Using geographic information systems to maximize environmental surveillance efforts and impact

There has been tremendous advancement in geographic information systems (GIS) software and hardware over the last 2 decades. This article illustrates how these advancements can be used to greatly increase the ease and efficiency of collecting environmental samples and demonstrate how environmental data collected within a GIS is more valuable because of the visualization, analysis, and historical capabilities of GIS. This article reviews 6 actual field surveys conducted using desktop GIS and field GIS by entomologists with the US Army Public Health Command (Provisional). While these examples entail entomological data, the techniques and procedures are applicable to any type of environmental data.