Washington Location Finder Project
The Washington State Department of Health has created two GIS Web services for use by State agencies. These services provide address correction and geocoding functions to consuming applications. They were developed internally with grant funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Integration with EPA’s Exchange Network Node at the Washington State Department of Ecology is planned in 2008.
The address correction service accepts a street address and returns a corrected and standardized address. This service is intended to be used by any application that collects mailing or street addresses. The service corrects misspelled streets, missing components, invalid zip codes and city names. Software and data from MelissaData Inc. is updated quarterly and provides access to the USPS database for validating addresses.
The geocoding service accepts a street address and returns the location information. This service can geocode to zip code, city or zip+4 locations if a street level geocode isn’t possible. The latitude, longitude, accuracy and source values are also returned. This service uses the ArcGIS Server software from Environmental Systems Research Institute to perform the geocoding.
The use of these services will expand in 2008 as they are moved into the production environment. They are currently being tested by the Office of Regulatory Assistance, WA DOE, WA DOH, and WDFW. At the WA DOH they will be integrated with the following systems initially with others to follow: Electronic Death Registration System, Public Health Reporting of Electronic Data, STD/HIV and EMS-Online. More Information
Source Water Assessment Program
Washington State's Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP) was developed with public participation to improve protection of public water supply sources and further protect the health of Washington's citizens. Informed citizens are key to long-term drinking water protection efforts. The SWAP program evaluates potential threats to the safety of our water supplies by assessing sources of contamination. More Information
EMS and Trauma Care System
Beginning in 2008, EMS service providers are required to submit service area maps when filing their plans with DOH. In 2007, GIS maps were created that showed EMS stations and draft service areas. These maps were used by staff in each EMS region and County to designate each service area. In the fall of 2008, these maps will be used to create a statewide composite of all the service areas. This will identify gaps and overlaps in service and provide a state-wide planning tool.
In 2009, these data layers will be added to a Web mapping application. This will allow agencies to view, analyze and query service areas and stations.
Parcels Workgroup
In October 2006 a group of federal, state, tribal and local government participants came together to explore whether there was interest in and a willingness to pursue the development and coordination of a statewide parcel framework data set that would be accessible to various participating agencies. It was determined that tackling this project would involve the identification of a set of core attributes of interest, addressing the concerns of county parcel data producers, the coordination of licensing agreements, and building a working relationship with the county parcel custodians and key agency framework coordinators. Currently, the working group is co-chaired by representatives from the Department of Health and the University of Washington and includes representatives from numerous federal, state, local, and other public agencies in Washington State. More Information
Groundwater Arsenic Probability Model
Arsenic contaminated groundwater is a serious problem as it is known to be associated with adverse health outcomes. In January 2001 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for arsenic from 50 parts per billion (ppb) downward to 10 ppb with a compliance date of January 2006. The purpose of this project was to identify areas where there is a high probability for elevated levels of arsenic in the groundwater. For this purpose logistic regression was used to develop a spatial statistical model and maps were created to identify areas having a probability for arsenic levels greater than 5 ppb.
Agricultural Pesticide Exposure Analysis
GIS was used to perform a human exposure assessment of people living near agricultural fields in Franklin County. This work is part of DOH's analysis of potential hazards of pesticides in the air of agricultural communities. Buffers of varying sizes, including the EPA’s newly proposed distances, were created around irrigated crop fields. The county parcel layer was used to identify residential structures within each buffer and the total population living within each buffer was estimated. This work will help Washington understand the impact of new EPA requirements for field buffers associated with certain agricultural fumigants.
