ABSTRACT
Geography is an integral part of any disease surveillance system, including systems designed to detect and respond to a bioterrorist attack. Diseases occur at some location and affect a given population over some period of time. An integrated database with information on individual cases and the built and natural environment—which is then linked to spatial analysis tools—opens up new opportunities to respond to the outbreak and prevent the problem in the future. The development of digital disease surveillance systems has been an increasing priority in recent years, and new biodefense funding for public health affords more development of these systems (Fraser and Brown 2000). This paper considers how Geographic Information Science (GI-Science) contributes to efforts aimed at improving local, state, and national preparedness for a bioterrorism attack. Specifically, the paper emphasizes the role of spatial decision support systems (SDSS) as a framework for integrating spatial analysis, mapping, and database technology in a common delivery system for improved decision making (Densham 1991).
