Massimo Craglia

Modelling High-intensity Crime Areas in English Cities

Police forces responsible for large metropolitan areas in England and Wales have claimed that within certain parts of their urban areas there exist high-intensity crime areas (HIAs). These are areas that raise special policing problems because of the particularly violent forms of crime sometimes found within them and because of the unwillingness or inability of the resident population to co-operate fully with the police in part because of fears for their own safety. A sample of metropolitan police forces was asked to identify the location of their HIAs and this paper reports the results of a GIS-based spatial analysis to try and model the location of these areas using census data. Three police force areas were used to develop the model. This was subsequently validated against a further set of HIA data from different police forces. The model suggests that HIAs are characterised by populations that are deprived and live at high density, and by higher levels of population turnover.

Towards the development of quality of life indicators in the 'digital' city

Cities are central to the economic and social development of European society, not only because over 80% of European citizens live in urban areas, but also because cities are at the same time centres of production, innovation, employment, and culture, and loci of segregation, deprivation, and ethnic conflict. The emergence of a European-wide urban policy, has given new impetus to the need for comparable indicators of the quality of life to monitor development and policy implementation. This paper reviews the literature on quality of life indicators, and argues that traditional measures of the quality of life need to be supplemented with two new dimensions that reflect more recent postmodernist thinking about the composition of urban landscapes, and the contribution to the quality of life of the emerging information society. We argue that the challenges of building appropriate indicators reflecting these new dimensions are considerable, even in urban environments so rich in information systems and data sources, if they are to qualify as ‘digital cities’. There are difficulties in finding common workable definitions of the indicators themselves, as well as definitions of the relevant populations, including city residents, and users. By raising these issues and suggesting possible avenues for addressing these challenges we contribute to a much-needed debate on how to define such indicators, which is the prerequisite for their development and use.

GIS in public health practice

Introduction and overview Ravi Maheswaran, Massimo Craglia DISEASE MAPPING AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS Basic Issues in Geographical Analysis Ravi Maheswaran, Robert P. Haining Disease Mapping - Basic Approaches and New Developments Andrew B. Lawson Clustering of Disease Clive E. Sabel, Markku Loytonen GIS APPLICATIONS IN COMMUNICABLE DISEASE CONTROL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROTECTION GIS and Communicable Disease Control Thomas Kistemann, Angela Queste New Zealand Experience of Salmonella Brandenburg Infection in Humans and Animals John Holmes Using GIS for Environmental Exposure Assessment: Experiences from the Small Area Health Statistics Unit Kees de Hoogh, David Briggs, Samantha Cockings, Alex Bottle Using Modelled Outdoor Air Pollution Data for Health Surveillance Paul Brindley, Ravi Maheswaran, Tim Pearson, Stephen Wise, Robert P. Haining Health and Environment Information Systems Paul Aylin, Samantha Cockings GIS APPLICATIONS IN HEALTH CARE PLANNING AND POLICY Health GIS in the English National Health Service - a Regional Solution Ralph Smith GIS in District Public Health Work Edmund Jessop Using GIS to Assess Accessibility to Primary Health Care Services Andrew Lovett, Gilla Sunnenberg, Robin Haynes GIS in Public Health Care Planning - a United States Perspective Gregory A. Elmes DATA PROTECTION AND E-GOVERNANCE ISSUES IN PUBLIC HEALTH GIS and Public Health in the Information Society Massimo Craglia, Alessandro Annoni Data Protection and Medical Research Deryck Beyleveld, David Townend Public and Patient Attitudes to the Use of Their Health Information: A Review of the Literature Rupert Suckling, Darren Shickle, Susan Wallace Mobile Phone Positioning Systems and the Accessibility of Health Services Markku Loytonen, Clive E. Sabel Conclusions and Future Prospects Massimo Craglia, Ravi Maheswaran

Estimating benefits of Spatial Data Infrastructures: A case study on e-Cadastres

Abstract The investments of public administrations and organisations for the development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) should be informed by the analysis of the concrete benefits that such infrastructures may bring to their providers, their users, and society at large. Bibliographic evidence suggests that very little has been done in this respect, apart from theoretical hypotheses and some ex-ante assessments using the few data and experiences available. On the other hand, recent studies on regional SDIs have indicated that the application related to the Cadastre may have a big impact on society, due to the large number of users recorded. Indeed, e-Government services, including the ones providing access to Cadastral activities, have seen a big development in recent years. This paper analyses the case study of e-Cadastre, focusing on the benefits that society may obtain, in comparison with the traditional paper-based Cadastral service which still coexists with the e-Cadastre. The paper will present and analyse the results of a survey to several European Cadastral Agencies, focusing on the benefits for the users, in terms of time and cost saved. The findings show that the shift from the paper-based alternative to the electronic alternative helps citizens save time and money, and therefore provides partial justification to the required investments.

