Spatial Resources Knowledge Exchange
This page provides links to various spatial data sciences and geo-analytics resources. The page will be kept evergreen via periodic editing and updating of the content. GIS-IG members are encouraged to submit items via the GIS-IG group chair.
1: Pan-Canadian data-set of neighbourhood retail food environment measures using Statistics Canada’s Business Register
Abstract: Food outlet data were extracted from Statistics Canada’s Business
Register (BR) in 2018. Retail food environment access measures (both
absolute and relative measures) were calculated using network buffers
around the centroid of 56,589 dissemination areas in Canada. A k-medians
clustering approach was used to create categorical food environment
variables that were easy to use and amenable to dissemination. Validity
of the measures was assessed by comparing the food environment measures
from Can-FED with
measures created using Enhanced Points of Interest data by DMTI Spatial
Inc. and data from a municipal health inspection list. Validity was
also assessed by calculating the geographic variability in food
environments across census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and assessing
associations between CMA-level food environments and CMA-level health indicators.
2: Status report – Geographic retail food environment measures for use in public health
Abstract: The Association of Public Health Epidemiologists in Ontario (APHEO)
Core Indicators Work Group standardizes definitions and calculation
methods for over 120 public health indicators to enhance accurate and
standardized community health status reporting across public health
units in Ontario. The Built Environment Subgroup is a
multi-disciplinary group made up of planners, researchers, policy
analysts, registered dietitians, geographic information systems (GIS)
analysts and epidemiologists. The Subgroup selected and operationalized
a suite of objective, standardized indicators intended to help public
health units and regional health authorities assess their community
retail food environments. The Subgroup proposed three indicators that
use readily available data sources and GIS tools to characterize
geographic access to various types of retail food outlets within
neighbourhoods in urban settings. This article provides a status report
on the development of these food environment indicators.
3: Ontario GeoHub Portal/Land Information Ontario
Abstract: Land Information Ontario (
LIO) helps public and private organizations and individuals find, access and share geographic data.
LIO also coordinates the collection of aerial photography for Ontario. A great source for basemap layers.
4: Canada Open Data Portal
Abstract: Over 40-thousand Federal data sources. You can search for specific data sources using the open data portal catalogue. The catalogue is a downloadable dataset containing some key metadata for the general datasets available on the Government of Canada's Open Data portal.
5: MIT Libraries: GIS Data Lab
Abstract: This site is a good aggregator site for Canadian and international data sources and sites. The GIS library includes a collection of literature, data, software, and hardware, but also training and assistance in the use of GIS.
6: ESRI Canada Health GIS Hub
Abstract: This site brings together a wide range of data sources, from health administrative boundaries to public infrastructure and healthcare facility locations. This diversity of information allows users to explore the intersections between health and various social determinants.
7: Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium
Abstract: The CIHR-funded Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) collates and generates standardized area-level environmental data on air and noise pollution, land use, green/natural spaces, climate change/extreme weather, and socioeconomic conditions and links this data to existing Canadian cohort studies and administrative health databases.
