Professor of environmental sciences and sustainability Dr. David Perault will offer another free, online COVID-19 mapping workshop this month. “Mapping a Pandemic: Using Geospatial Technologies to Track and Understand the Spread of COVID-19” takes place from 7 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 19.
The workshop will answer questions such as: How do scientists and public health officials use maps to show and analyze the spread of infectious diseases? What techniques do researchers use to assess trends and predict hotspots? And, how is your locality doing in flattening the curve?
“With cases still on the increase, holiday travel, and different jurisdictions and localities implementing varying preventative strategies, the use of geospatial tools to visualize how and where resulting impacts are occurring is invaluable,” Perault said. “And now that vaccines are in use, we can map and track their effectiveness in reducing the pandemic outbreak.”
Perault developed the activity as a lab for his Intro to Environmental Science class when Lynchburg moved classes online last March. He later expanded it for his graduate Applied Geography class and as an exercise for Environmental Health, a Master of Public Health class, and first offered the COVID-19 mapping workshop in July 2020.
No experience is necessary to participate in the free workshop, but slots are limited. To register, email Perault at perault@lynchburg.edu. A Google Meet link will be sent out upon registration.