The Socioeconomic Impact of the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Lombardy

In this paper we present the findings of a study undertaken by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in collaboration with the regional authority of Lombardy, in northern Italy, on the socioeconomic impact of the spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of that region. The study took place in 2009 and focused primarily on assessing the benefits of the SDI to the organisations outside public administration, that is, developers and consultants involved in planning, design, and impact assessment. We report the results of two surveys undertaken in 2009. The first addressed consultants involved in the preparation of environmental impact assessments and strategic environmental assessments, and found significant economic and policy benefits resulting from the use of the regional SDI. The second survey focused on professionals involved in planning and design (architects, engineers, planners) and found a much more varied landscape characterised by lack of awareness and skill in taking advantage of the new infrastructure of analytical tools. The results of this study demonstrate that the maturity reached by some of the existing SDIs now makes it possible to evaluate tangible benefits, and act as an incentive to analyse further how SDIs are producing positive externalities. The knowledge gained by monitoring the impacts of on-going SDI initiatives can be used to justify investments ex post, and inform further SDI development and wider positive impacts.

From global to local: the development of local geographic information strategies in the United Kingdom

The focus of recent debates over geographic data infrastructures has tended to be at the national, pan-European, or global levels. Relatively less attention has been paid to the development of local data infrastructures even though this is the level where they have the potential of making the greatest impact on everyday life. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the opportunities and barriers to such local developments in Great Britain as a starting point for a much wider debate and sharing of experience. The paper is divided into four sections. Sections 1 and 2 introduce the topic, and provide an overview of recent policy developments at the European and national levels, respectively, that should encourage the creation of such local infrastructures. In section 3, examples are given of best practice from selected case studies being developed across the country, and in section 4 the political and organisational issues that need to be addressed to make these infrastructures work successfully are identified.

Modelling High-Intensity Crime Areas: Comparing Police Perceptions with Offence/Offender Data in Sheffield

High-intensity crime areas are areas where high levels of violent crime coexist with large numbers of offenders, thereby creating an area that may present significant policing problems. In an earlier paper, the authors analysed police perceptions of high-intensity crime areas, and now extend that earlier work by comparing the polices perception of where such areas are located with offence/offender data. They also report on the construction of predictive models that identify the area-specific attributes that explain the distribution of such areas. By focusing on the city of Sheffield, the authors draw on a wider range of local area data than was possible in the original paper, and also question how widespread such areas may be in Sheffield.

Decision makers' perspectives on European geographic information policy issues

The proposals for a European policy framework for Geographic Information (GI) recently put forward by Directorate General XIII raise three sets of issues about measures required to facilitate the dissemination of GI in the European Union: (1)‘hot topics’ such as privacy and the legal protection of databases that apply to information generally; (2) GI issues such as reference data and metadata services that may require action by the European Commission; and (3) perceived barriers to the development of a European GI market. This paper examines the views of 20 experts responsible for the provision and management of GI in key organizations throughout Europe. A Delphi-style strategy was used to identify the relative importance of the issues raised by the proposals and to ascertain the level of agreement as to the importance of these issues between the experts. The results show that issues relating to copyright, the protection of intellectual property rights, data quality, and data access policies were ranked highly by most of the respondents. A lack of awareness, education, and training (as opposed to the lack of public domain data and metadata services) were viewed as the main barriers to the deveiopment of the GI market in Europe.

The research agenda of the European Science Foundation's GISDATA scientific programme

Abstract In January 1993 the European Science Foundation launched a four-year scientific programme on geographical information systems. The programme aims at overcoming the existing fragmentation of GIS research in Europe and addresses three key areas: European-wide data base design, data integration, and social and environmental applications. In each of these areas a number of priorities have been identified which provide the focus of the initiatives and collaborative ventures envisaged by the programme. This article describes the programmes research agenda and sets it in the context of the activities of the European Science Foundation.

GIS in Italian urban planning

Abstract The paper presents the findings of research into the implementation and use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Italian local authority planning departments. The first part provides contextual information and available data on the diffusion of GIS in Italian local government. This is followed by a discussion of two detailed case-studies undertaken in cities already having 10 years experience in GIS development and use. Based on the findings of these case-studies, and on the earlier evidence presented, the paper suggests that the view of GIS as a “tool” for more rational decision-making, and increased efficiency and effectiveness, may be particularly inappropriate in countries in which these values do not receive high priority. Instead, GIS appears to be a malleable resource able to serve different agendas, through both its technical and symbolic use. In this context, the view of computing as a “package” appears to be useful in explaining some of the characteristics of the cases investigated. Three sets of factors are confirmed as having an important influence on the implementation and use of GIS: the organizational context, people, and environmental stability. In addition, the paper argues that a fourth element, cultural values, plays an important part in shaping the implementation and use of GIS in a given context, and that its significance may be crucial in understanding the experiences of GIS in different countries even when technical solutions are similar.