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 This data is rather outdated for our liking since Dr.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.