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A CONCEPT OF WEBGIS POLLEN ALLERGY MAPPING
Abstract
Of all geographically related health problems, pollen allergy is one of the most common allergic diseases of the respiratory tract. To support pollen allergy sufferers (including allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis and asthma), a range of mobile applications are available for tracking pollen forecasting and recording symptoms. The geographic location of such records provides new opportunities for WebGIS pollen allergy monitoring. However, adding raw VGI data to a web map may produce more misinformation than benefits. To solve this problem we have designed an all-in-one geoprocessing toolbox; it collects crowd-sourced data from pollen allergy sufferers, performs data quality checks, calculates usefulness statistics, publishes all this data as web maps and provides an operational dashboard. From a technical point of view, the aim of this study was to design a WebGIS architecture that requires no programming skills from the user and does not require him to set up a GIS server. In addition, the authors' idea was also to produce a cheap and simple tool for epidemiological polling. The two-tier system architecture does not require costly GIS servers, but still offers great geoprocessing power. To achieve the usability expected by users, we based our solution on Esri technology. The toolbox links the geoprocessing power of ArcGIS Pro (1.4) with the user-friendly interface of the ArcGIS Online (5.1) cloud platform and other Esri SaaS applications. Moreover, the narrative scheme of the application brings together both geolocation information on pollen allergy symptoms as well as basic education in this field. As citizens themselves become sensors, we show that people suffering from allergies can be supported in a more advanced way than with pollen forecasting maps.
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