Open-Source web-based geographical information system for health exposure assessment

Using maps to visualise data can enable quicker interpretation of complex geographical phenomena [1], identify patterns, and aid in planning, resource allocations for policy and decision making [2]. Mapping, in the context of the Environment and Health sub-discipline, provides a visual assessment for investigating the spatial distribution of a disease and potential associations and underlying causes [3]. Developments in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have now made the mapping of this information commonplace and are used in a large range of applications. Within the environment and health fields, recent applications using GIS have been used in projects such as identifying regions at risk to malaria [4], monitoring effects of air pollution on asthmatics [5] and defining an "Index of Relative Wellbeing" for an area from census data [6].The research presented here, reports on results from the European Union (EU) FP6 funded Health and Environment Integrated Methodology and Toolbox for Scenario Assessment (HEIMTSA) project. The project's overall goal was to support the European Union's (EU's) Environment and Health Action Plan (EHAP) by extending health impact assessment (HIA) coupled with cost benefit analysis (CBA) methods and tools to evaluate the impacts policy scenarios have (at a European level) on the environment and human health. HEIMTSA was structured around loosely coupled modules that deal with pollutants and their media using the full chain (impact pathway) approach. The modelling tools and framework that were developed within this project was focussed on exploring:？ Emissions to environmental media ('stressor identification'), derived from sector scenarios in transport, energy, agriculture, industry, households and waste treatment and disposal, that are combined and harmonized to result in consistent scenarios for all relevant stressors for the whole of Europe;？ Human exposures (e.g. outdoor and indoor air pollution, water, noise, odour, metals, dioxin