Work in progress - Gap analysis visualization application for geographic representation of statistical data

The varying purpose of specific geographic data brings with it a need for a more visually representative form beyond traditional graphing and charting. An interdisciplinary team at Purdue University has been developing a dynamic and interactive presentation mechanism for metrics in a given geographic space. A combination of Web technologies was used to graphically interact with and display health departments, districts, and their related metrics. Data collected from 94 health departments within Indiana were analyzed using traditional means, which fell short of fully representing the data in a meaningful display. A Web portal was created to dynamically regenerate a map of Indiana based on data pulled from a database. The application allows for altering of data and display, saves a history of maps, allows viewing and hiding of various data, dynamically generates a JPG image of the current page, and prints to PDF format. By graphically displaying and visually understanding the level of preparedness of each health department, the state can better address gaps in preparation for pandemic influenza and other potentially global disasters. This paper discusses the creation and application of the dynamic Web solution used to generate the geographic representations of this statistical data.