ABSTRACT
In Italy, GIS have already been introduced to manage those aspects of infrastructure where locations are generally delineated quite precisely; so applications in areas such as urban planning, the utilities (water, electricity and gas industries), and transport planning are now quite common. The application of GIS to the health field is quite recent, but interest is growing among those involved in environmental and health research and some examples in the fields of geographical and environmental epidemiology, risk assessment, and public health are examined below. Since 1990 an ever-increasing number of managers and researchers in the National Health Service have attended courses organised by the Data Management Service of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), the Italian National Health Institute, whose prime objective is to foster an interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental and health related issues, and to present the latest available instruments that may be used to this purpose. In this context, GIS have become fundamental.
