Final Project Proposal

Introduction:

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects 8 million people in the United States, or 8% of the population (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).  Involving the airway of the lungs, people who experience asthma have swelling and inflammation of the airways, making it difficult for air to navigate throughout the lungs and resulting in patient symptoms such as tightness of the chest, wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and difficult breathing.  Asthma attack triggers can be separated into two categories; allergies such as pet dander and pollen, and non-allergic triggers that include environmental factors such as changes in the weather and air quality (AAAAI).   Poorer air quality may be associated with ozone and airborne particles, both of which are known to be triggers of asthma and are found in higher populated areas.  Ozone contributes to smog which can be irritating to the lungs, reduce lung function, and make it more difficult to breath while airborne particles found in smog, dust, and smoke can enter the lungs and cause long-term and short-term problems such as reduced lung function, and more frequent asthma attacks (Air Pollution and Asthma).  This project will aim to look at the asthma rates for the most and least populated cities in America in order to determine if there is a correlation between the air quality and the occurrence of asthma within those populations.

Objectives:

This project is set to analyze the population size, air quality (specifically ozone and smog), and number of asthma cases in the state of California by county in order to determine if there are correlations between the variables.  I would hypothesize that counties with the highest population densities will have the poorest air quality because they would be the most developed and consume the most resources, thus resulting in more air pollution which would ultimately result in higher occurrences of asthma within those counties.  

Methodology:

I will use ArcMap and online GIS resources in order to display the following information:

• A layer of data showing the prevalence of asthma in California and its counties, to show if there are certain areas where more people are affected by it than others
• A layer showing the population numbers found within those counties to find a possible connection between asthma and higher population densities
• A layer showing the air quality of the counties, specifically ozone and smog which are two of the most leading contributors to asthma symptoms
• A compilation of all three of these layers will give me a better understanding of whether or not these factors are related to one another based on the comparison of each of them in each state.
• Using a correlation tool in ArcGis, I will be able to determine if there are relationships between the population densities and air quality of each county that may contribute to higher rates of asthma among the population.  

Data Sources:

Current data sources that will be used for this project are as follows:

• Asthma ED Visit Rates by County 2012 [Download ArcGIS online]. (2012) California Department Visit Rates by County in 2012, CA: CDPH-DATA [October, 2017]
• Emergency Department Visits Due to Asthma, Both Sexes, All Ages, All Races/Ethnicities, Spatially Modeled, Age-Adjusted Rates Per 10,000, 2010, Counties [Download]. (2010) California: Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development [October, 2017].

• CA Counties 2012 [Download ArcGIS online]. (2012) California US Census Bureau, FracTrackerAlliance [October, 2017]
• County Population [Download ArcGIS online]. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), charles.schafer_CDPHDATA [October, 2017]
• EPA AirData Air Quality Monitors [Download]. CA, ESRI [October, 2017]

(https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f239fd3e72f424f98ef3d5def547eb5&extent=-146.2334,13.1913,-46.3896,56.5319)

Work Plan:

Week of October 11th: Revise final GIS Proposal

Week of October 18th: Revisit sites to download all applicable data, and organize the data based off of parameter, state and county.

Week of October 25th: Create the first layer of the map, looking at the number of asthma cases throughout California and within each county of the state.

Week of November 1st: Create the second layer of the map, looking at the population densities of California and its counties.

Week of November 8th: Create the third layer of the map looking at the air quality within each county of California, specifically concerning smog and ozone (known triggers of asthma) and look for differences within the counties.

Week of November 15th: Begin to analyze/look for overlapping and correlations between each of the variables.

Week of November 22nd: Determine whether these factors influence the number of asthma cases within California and the best and worst state/county for asthma

Week of November 29th: Start analyzing findings and organizing poster

Week of December 6th: Continue to edit/finalize poster

Week of December 11th: Final project due

Deliverables:

A comprehensive map will be created illustrating the association between population size, air quality, and asthma.  This data will provide insight into the relationship between air pollution and asthma, specifically whether there are certain counties within the state of California that are more likely to trigger asthma attacks than others.  This map may allow people who suffer from asthma to make educated decisions on which residences in California are least likely to trigger their symptoms and/or an asthma attack.   

Sources:

"AAFA." Air Pollution and Asthma | AAFA.org. AAFA, n.d. Web.

"Asthma | AAAAI." The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. AAAAI Foundation, n.d. Web.

"Vital Signs." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 03 May 2011. Web.