Health-Based Geographic Information Systems for Mapping and Risk Modeling of Infectious Diseases and COVID-19 to Support Spatial Decision-Making.

Abstract

Infectious diseases remain an essential global challenge in public health. For instance, novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has resulted in significant negative impacts on public health, infecting more than 214 million people and causing 4.47 million deaths worldwide as of August 2021. Geographic Information Systems have played an essential role in managing, storing, analyzing, and mapping disease and related risk information. This article provides an overview of a broad topic on applications of GIS into infectious disease research. Our review follows the framework of human-environment interactions, focusing on the environmental and social factors that cause the disease outbreak and the role of humans in disease control, including public health policies and interventions such as social distancing/face covering practice and mobility modeling. The work identifies key spatial decision-making issues where GIS becomes valued in the agenda for infectious disease research and highlights the importance of adopting science-based policies to protect the public during the current and future pandemics.