-dig To import styles in Geoserver.

6. OpenLayer To get the styles on the published map.

7. ASP.NET To design framework for the user and make

connections between the database and Geo-

Server.

Table 1: Technologies used in the DMIS





3. Methodology

Following chart demonstrates the general methodology used for the development of DIMS

for malaria.

Figure 2: Flow Diagram of Methodology

Figure 3: Adding attribute column in Shapefile





For this study, Dehradun Ward shape file data and non spatial attributes population, area and

2008, 2009, 2010 year wise malaria data was created. Quantum GIS software was used to

import and georeference the Dehradun spatial data (shapefile) using

WGS_1984_UTM_ZONE_44N, with set projection in Transverse Mercator and SRID is

32644. After georeferencing population, ward area in hectare and population density attribute

was added to the shape file (figure 3). PostgreSQL was used, in which tables: tbl_disease

type, tbl_No.Affetcedpeople, tbl_year and table_wards were prepared. Before loading the

shape file, the_geom and Spatial Reference System Identifier (SRID) was set in the ward

shape file. An SQL server support SRID for instance must be used with spatial data. The

database was then loaded with the shape file using “PostGIS shape file to DBF loader”(figure

4). Using this loader shapefile data attribute is imported into PostgreSQL. After loading the

shapefile into PostgreSQl the new table was added into the database (PostGIS). Then again

importing and creating all the tables in the database, relationship between each table were

made using primary key and foreign keys.

Figure 4: Loading the shapefile into PostgreSQL database

Geoserver gives the flexibility to the users to make connection between Geoserver and

PostGIS database and project the spatial data onto a map environment. A workspace was

created into the Geoserver, where all data are stored. This workspace was set as a default

workspace. After creation of the workspace new Store was added, vector data sources were

chosen as type of data source and PostGIS database was selected. With the selected database

all the required parameters were filled along with defining the username, password and

database name. The Geoserver now is connected with the database where the basic

information like workspace, data source name and connection parameters like host, port,

database, schema, user and password was filled. All database tables are finally loaded into the

Geoserver.

After loading all the database tables into Geoserver, a SQL View was made to establish a

relationship between all the tables. On database a new feature type can also be created by

configuring a native SQL statement. To create a new SQL View, the SQL statement is

written and selected attributes are chosen according to the requirement of the table.

The_geom (MultiPolygon) and SRID (32644) was selected and the SQL view was saved.





Initially the research and publishing information for the current layer has to be configured,

which include a declaration of the Coordinate Reference Systems in Native SRS and

Declared SRS. Both are set on same SRS, and then the Native Bounding Box and Lat/Lon

Bounding Box was computed. Map style can also be changed in WMS Setting. To manage

the layer to be published by Geoserver, the Layer preview option was brought into use. The

layer preview option enables us to observe the list of all layers configured in Geoserver and

provide previews in various formats for each layer.

3.1 Publishing map in open layer map preview

After completion of all steps in the Geoserver finally the map is published in Open layer Map

Preview. OpenLayer is a pure JavaScript library which is used to display map data in modern

or in updating web browsers, with no server side dependencies. After publishing the Map the

source code is copied and a .The html file is made inside the ms4w\apps\openlayers-2.10

examples. These changes can be made directly on the map by changing the JavaScript in

source code. Using U-dig the style can be imported into the published map. First, U-dig is

connected to PostGIS database and the shape file is imported from the database after which

style, scale and legends were entered on the Map. The file was then exported to .sld format.

This .sld format files were finally imported into Geoserver published a layer. For an

interactive interface with the user three different web pages were designed using ASP.NET.

The homepage provides an easy access of information for the user, and the login page

provides the authentication for users can’t update or insert the data into the database. Only

authenticated centers can update or insert the data into the database. Third page provides the

updating and insertion into the database. After insert next year data information in the

database, it will get dynamically update on the Map and PostgreSQL database. For

establishing connection between ASP.NET and Postgres database, PostgreSQL ODBC

driver is installed. In ASP.NET an ODBC connection has to be made and all information like

Domain Server Name (DNS), UserID, Password, Post and Database name were entered.

Finally we can easily access the entire database on the web application system.

3.2 Integrating Geoserver, open-layer, Postgres database and ASP.NET

After integrating all we make an information system for Public Health Centers and users.

The user has the freedom to choose the data from an entire set present for various years; the

user can also select the ward for which the data regarding the spread of malaria are required.

Once the query is submitted a table depicting the number of affected people will be

displayed in a grid view format. Apart from the query submission the user can also directly

get access to the same information by simply clicking on the desired area on the map, which

will give detailed information about the ward and the number of people infected by malaria

in various years. Various shades of color are used to depict the intensity of the spread of

malaria, the darker shades represent highly affected area of the region, this will help in

monitoring the spread of disease and can be formulated to make a decision-making system

based upon the data.

4. Results and discussion

The Dehradun Malaria Information System is a GIS web based tool primarily developed for

Malaria disease data dissemination and accessing up to date data in a graphical format. The

data in the DMIS are updated by the administrators of the health center and providing access

to various users and the disease research and control in the Dehradun city. This web based





application is developed for Users and Public Health Centers (PHC) were forged, using

which user can easily access the data and get the number of affected people in the specified

ward area.

Figure 5: Home page interface for user and PHC

The interface displays Dehradun ward map which includes the name of the ward, population,

area, affected people year wise etc. (Figure 5). Zoom IN and Zoom OUT facility allows user

to interact the map with ease. The ADMIN BLOCK page is introduced to provide robust

security with user authentication. The administration panel is developed to insert, change, or

update the database data. This provision for altering the database is given only to authorized

health center through the login page.

