Geographic Information Systems (GIS) & Maps

Geographic information systems are networks of computer hardware, software and services, designed to work with data that has a particular dimension of interest: geographic location. This location information may be any kind of spatial reference, such as a street address, a set of latitude-longitude coordinates, or the center point of a zip code boundary.  

Whatever the spatial reference is, geographic information systems can use it to provide graphical display or statistical analysis of such data as healthcare facility capacities, cases of West Nile virus, or effects of environmental factors on childhood asthma. GIS is a robust and maturing CDPH activity, supporting virtually all aspects of healthcare analysis, decision support and delivery of services.