Welcome to Lesson 5! This is the capstone assignment where you investigate a real-world problem using the techniques and tools introduced during your past coursework. In Lesson 1, we identified five principles of Geospatial Intelligence. These principles are:
In Lesson 5, you will apply the principles. As we discussed in the previous lessons, GEOINT is the art and science of place and time on Earth's surface. Its subject matter is the human phenomena that make up the world's places. The GEOINT professional studies and describes the changing pattern of places in words, maps, and graphics, explaining how patterns come to be, unraveling their meaning, and anticipating changes in patterns for decision makers. In the capstone work you will experience how a GEOINT professional thinks about real-world-like problems.
Now is the time to apply what you have learned!
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Throughout this lesson, we will demonstrate the concepts of Geospatial Intelligence. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Please view my final video of the course (2 minutes).
View the National Geographic video about a Doctors Without Borders Ebola clinic [1] in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Read: "Liberia: Ebola clinic fills up within hours of opening" [2] about Monrovia's desperate shortage of available beds for those struck by the vicious Ebola virus. Sick and dying people have been sent to holding areas because the Ebola Treatment Unit beds in the city are full.
The following summary of the Ebola disease is from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [3] and World Health Organization [4].
The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.
The number of recent EVD cases is growing faster than the abilities of West Africa health officials to handle them. In the three hardest hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the number of new cases is growing faster than the capacity to manage them in the Ebola-specific treatment centers. Ebola treatment centers are being established to provide comprehensive care to people diagnosed with EVD.
The current outbreak in West Africa is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries, starting in Guinea and then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air (1 traveler only) to Nigeria, and by land (1 traveler) to Senegal.
The most severely affected countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, have very weak health systems, lacking human and infrastructural resources, having only recently emerged from long periods of conflict and instability. On August 8, the WHO Director-General declared this outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
It is thought that fruit bats are natural Ebola virus hosts. Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope, and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids. Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola.
Control relies on effective case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilization. Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Raising awareness of risk factors for Ebola infection and protective measures that individuals can take is an effective way to reduce human transmission. Risk reduction messaging focuses on several factors:
Story maps combine interactive maps and multimedia content into elegant and informative user experiences. They make it easier to harness the power of maps to tell a story. Story maps are designed for general, non-technical audiences. However, story maps can also serve highly specialized audiences. They can summarize issues for managers and decision makers. They can help departments or teams within organizations to communicate with their colleagues.
For your capstone and final assignment, you will select a location for a notional Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia, Liberia. Please note that our problem is hypothetical and bears no direct relationship to the location of planned clinics! The exercise uses data and a capability similar to the NGA Ebola Map site designed to assist Ebola relief in West Africa. Similarly, our parallel site is supported with Esri's ArcGIS Online, DigitalGlobe's Human Geography data, and hosted on Amazon Web Services. Your peer reviewed work:
You might want to review the explanation of the ACH approach found in Structured Analysis of Competing Hypotheses: Improving a Tested Intelligence Methodology [6] by Kristan J. Wheaton and Diane E. McManis. We are just using evidence and hypotheses that are geospatial in nature.
This assignment makes use of Coursera's Peer Assessment tool. Use the following link to access the Peer Assessment tool [7]. The key deliverables and due dates for this assignment are:
Date | Time | Activity | Your Task |
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9 February, 2015 | Lesson 5 opens 0001 UTC/GMT (12:01 AM) | Assignment Starts |
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14 February, 2015 | Due at 2359 UTC/GMT (11:59 PM) | Submission Deadline | After this time, you can no longer change your submission. If you have not clicked the "Submit" button by this time, your classmates will not see your submission, you will not receive an evaluation for this assignment, and you will not be permitted to evaluate your classmates' submissions. |
15 February, 2015 | Begin on 15 February at 0001 UTC/GMT (12:01 AM) | Evaluation Starts | After this time, you will evaluate the work of five (5) of your peers. Finally, you will evaluate your own work. Optionally, you can choose to evaluate the work of even more of your classmates before the evaluation deadline passes. This is very helpful for the success of the course. You are an awesome person if you do this. Remember: as with the submission stage, this evaluation stage is required if you want your own assignment submission to be evaluated. |
17 February, 2015 | Due by 2359 UTC/GMT (11:59 PM) | Evaluation Deadline | After this time, you can no longer evaluate the work of your peers or your own. If you have not finished your assigned evaluation tasks by this time, your own assignment may not be evaluated and you may receive a grade penalty. |
17 February, 2015 | Due by 2359 UTC/GMT (11:59 PM) | Final Examination Deadline | Complete the Final Examination. |
There will be no exceptions or extensions to these deadlines. The Coursera Peer Assessment tool does not allow us to make individual-level exceptions.
