Mini Grant: Linking Environmental Exposure and Health Outcomes: The Importance of Data Coordination

Linking environmental exposure and health outcomes: the importance of data coordination While establishing linkages between health outcomes and direct and indirect effects of environmental exposures is complex and challenging, integrating epidemiological data with geological characterizations through geospatial techniques and statistical methods can provide insight into the etiologies15-18 and spatial patterns of disease, 19-20 and facilitate the development of improved exposure maps and risk assessments.21 The proposed work seeks to identify, compile, inventory, and catalog publicly available social, environmental and health datasets for the Appalachian region of Kentucky into a single data warehouse. This study will lay the foundation for building a broader, relational database that will facilitate and support transdisciplinary, collaborative investigations that address key questions involving the complex interaction between the environment, health outcomes, and community impacts within individuals living in this region. Draft Aims. Aim 1. Develop a comprehensive list of data resources by conducting an inventory of publicly available social, environmental and health datasets within Appalachian Kentucky. Data exists at local, state, and federal levels, in a variety of formats, with varying spatial resolution, time scales, and accuracy and the inventory process will provide insight into the scope and quality of existing information. Aim 2. Compile and transform tabular data (i.e., files that are not in a geospatial format) into a geospatial data format. Aim 3. Evaluate all geospatial datasets (Aims 1 & 2) for positional accuracy, completeness, temporal quality, thematic accuracy, logical consistency, and usability in ESRI ArcPro (v2.4.2) geographic information system software using the ArcGIS Data Reviewer extension.