Solving Geospatial Problems under Extreme Time Constraints: A Call for Inclusive Geocomputational Education

To prepare our next generation to face geospatial problems that have extreme time constraints (e.g., disasters, climate change) we need to create educational pathways that help students develop their geocomputational thinking skills. First, educators are central in helping us create those pathways, therefore, we need to clearly convey to them why and in which contexts this thinking is necessary. For that purpose, a new definition for geocomputational thinking is suggested that makes it clear that this thinking is needed for geospatial problems that have extreme time constraints. Secondly, we can not further burden educators with more demands, rather we should work with them to better understand the existing curricular context and implement sensible changes where it is most impactful. Lastly, the impacts of these implementations need to be carefully measured, and particularly in terms of broadening participation. A few examples are provided that show promise

Study on Crime and Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean

Investment is a key determinant of economic growth. This relationship underpins the growth diagnostic and constraints analysis methodology used by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and United States Government Partnership for Growth initiative with the purpose of identifying the binding constraints to growth in a given country. Recent growth diagnostics undertaken for El Salvador (2011), Guatemala (2013), and Honduras (2013) find crime and citizen insecurity to be binding constraints to growth and investment in those countries (Acevedo et al. 2011; World Bank, 2012). The approaches taken in these growth diagnostic analyses are based on indirect proxies and shadow prices of the crime-investment relationship. Further empirical analyses are required to determine the nature of the relationship between crime and investment for Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Quantitative analyses of the crime-investment relationship are scant, and most of the work on this relationship focuses on the impact of crime on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). There is much less work on the drivers of domestic investment. This study provides new evidence on the crime-investment link in the LAC context with the purpose of informing the design and implementation of development activities in the region

Modeling Travel Impedance to Medical Care for Children with Birth Defects Using Geographic Information Systems

Background: Children with birth defects may face significant geographic barriers accessing medical care and specialized services. Using a Geographic Information Systems–based approach, one-way travel time and distance to access medical care for children born with spina bifida was estimated. Methods: Using 2007 road information from the Florida Department of Transportation, we built a topological network of Florida roads. Live-born Florida infants with spina bifida during 1998 to 2007 were identified by the Florida Birth Defects Registry and linked to hospital discharge records. Maternal residence at delivery and hospitalization locations were identified during the first year of life. Results: Of 668 infants with spina bifida, 8.1% (n = 54) could not be linked to inpatient data, resulting in 614 infants. Of those 614 infants, 99.7% (n = 612) of the maternal residential addresses at delivery were successfully geocoded. Infants with spina bifida living in rural areas in Florida experienced travel times almost twice as high compared with those living in urban areas. When aggregated at county levels, one-way network travel times exhibited statistically significant spatial autocorrelation, indicating that families living in some clusters of counties experienced substantially greater travel times compared with families living in other areas of Florida. Conclusion: This analysis demonstrates the usefulness of linking birth defects registry and hospital discharge data to examine geographic differences in access to medical care. Geographic Information Systems methods are important in evaluating accessibility and geographic barriers to care and could be used among children with special health care needs, including children with birth defects. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 97:673–684, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc