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“Sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation” Geoportal

Geoinformation system for the collection, analysis, and evaluation of large data on medical and demographic, socio-economic indicators, the state of environmental factors, and health of the population of the Russian Arctic.

Task

The development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation as a state priority for the near and distant future necessitates the provision of sanitary and epidemiological well-being, improvement of habitat, preservation of health, and increase in life expectancy of the Arctic regions’ population.

Due to extreme climatic and geographical characteristics, specifics of socio-economic, transport, housing, and communal and other living conditions in the Arctic, methodological approaches used in the work of Rospotrebnadzor authorities and institutions do not fully meet modern requirements for collection, processing, analysis, and monitoring of necessary information.

Big data analysis due to its large volume and diversity is impossible without the creation and introduction of digital platforms - integrated information systems based on geoinformation systems (GIS), providing multilateral interaction of users.

The analysis of domestic and foreign experience in collecting, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data demonstrated that at the beginning of the development there was no online mapping resource covering the issues of sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population both at the level of the Russian Federation as a whole and as applied to the Arctic zone.

At the same time, the available experience of creating thematic cartographic online resources devoted to the environment, nature management, tourism, etc., shows the principal possibility and expediency of creating such a geoinformation portal (geoportal).

Therefore, specialists of FGBI North-West Scientific Center of Hygiene and Public Health of Rospotrebnadzor together with specialists of the ISSDP Laboratory of the NTI Center have set a goal to create a geoportal as an effective tool for evaluation of sanitary and epidemiological well-being of Russian Arctic residents with the function of spatial analysis.

The geoportal assumed the solution of the following tasks:

  • The possibility of prompt access to medical, demographic and socio-economic information online through a web portal for interested organizations (executive authorities, medical institutions, Rospotrebnadzor authorities)
  • Improving the system of social and hygienic monitoring
  • Development of measures to prevent and reduce the morbidity of the population
  • Development of targeted social programs
  • Creation of programs for the comprehensive improvement of the territories and for the hygienic and environmental safety of the population
  • Planning of investment projects.

Solution

The developed system is a web portal, the core of which is a service based on ArcGis geoinformation software products.

The geo-service is a database designed in the form of an interactive map of the Russian Arctic with the possibility of selecting indicators. The map displays the following data:

  • Medical and demographic indicators (life expectancy, mortality, fertility, natural increase, etc.)
  • Morbidity of the population (non-infectious, infectious, and parasitic morbidity)
  • State of environmental factors (drinking water of centralized water supply systems, atmospheric air, the soil of settlements, etc.)
  • Social and economic indicators (the percentage of people with incomes below the subsistence minimum, the ratio of average per capita income to the subsistence minimum, etc.).

In addition to standard solutions, ArcGis software has been developed to automate the processes of collecting, processing, and visualization of information, taking into account the existing system of statistical observation in the Russian Federation, as well as the administrative-territorial division of the Russian Arctic.

The key advantages of the created GIS-based system are:

  1. Big data analysis identifies and maps risk areas (regions, districts, localities) by individual factors and their totality.
  2. Spatial analysis of disease prevalence allows showing the risk territories for which unfavorable dynamics can be expected and forming proposals to improve the situation.
  3. The possibility of semi-automatic processing of Big Data, spatially related to the places of compact residence of the population in the Russian Arctic allows forming fundamentally new approaches to the organization of socio-hygienic monitoring in the region.
  4. The application of the developed algorithms of correlation, regression, and cluster analysis, integrated into the created software product, allows revealing regularities between the state of environmental factors and population health, and assessing the impact of these factors over a long period of exposure, which is impossible with the use of traditional methods without visualization on a cartographic basis.

Access to the service is provided through a personal account with the system of delimitation of rights for different categories of users.

As a tool for analysis and assessment of the health and sanitary-epidemiological situation, the geoportal can be used:

  • By Rospotrebnadzor authorities and organizations in practical and scientific work;
  • By research organizations of various profiles;
  • By executive authorities (administrations) of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the development of comprehensive plans for the development of territories;
  • In the educational process.

The software suite designed will not only acquire, analyze, and evaluate wealth of statistical information about the region, taking into account spatial reference to the territory, but also help automatize and optimize these processes. The outlook for using the portal are the elaboration of general schemes for the Arctic territories development, the planning of capital investment projects and minimizing risks during their implementation, the establishment of measures to prevent and reduce morbidity, the development of targeted social programs for various groups of the population, the launch of programmes for comprehensive improvement of territories and others.

On December 22, the launch of the Geoinformation Portal "Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being of the Population in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation" took place at the North-West Public Health Research Center (NWRC) of Rospotrebnadzor. Sergey A. Gorbanev, Doctor of Medical Sciences, the NWRC's Head, noted the great scientific and practical potential of the Geoinformation portal: "In fact, this is the first GIS-based information and analytical system in Russia, and possibly in the world, focused on the issue of sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Its important feature is the capability to scale both in the geographical aspect and in terms of the database structure. We expect interest in the analytical capabilities of the Geoinformation portal not only from the bodies and institutions of Rospotrebnadzor, but also from the authorities of the Arctic zone regions, industrial enterprises, and healthcare institutions." The NWRC management representatives also highlighted the need to continue the research into the expanding of the Geoinformation portal analytical tools, the building of databases and methods of data processing, which implies continued cooperation between the North-West Public Health Research Center and the Laboratory of Industrial Systems for Streaming Data Processing. The following key tasks for the project development planned for the coming years are:
  • Design and integration of complex statistical data analysis tools into Geoinformation portal;
  • Expanding the list of sanitary and epidemiological well-being indicators;
  • Geographical coverage expansion with the inclusion of territories directly adjacent to the Arctic zone into the Geoinformation portal.
The NWRC experts have begun to develop new terms of reference for the system under development, taking into account a wide range of tasks the Center is facing while studying environmental factors and public health in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.

Technologies

Языки программирования и фреймворки Python3, PyQt, Flask, Javascript, jquery, Html, Css, php, Go
OS Windows, Linux
CVS Git (Gitlab)
IDE PyCharm, Visual Studio Code
DevOps technologies Docker, Docker-Compose, Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD, Pulumi, Ansible
3d party software ArcGis Server, ArcGis Portal, ArcGis WebAdaptor
Data storage Minio

Intellectual Property

Publications

    Project team

    • Project director: A.A. Kuzmichev, Chief Project Engineer
    • Web-developer: A.V. Shcherbakova
    • Programmer: V.V. Rakova

    Scientific advisors

    • S.A. Gorbanev, M.D., Director, NWRC of Hygiene and Public Health
    • Yu.A. Novikova, Head of the Analysis, Evaluation and Forecasting Department, NWRC of Hygiene and Public Health
    • V.N. Fedorov, Researcher at the NWRC of Hygiene and Public Health