Final Poster

Project Update 8

I have continued to meet with Dr. Karr to discuss the four maps and to make them as easily comprehensible as possible. We decided to map the confirmed number of elevated BLL cases per 10,000 children, per 10,000 housing units and per 10,000 pre-1950 housing units. The last map shows the decrease in percentage per year from 2006 to 2009. The designated counties were labeled with their name and appropriate value. Extent windows, scale bars, and North arrows were added to each map to make each one look more professional when by itself. 

In addition to fixing up the maps, I put together my poster for Academic Celebration. This is only a rough draft that was critiqued in class. There are a lot of little things to fix that I will have to do before the end of the week. To name a few things that have to be changed, the text boxes should have a white background and should be made smaller. I can get rid of the results section and add figure captions explaining the maps instead to make more room for the maps. In addition, the maps should be enlarged, since they should be the main focus of the poster. 

Project Update 7

I met with Dr. Karr last Thursday and made some adjustments to map original three maps that I put together last week or so. I had also created another map displaying the change in percentage of the number of confirmed cases per estimated child population per year from 2006 to 2009. All of the counties decreased in percentage, which is a good thing, but some decreased more than others. I have to find out how to draw the line so that I can move the label out of the county to clean things up a bit. I also have to figure out why on some of the maps there is a category in the legend for one data point that did not show up when I was formatting the labels to try and get rid of that. Hopefully I will be meeting with Dr. Meierdiercks tomorrow to figure these things out. Other than that I changed colors of the counties in NY we did not consider and the other states and the label headings. I was wondering, if it would be better to not go with the percent for the first three maps I put together. I am just trying to think of the simplest way of how to display the data considering the decimals are extremely tiny, but wanted to see how Dr. Karr wanted me to go about things.

Project Update 6

After much hardship I can finally say that I have entered in all the data I need by hand. I have created maps of confirmed cases normalized by estimated child population, confirmed cases normalized by total number of households, and confirmed cases normalized by number of pre-1950s households. I will be meeting with Dr. Karr on Thursday to discuss the maps and to see if this is what he is looking for. In addition to these maps, I can create the same maps, but for the data from 2006 and 2008 to see if there are any differences between the years.

Project Update 5

I need to call someone back tomorrow to see if I can get more info, but other than that I had another meeting with Dr. Karr to discuss what to map with the data I have collected thus far.We decided to map the number of confirmed cases normalized by the estimated child population, total number of housing, and total housing pre-1950. All of the previously done maps only show the number of cases or percent of children tested. Hopefully, the maps I create will be able to display the data in a way that has not been thought about before. The data has been collected, but no one has put together maps to visually display the information. Unfortunately, arcGIS crashed while I was working on my maps and I lost everything and the excel sheets I have are not joining with the county shapefile from the ESRI Maps and Data DVD. This week I will be working trying to resolve this issue and recreate the maps, even if it means entering all of the data by hand.

Project Update 4

I received feedback from the CDC and was given some information regarding lead poisoning cases per year. I have looked over the data and have a ton of data for children, but none for adults at the moment. Dr. Karr wanted information and numbers regarding both, so I will keep looking. If I cannot find anything we can work with what we have since lead poisoning in children is a rather important issue. I even found maps the CDC created in order to display their information of lead poisoning cases per county of New York State and can get ideas from them regarding what to display and how. I have thought about some different ways on how to display the data and already have the base maps, so the focus of this week will be making various maps displaying different data sets and meeting with Dr. Karr sometime to see what he thinks is the best way to display the data. Most likely I will be using monochromatic color scales to display the number of cases and various percentages per county.  

Project Update 2 and 3

The past two weeks, the only data I was able to find online was spreadsheets regarding childhood lead poisoning cases in New York City by neighborhood from the years 2001 and 2005 from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This data is rather outdated for our liking since Dr. Karr is focusing on the present day need for continuing lead poisoning research. I found an article published in January 2011 based on "data recently made available from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene." However, this article also focuses on the child cases, while the number of cases of all age values might be more beneficial. I compiled a list of four additional governmental agencies and organizations in addition to the EPA and CDC that might be of assistance. I have contacted all of these groups in hopes of obtaining any information regarding the number of lead cases in the target counties of New York. Some groups did not have phone numbers, so I have emailed them and are waiting for their responses. Due to break and the waiting time, I have fallen a bit behind of my proposed weekly schedule. I have a meeting scheduled with Dr. Karr this Thursday to go over the obtained data and to discuss the plan of action for the map.

Project Update 1

I have obtained the basemap, a map of New York State from the arcGIS database with various layers including, counties, cities, state boundaries, etc. from the acrGIS database in preparation for mapping the data once it is collected. If some of the layers are not going to be utilized, they can be deleted or hid from view at a later date.

