NY State Public Health Works! Internship Summer 2009

Michael Grosso

St Bonaventure University

“Spatial Geodatabase Infrastructure for Environmental

Health Decisionmaking”

http://www.lumina-media.com/nygis/images/pages/clipart-gis.gif

• The Current Problem: “How can the Cattaraugus County Environmental Health Division take advantage of current advances in technology”?

Purpose

• To facilitate future efforts of sanitarians

• To help Cattaraugus County public files become electronically stored.

• (For me): to learn about the field of public health

Where do I fit in the Mission?

• To use the combined forces of scientific knowledge, professional skills, individual commitment, community support and political desire to control disease, prevent injuries, promote and encourage healthy behaviors and assure the quality and accessibility of health services.

(Catt County Health Mission)

Health Department Benefits

Paper Source

Degrades with age

Not rapidly accessibleeverywhere

Takes up a lot of space

Future Electronic Source

Quickly Viewable in the field

Can be manipulated with otherdata in a GIS for added utility

What is GIS?

• A system of tools used to manipulate spatial and attribute data to produce useful products and knowledge.

• For example: a GIS could calculate the number of water districts in Allegany just by using a query. This could be used for many things.

Products

Products 2

One issue:

• We are unsure if the Town of Perrysburg actually has two water districts.

• It is possible the town forgot to dissolve the other, but Catt Co might not have records.

One issue:

• No Big Deal: but it could have saved the town the expense of creating their new legal district.

Scans of Septic Permits and Plans

Result in ArcMap is the view of the

HYPERLINKED scan.

I hyperlinked the attribute table of the parcel data already available on the server.

Scans of Septic Permits and Plans

Example

Result in ArcMap is the view of the

HYPERLINKED scan.

Future Work• The next person will work on scanning

other towns in the county. (each has ~2000 scans)

•The goal is two scans (permit and plan) for everyone we have data on.

In other words…

• Sanitarians in the field would like an electronic map of a parcel on ArcPad.

• Takes out a lot of guesswork in inspections.

http://www.paulustravelsphotos.com/assets/images/autogen/a_Nepal_outdoor_toilet_Chitwan_IMG_5754.jpg

Work Strategy

• Legal Descriptions of Districts

• Scanning Documents

• Field Work

ArcMap User Interface

• The Editor Toolbar I used

Challenges

• Keeping track of 50+ scans at a time.

• Interpreting Very Old Legal Descriptions

(chains and links, ENE 500ft to a point, etc.)

• Operating a GPS in the field while socializing with inspectee.

My Experience

• Gained greater appreciation of the role of information technologies (GIS) in Public Health.

• Gained an understanding of the challenges (and work!) associated with organizing spatial and attribute data into a useful geodatabase.

• Gained a good insight into local history.

Hauling Tires

• Enforcing health codes without undue tension with property owners.

• A hands-on way to help out the community.

http://www.co.hernando.fl.us/mosquito/images/tires.JPG

Public Water System Inspections

• Mobile Home Parks (Bonaview, Lazy Acres, etc.)

• Zoar Valley Inn• I-86 Allegany Rest Stop

http://greencouple.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/water_pump.jpg

Public Water System Inspections

• Salamanca Water Street (groundwater and tanks)

• Village of Gowanda (surface water collection)

Mr. Craig Jackson (Chief of Operations Section, NYSDOH Bureau of Water Supply Protection) and

Mr. John Kunac (Assistant Sanitary Engineer, NYSDOH Bureau of Water Supply Protection)

Little Valley Daytrips

• Two days I drove to West Valley to search the archives for Water District descriptions and easements.

• Worked with Deputy County Clerk Alan Bernstein

Presentations

• 10 minute show describing my work

• Troy, NY and Albany, NY

• Before state officials including the Health Commissioner (Dr. Richard Daines) and interested public.

Conclusion

• Gained valuable experience in a part of Environmental Science.

• Had a positive impact on the community, the Health Department Office, and SBU.

• Generated a product (one of only two interns to do so.)