Some of the salient features of the DMIS:

1. Developed with open source internet GIS technologies.

2. Timely interactive up to date information portal.





3. Detailed break up of Ward/Disease type/Year wise data.

4. User-friendly interface to visualize the data in both spatial and non-spatial format.

5. Geographic view and symbolization option for quick and comprehensive

understanding to all kinds of users.

6. Rendering option to reveal the attribute information and intensity of the spread of

malaria.

Figure 6: Drop down facility to select fields

DMIS is developed using ASP.NET in Geoserver environment. Figure 6 shows the malaria

data access through drop down menus of the application selecting the ward name, disease

type, year etc. In this framework a drop down functionality is provided to the user to get the

Ward/Disease type/Year wise data details depending on the choice of options selected. The

user can access the required malaria data by providing the inputs such as ward name, disease

type, year itch to fetch the required data from the GIS database (Figure 6). The results are

projected in a ready to use format (grid format / access format) for further analysis (Figure 7

& Figure 8).





Figure 7: Data in a Grid View

Figure 8: All the attribute data for year 2008 in access format





Figure 9: Geospatial information published through WebMap technology

Apart from the spatial query part, users can also directly get access to the same information in

more detail about the ward area, population and the number of affected people with malaria

in various years by simply clicking on the desired area on the Map. All records are displayed

in a simple table format year wise (Figure 9). The color-coding shows the intensity of the

spread of Malaria, dark shade of the map represents the most affected areas. The color-coding

also aids the use for quick intuitive understanding.

Figure 10: Insertion and updating interface for the authorized user





Figure 11: Insertion and updating into the database

Figure 12: Data Inserted successfully into the database

If Public Health Centers want to Insert or Update Malaria database, first they have to enter

the username and password credentials which give the authentication to alter the database.

After successfully login the new page is shown to the authorized user where malaria data can

be altered (Figure 10). This page allows to key in four fields: ward name, disease type, year

and the number of affected people respectively. The database is updated by inserting the

correct values and then submitted to save in the centralized database (Figure 11). After all

fields are filled and the values of affected people have entered the information in the database

is submitted, if the fields are correctly entered the notice Data Inserted successfully will be





Figure 13: Updated database show in a grid view

Figure 14: Updated year and affected people are shown

displayed. Now the ward: Rajpur, year: 2011 and the number of affected people are updated

in the PostgresSQL database (Figure 12).





After inserting the data into the database we can access the data, this all thing done

dynamically. User can insert the data and same time it will get updated which ultimately

update the Geoserver. Through Geoserver it will be reflected on the published Map, all

updating are done at runtime process (Figure 13). Likewise the history of the data from

various years of the same locality is shown (Figure 14). Thus, the interactive, timely

centralized information system development based on the freely available tools will be

beneficial to the government organizations, NGOs and common users make them aware and

take necessary prevent actions to subdue the impact of these spread of diseases.

5. Conclusions

The main objective of the study was to build an economical information system by using the

open source GIS technology for keeping a vigil over the spread of malaria in the city of

Dehradun. This DMIS framework gives graphical interactive, user friendly, up-to-date

information for the government, users and public health centers. This study established a

server side web architecture that provides map visualization and query operations, web help

users to utilized functionality of GIS more easily than desktop complex system. DMIS is

customized to organize the malaria data in a central repository using PostgreSQL for database

management, Geoserver provides the geographical distribution information about the malaria

affected people in a published Map and using ASP. Net.

A major advantage of DMIS is that it provides the several health centers to upload the data in

real time which is used for quick and collaborative decision for the people in various

locations. A spatial selection option is provided to the user to access and query the centralized

database for the details, to plan for the disease control activities. This tool is helpful to

improve the health services in the Dehradun district for managing and planning the control of

Malaria disease. The best way to provide information to the entire community is by using a

platform that is accessible to all, for this purpose a website was designed that had all the

information about the past records from different wards of Dehradun year wiser, the

choropleth map that has been developed provides the information regarding the intensity of

the spread of malaria in various wards, the map changes accordingly and populates the results

as per the user requested information. This website is user-friendly, informative which will

aid the authorities to assess and plan ways to mitigate with the disease.

6. References

1. Anonymous (2001), Census of India 2001. New Delhi: Registrar general of India.

2. Dong Weihua., Liu Jiping., Guo Qingsheng, “ Construction of e-government GIS

based on.Net plate form ad web service”. IEEE International Conference on

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2006. IGRASS 2006. pp 921-923. DOI.

10.1109/IGARSS.2006.237

3. Emily Grover-Kopec., Benno Blumenthal., Pietro Ceccato., Tufa Dinku., Judy A

Omumbo and Stephen J Connor. (2011), Web-based climate information resources for

malaria control in Africa, Malaria Journal, 5(38). doi:10.1186/1475-2875-5-38.

4. Gao.S., Mioc.F., and Coleman.D.J (2009), Online GIS services for mapping and

sharing disease information, International Journal of Health Geographics, 8(3), pp 1-

16. doi:10.1186/1476-072X-8-3





5. Hitesh Gupta, “District health management information system associated GIS for

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6. Jean Baptise. R., Laurent Toubiana., Loic Mignot., Mohamed Said, Claude Mugnier,

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decision support. AMIA symposium, pp 365-369.

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2006. Development of a GIS-based, real-time Internet mapping tool for rabies

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8. Pemola Devi. N., and Jauhari R.K, 2006, Climate variables and malaria incidence in

Dehradun, Uttaranchal, India. Journal of Vector Borne Diseases, 43(1), pp 21-28.

9. Peng Z.R., Tsou M.H. (2003) Internet GIS: Distributed Geographic Information

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