Below is the list of proposed counties to investigate:

• Albany
• Rensselaer
• Schenectady
• Schohare
• Greene
• Saratoga
• Columbia
• Dutchess
• New York (NYC)

I have done some investigating, but this week I will mainly focus on seeing what data is public knowledge that would be useful to the project. I will start with the CDC and EPA websites, and if needed, look up contact information for local Department of Health Agencies. Obtaining the annual number of lead poisoning cases per county per year would allow for various, multiple analyses of the data. If this data is not available, a meeting will be held with Dr. Karr and myself to decide a new plan of action.

Project Proposal

Geospatial Mapping of the Lead Poisoning cases in the Capital District Project Proposal

Siena College, Department of Environmental Studies

Prepared By: Alyssa Endres

In collaboration with Dr. Jesse Karr, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Introduction:

Lead poisoning has been identified as one of the most common preventable health concerns in the U.S. Those afflicted by this illness can be found throughout all US neighborhoods and communities and are not isolated to one demographic class. The route of exposure may differ from case to case, but the most common sources of exposure are lead based paints, contaminated top-soil and dirt, and drinking water (Godwin, Silbergeld, CDC).

The prevalence of lead poisoning in the US is often overlooked. As of 2010, an estimated 310,000 children under the age of six in the U.S. were identified by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as having blood lead levels of concern (defined as having a blood lead level of 10 μg/dL or higher).  In fact, here in NY State’s capital district, there are still neighborhoods that are identified by the NYS department of health as having residents with blood lead levels (BLLs) of concern (Bureau).

This project entails researching the number of diagnosed lead poisoning cases in the Capital District and New York City. Information from the EPA and local Department of Health agencies will be compiled. As an effective way of showing the significance and continual need for lead poisoning research the data will be used to create a geographical representation of those in the capital district affected by lead poisoning of both children and adults.

Objectives:

      It is my goal is to create a clear, visually compelling, colored and black and white presentation quality maps that illustrate the number of lead poisoning cases by county in the Capital District of New York or otherwise determined from the data collected.

•        Research the number of diagnosed lead poisoning cases in the Capital District and New York City using various data sources including the EPA and local Department of Health agencies
•       Create a geospatial representation of the number of lead poisoning cases in the designated counties

This map will serve as an effective tool for showing the significance and continual need for lead poisoning research.

Methodology:

For this project I will be researching the number of diagnosed lead poisoning cases in the Capital District and New York City. Information will be gathered from the EPA and local Department of Health agencies. The data will then be prepared and entered as a text/ excel file onto the computer, and then entered into the Arc-GIS software. The information will then be manipulated if necessary and imported into an existing Arc-GIS shape file of political boundaries of the Capital District of New York and New York City.  In addition to uploading the data collected, I will need to identify the number of lead poisoning cases within each of the counties and categorize them. This will be done using the statistical capabilities of Arc-GIS.  

Work Plan:

• Week of February 26, 2012
• Meet with Dr. Karr to discuss project details
• Revised project proposal
• Begin research and contact agencies
• Update blog
• Week of March 4, 2012
• Add basemap to map
• Continue to research and compile data
• Enter data onto computer into excel spreadsheet or text file
• Update blog  
• Week of March 11, 2012
• Import data into Arc-GIS and add to map
• Start the introduction, information blurbs, and layout of interpretation poster (if needed)
• Update blog
• Week of March 18, 2012
• Any information collected, compiled, drafted, and posted
• Update blog
• Week of March 25, 2012
• Present Dr. Karr with draft of final product
• Update blog
• Week of April 1, 2012 
• Revise draft of map upon feedback from Dr. Karr
• Update blog
• Week of April 8, 2012
• Have important information about specific site features completed and finalized on interpretation poster (if needed)
• Continue editing on GIS map
• Send draft to Dr. Karr
• Week of April 15, 2012
• Complete final draft of interpretation poster
• Complete final draft of GIS map, finalized with legends, title, sources
• Week of April 22, 2012
• Professionalize maps
• Plan my presentation 

Deliverables:

I will provide my client with a high resolution pdf, one in color and one in black and white of a map of the Capital District of New York and New York City detailing the number of lead poisoning cases by county or otherwise determined by the data collected. An extent indication map may also be provided detailing the location, giving the reader a relative location of the study location. A project blog will be compiled with weekly blog postings and updates. 

Data Sources:

•           Counties Shapefile of United States
•        ESRI Data and Maps [DVD]. (2010) Redlands, CA: ESRI, Inc. [February, 2012]
•           Imported data regarding diagnosed cases of lead poisoning 
•           Information collected
•        EPA
•        Local department of Health Agencies
•       Godwin, H. A. (2001) The biological chemistry of lead, Curr Opin Chem Biol 5, 223-227.
• Silbergeld, E. K. (1992) Mechanisms of lead neurotoxicity, or looking beyond the lamppost, FASEB J 6, 3201-3206.
• CDC. (2005) Preventing Lead Poisoning in Young Children, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta.
•       Bureau of Community Environmental Health and Food Protection (2009) NEW YORK STATE’S PRIMARY PREVENTION OF CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING PILOT PROGRAM: YEAR ONE IMPLEMENTION FINAL REPORT, NYS Department of Health, Albany, NY.

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