GIS to show when, where and how death occured
Abstract: SMC has the database TOPSWING (Total Population of Sweden Individual and
Geographical database). TOPSWING contains socio-econmical information on
Swedens population during the years 1985-1995. The kind of information that
exists is for example a persons habitation, income, education level,
migration, civil status, sex, age and so on. If a person dies, there will be
information about cause of death, when the person died etc.
With these kinds of data from TOPSWING it is possible to study geographical
connections over regions, years and/or death causes.
This undergraduate project consisted of three steps. The first step was to
make new tables in the database to enhance the search process, to make it
less time consuming. With the old tables, it could sometimes take several
hours to get a result, but with the new tables a result could be reached in
a few minutes.
The second step was to create a GUI (graphical user interface) that was
user-friendly. Instead of writing long SQL-commands it is now possible to get
a result just by making a few choices with the mouse. By selecting one or two
region(s), a year and a cause of death, the result is displayed as a
barchart next to a map over Sweden. The selected region(s) is highlighted.
It is also possible to zoom in and out the map, zoom to full extent, zoom to
selected region, pan the map and a some other functions.
The third step was to connect the new tables in the database with the
application. By expanding ArcView with its scripting language Avenue, a
connection could be made between the new tables in the database and the
application.
The result is an application that researches can use to detect geographical
connections concerning death in Sweden.
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