Dear List, I am currently working for the WHO in Angola. One of my tasks is to try to do some mapping of population movements. As it is commonly known, Angola has eventually manage to switch from war to peace. There is a process of population movements ongoing from quartering areas, from refugee camps in neighbouring countries and from camps of internally displaced people.
The simple mapping exercise has to take the following into consideration: 1. Location of sites where people are now and their numbers (people) 2. Location of destinations where people want to go and the number of people aggregated per point of destination 3. The route which in a simple mapping context would be a direct line between where the people are now and where they want to go. The mapping could look like this: A. Points of origin thematically sized by number of people B. Points of destination thematically sized according to expected number of people arriving C. Lines between such point with arrow direction and thematically displayed with colours and line thickness. I got an MBX from David in Australia which can do some of this work. I have also learned form someone who has been involved in this kind of work that the better quality of the GIS work the more it is outdated by the time the GIS maps are ready. In other words the longer it takes to prepare good quality data the less relevant they become. It has to be some quick and dirty method, possibly repeatedly done. II have also learned that there is a lot of "shopping around" in a scenario like this - people continuing to move until they eventually find somewhere to settle. A simple engineering approach may in such a scenario not tally with reality. However we have to use the technical tools at our disposal... Any other experiences and ideas on this list? Best regards, Ole Frank -- Organiza��o Mundial da Sa�de/OMS ANGOLA Predio Na��es Unidas Rua Major Kanhangulo 197 (7� andar) C.P. 3243 Luanda - ANGOLA Telephone: +244 2 332398 - 395701 - 394153 - 391980 Fax: +244 2 332314 --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 3650
