AY1516 T2 Team HealthTics

OVERVIEW

ABOUT US

ANALYSIS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

DOCUMENTATION

PROJECT OVERVIEW

To facilitate a wider adoption of GIS analysis in HPB programme planning, this project aims to build a web application that enables HPB programme planners to analyze geospatial data more effectively in a less technical way as compared to using conventional desktop application, such as QGIS and ArcGIS. Because it is built on the cloud, this application could be easily distributable and accessible through the web portal by the HPB end-users. Therefore, it will be significantly more efficient to adopt GIS analytics at the operational level of the HPB programme planning and analysis.

Our GIS web application will map out various map layers based on the CSV files uploaded by the end-users that contain the data that they want to analyze. For an uploaded CSV file that contains Geospatial data, our web application checks the data format (WGS84 or SVY21) and then will map out the additional layers accordingly to the base map layer accordingly. If there is no Geospatial data, but only postal code or address is available, our application performs geocoding functions to get the latitude and longitude based on the available information. As such, our application allows the HPB programme planner to flexibly add and analyze new map layers representing various community facilities, such as parks, eateries, and community centres for scalable analysis.

To cater to a more dynamic level of analysis, this application allows various filtering of HPB Programme Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that will be reflected on the results displayed on GIS map layers. In addition, it also allows additional filtering based on the user needs when a new KPI is added to a HPB programme planning. Hence, this functionality fulfil the dynamic needs of end-users in their analysis.

In addition, our web application enables the users to create reports based on the results that they have generated in their analysis. By exporting a report, the end-users are able to share and distribute the results more effectively to relevant stakeholders. As such, our web application satisfies the needs of the users from end-to-end, and thus, effectively improving their productivity in throughout their analysis process.

MOTIVATION

Founded in 2001, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) aims to build a nation of healthy people. Although residents in Singapore today enjoy good health with high life expectancy and low mortality rates, HPB wants to further improve the health status of the residents. To achieve this, HPB assumes the role of the main driver for national health promotion and disease prevention programmes.

To gather data-driven insights in facilitating its programme planning, HPB utilises Geospatial Information System (GIS) tools to analyze various facilities in different communities and planning areas. One of the challenges faced in implementing GIS-driven analysis is the knowledge gap and technology cost in the operational level. As such, for a more efficient adoption of GIS applications in the operational level, HPB intends to adopt a lightweight GIS web application to be used by HPB Programme and Outreach Executives that have limited knowledge in GIS analysis.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this project is to allow Health Promotion Board agency to be more flexible in planning and analysing using geospatial functions that will be built in a web application. The web application will help to retrieve necessary data, compute useful KPI and visualize results to target users. Additionally, our application allows the users to import additional map layers that can be overlaid together with existing map layers on the application. Such a functionality makes our application more dynamic and scalable to the HPB user needs at the operational level as different requirements of analysis might occur.

Target users are HPB programme and outreach executive who may not be familiar with GIS analysis. Hence, the application needs to be intuitive, easy to use to serve the purpose of planning and analysing.

REVIEW OF SIMILAR WORK

ONE MAP

OneMap is an integrated map system for government agencies to deliver location-based services and information. It is a multi-agency collaboration with many government agencies currently participating and contributing information . This web-based application is open to use for the public as well as for any organizations or business entities for geospatial-related analysis. It contains a comprehensive list of map layers as well as metadata linked to those map layers, such as population, and property market information.

In addition, OneMap serves as the aggregated services to display geospatial data for external government websites, such as BizMap , BirdWatching Hotspots , Water Level Sensors . Those services although appear to be linked to other websites, they still make use of the base map and functionalities that are inherited from OneMap. Learning from this functionality, our project could also provide a list of API’s for sharing of the base map layer and other basic geospatial functionalities to other HPB websites that require similar services.

By using OneMap, users are able to plot out geospatial data from readily-available services, such as SchoolQuery, LandQuery and PopulationQuery that readily available on its database. The concept of this functionality could be applied to our project as well, which to prepare various datasets that are commonly used by the end-users.

Additionally, users are able to import external KML data to be overlaid on the base map layer together with existing geospatial layer in OneMap. As shown by figure 1 above, layer from RelaxSG.kml denoted by the blue pins and PopulationQuery represented by different colours on the map are overlaid together in OneMap. As such, users are able to analyse the number of parks from RelaxSG.kml together with the population in various planning areas from PopulationQuery. Again, such a functionality could be implemented in our project because it is catered to additional geospatial layers that will be added at an ad-hoc basis by HPB users.

Given the similar functionalities in both our project and those in OneMap, we have observed some limitations in OneMap that should be improved in our project. Some of those limitations are listed below:

• External KML datasets cannot exceed 2MB. Such limitation hinders the overlaying of large datasets.
• There can only be only one layer of imported KML data overlaid on the map. This means that if users want to import two KML data, they can only be viewed one at a time.

All in all, OneMap can be a reference for the implementation and design of our project, but we should note that OneMap is catered to various types of governmental bodies, whereas our project will be mainly catered to HPB. 

DATASETS

DATA SOURCES

The dataset for our projects will be mainly retrieved from the following sources:

1. Public datasets provided by HPB on data.gov.sg: https://data.gov.sg/dataset?organization=health-promotion-board
2. Internal dataset from Health Promotion Board.

DETAILS OF DATA

1. Format will be in Shapefile or KML.
2. List of different layers of health promotion options, such as park location, smoking cessation touchpoints, healthier dining outlets, et cetera.

Example of possible of park location layer:

NAME	DESCRIPTION
<placemark>	Parent tag to contains all attribute of a park
<name>	Name tag to indicate name of a park
<description>	Description tag contain the description of a park include facilities that can be utilized in the park
<point>	Contain <coordinate> tag that will indicate the latitude and longitude of a park

METHODOLOGY

LOCATION ANALYSIS

This is to analyse the existing health promoting options available for a location(HDB/planning area/GRC) within certain buffer distance. This analysis allows the comparison of KPI scores for different locations affected by users’ defined categories. As such, users can easily compare and spot the areas that require better health promoting facilities of specific category and plan future Health Promoting Programmes more efficiently.

GEOCODING FROM POSTAL CODE TO LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

Using SLA OneMap Geocoding API to convert attribute

TECHNOLOGY

Possible JavaScript libraries:

D3.js	: D3 is a JavaScript library for visualizing data with HTML, SVG, and CSS.
OpenLayers	: An open source JavaScript library to load, display and render maps from multiple sources on web pages.
Leaflet.js	: An open source JavaScript library for mobile friendly interactive maps.
Surf.js	: Turf.js is a JavaScript library for spatial analysis.

SCOPE OF WORK

The project scope will be divided into three modules:

1. BASEMAP MODULE

• Display basic map on the web page
• Geocoding to convert postal code to latitude and longitude
• Create different overlay layers on Google Map, or OpenStreeMap
• Layer control to display/hide/switch layers
• Selection of icon on the overlay layer
• Zoom-in and Zoom-out
• Classify points on the map according user’s defined categories

2. DATA INPUT, SPATIAL SEARCH & SPATIAL ANALYTICS MODULE

2.1 Data Input

• Allow users to upload new data with postal code and display on the map
• Allow users to upload file with the extension of either KML or Shapefile
• Able to convert WGS 84 to SVY 21

2.2 Spatial Search

• Allow users to search and highlight based on postal code

2.3 Spatial Analytics

• Allow users to compute necessary metrics

3. REPORTING DASHBOARD

• Display interactive results based on the metrics calculation

REFERENCES

1. http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/one-quarter-of-workers-report-high-stress-levels