Global network of underground research – Literature metadata analysis by Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

<p>Globally there are various underground facilities or laboratories, which are commonly located in active or closed mines, in tunnel systems or they are built for this specific purpose. There are also a vast number of study groups and researches within several disciplines utilising resources of these facilities. The Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) develops six such facilities, all having unique characteristics and operational settings. In developing underground laboratories, understanding characteristics, needs and accessibility of research communities applying these facilities is crucial. Aim of this study is to product new knowledge in this field, by analysing research published by this community. Geographic information systems (GIS) is applied to scrutinise the metadata of scientific literature databases. There is a great deal of published research having connection to underground facilities. For example, between years 2009-2018, Scopus database covers over 13,000 articles by over 40,000 authors. Preliminary analysis indicates that a wide variety of disciplines, such as engineering, earth and planet sciences, environmental sciences, physics and astronomy, as well as energy, material, computer and social sciences, are active within underground themes. In the analysis, publication specific data are compiled from literature databases, research units located globally by geocoding and data is organised for geographic and temporal analysis. By discipline information and indexed research fields and themes, patterns of global research trends within underground studies are explored. Results will indicate how distribution of study fields is organised, visualise the strength and activity of different disciplines and show the key temporal elements in development of research. This data enables also to extend the analysis to cover also the networked characteristics of research and researchers within underground laboratories.</p>

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Public health monitoring using Geographic Information Systems: case viral hepatitis E

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202131901083 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 319 ◽

pp. 01083

Author(s):

El Omari Hajar ◽

Abdelkader Chahlaoui ◽

Ouarrak Khadija ◽

Adel Kharroubi

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Geographic Information Systems ◽

High Risk ◽

Viral Hepatitis ◽

Temporal Analysis ◽

Hepatitis E ◽

Geographic Information ◽

Average Risk ◽

Health Events ◽

Spatio Temporal

Among the major parasitic diseases having major health and socio-economic impacts in the world and in Morocco, are viral hepatitis. These are acute inflammations of the liver caused by a virus. The 3 most frequently encountered viruses are viruses A, B, C. The objective of this study is to map health events, in our case the incidence of viral hepatitis E in the different prefectures of the region of Meknes-Fez by creating a database containing geographic and health parameters in geographic information system (GIS). This database was then used to create the risk map which identifies the high-risk prefectures. This study shows that the average incidence of viral hepatitis H is higher in the prefecture of Meknes during all the years of the study, with a high risk compared to other prefectures and provinces which have an average risk. Indeed, the mapping of health events is a descriptive tool implemented to evaluate the spatial disparities of incidence, which allowed us to perform a spatio-temporal analysis of the epidemic. Spatial technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), offer a new option for disease prevention, predicting risk locations based on factors favoring the emergence or re-emergence of the epidemic.

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