Health and environment: a study on a cluster of villages in Rajasthan using GIS and remote sensing techniques
Student name: Ms Surbhi Pathak
Guide: Mr V.S.P.Sinha
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: Regional Remote Sensing Centre (West), ISRO
Abstract: Healthcare is one of the India’s rapidly expanding sector, where increasing population and
rise in both chronic and degenerative diseases acts as the major driving factors. Rajasthan is
one among the 18 states which has been given special focus towards the provision of
accessible and effective healthcare, especially to poor and vulnerable sections of the
population in rural areas by National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) 2005-2012. The state
forms a part of both arid zone and tribal belt with deteriorated groundwater quality leading
to the occurrence of large number of disease cases. Majority of the residing rural population
is economically backward with very low female literacy and high fertility rates, which
increases the morbidity and mortality rates. Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the government has also taken initiatives to
reduce such ecological as well as economical problem. The present study on a cluster of
villages in a remote location shows the spatial distribution of some selected predominant
diseases via disease mapping. Some spatial statistics and Local Indicators for Spatial
Association (LISA) analysis are performed to delineate the villages in accordance with the
incidence rate of different diseases. The statistics includes: Moran’s Index for cluster
analysis, Getis-Ord Gi* statistic for Hotspot Analysis, zonal statistics and interpolation
techniques to make groundwater quality data compatible with others. The health indicators
are chosen to identify the potential risk factors, which includes geographical, demographic,
socio-economic and groundwater quality parameters. The potential risk factors responsible
for the occurrence of hotspot villages are interpreted through map comparisons for
qualitative analysis. Through this way, by utilizing the RS and GIS techniques, the study on
HealthGIS is conducted to analyze the relationship of human health and the surrounding
environment among the rural sections of the society in a desert and remote location.
Keywords: HealthGIS, NRHM, LISA, hotspot analysis, health risk factors
