The Visual Exploration of Insurance Data in Google Earth

Visualisation and geovisualisation techniques can both complement and help communicate the results of GIS and other analyses in the exploration of multivariate datasets and may provide insights and solutions for managing exposure and potential loss. Graphical techniques and the use of geobrowsers such as Google Earth are also being used in a communicative role to engage a variety of different audiences within insurance companies with information about policies, exposure and potential losses. In this paper, we focus on one particular geo-browser, Google Earth, which provides access to a rich array of datasets including aerial imagery, roads, administrative boundaries and photographs and, importantly, allows additional data to be added through the welldocumented KML format

The tyranny of distance – mapping accessibility to polysomnography services across Australia

This paper finds that remote and very remote communities continue to experience inequity in health care in accessibility to specialist services such as diagnostic sleep studies. Abstract Objectives: To identify service gaps by mapping accessibility to diagnostic sleep studies across Australia using a Geographic Information System (GIS). Methods: Census-level data stratified by statistical areas were mapped to measure accessibility to polysomnography (PSG) based on geographical location of patients. All adult publicly funded home and laboratory-based PSG performed in Australia in 2012 were mapped to statistical areas based on patient address at the time of the sleep study. Results: Sleep health care is extremely under-resourced in central and northern Australia. For those living in areas classified as remote and very remote, geographical distance appears to be a barrier to the accessibility of specialist sleep services. Conclusions: Remote and very remote communities continue to experience inequity in health care in general and in accessibility to specialist services in particular. Attention needs to be given to barriers which may limit equitable accessibility. Implications: Residing in remote communities with limited or no public transport options is likely to have a particularly significantly impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ ability to access PSG. Authored by Woods C, Usher K, Edwards A, Jersmann H, and Maguire G

What a Tangled Web: Local Property, Income and Sales Taxes

While local option sales taxes (LOST) have become an important revenue source for local governments, there has been concern about the distribution of LOST revenues: the uneven distribution of sales tax bases may have introduced a new source of fiscal inequality and exacerbated existing fiscal disparity. Using Georgia county data (N5159, 1970-2000), this study examines whether and how LOST have affected local fiscal disparity. Our findings suggest that the effects of LOST on fiscal disparity vary with the approach to measure revenueraising capacity; thus the issue of LOST distribution is sensitive to the underlying conceptualization of '"fiscal equity.