The following is the hypothetical scenario. You are a volunteer providing short-term support to a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Monrovia, Liberia. You have available the information and capabilities of the below Ebola Map website which provides mapping capabilities, satellite imagery, and human geography data.
Using the Ebola Map and the proposed locations in Monrovia, Liberia, select where to establish the next Ebola Treatment Unit. You may optionally propose an alternate location in Monrovia but this is not required.
The coordinates in parentheses are longitude (X) and latitude (Y) expressed in decimal degrees that are suitable for ArcGIS Online.
Step 1: Review the problem, background, criteria, and explore the technology and data. In our ArcGIS Online Ebola map [10], click on the "content" tab in the legend to display the full list of imagery and human geography data themes. Learn about the data. Develop a deep and rich mental picture of the place.
Step 2: Think about and apply a simple data collection strategy. Using ArcGIS Online and the data themes, forage for geospatial evidence to help in your evaluation of the hypothesized best sites in Table 5.1. Note the data you are lacking.
Step 3: Using the art of geospatial reasoning aided with ArcGIS Online's maps:
Step 4: Share and discuss your analysis in the Lesson 5 Discussion Forum [11]. This is an opportunity to vet your analysis before you finalize your submission for peer assessment.
Step 5: Using the Peer Assessment tool [7], Coursera link post your selected location for the Ebola Treatment Unit in the appropriate terms and expressions provided in Tables 5.1 and 5.2. Discuss how you completed this geospatial analysis using ACH. Peer review your submission and four other students' submissions (total of 5 reviews) using the standards of analysis (Table 5.3). Please note the due date!
Hypothesis: Site 1 is the best location. | Hypothesis: Site 2 is the best location. | Hypothesis: Site 3 is the best location. | Hypothesis (Optional): Site 4 is the best location. Specify the location. | |
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Evidence Related to Criterion 1: The clinic is in an area known to have the Ebola disease present. | ||||
Evidence Related to Criterion 2: The clinic is in an area not served by an existing Ebola facility. | ||||
Evidence Related to Criterion 3: The clinic is in proximity to existing medical facilities. | ||||
Evidence Related to Criterion 4: The clinic is located to serve a significant population. | ||||
Evidence Related to Criterion 5: The clinic has access to transportation. | ||||
Evidence Related to Criterion 6: The clinic is in a favorable physical environment at the location. | ||||
Evidence Related to Criterion 7: The clinic is in a location safe for the patients and staff. | ||||
Other evidence you included in the analysis. Add as many rows as needed. | ||||
State the selected site using the appropriate terms and expressions from Table 5.2, below Referring to the Lesson 4 discussion of Analysis of Competing Hypothesis (ACH), describe how you arrived at your conclusion. |
Low | Moderate | High |
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Terms/Expressions:
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Terms/Expressions:
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Terms/Expressions:
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Item | Analytic Standard |
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A | Properly describes quality and reliability of underlying sources. |
B | Properly caveats and expresses uncertainties or confidence in analytic judgments. |
C | Properly distinguishes between underlying intelligence and analysts' assumptions and judgments. |
D | Incorporates alternative analysis where appropriate. |
E | Demonstrates relevance to the domain. |
F | Uses logical argumentation. |
G | If appropriate, exhibits consistency of analysis over time, or highlights changes and explains rationale. |
H | Makes accurate judgments and assessments. |
This lab was developed by Todd Bacastow, Gary Parkhurst [12] (DigitalGlobe), and Joseph Kerski [13] (Esri). Esri and DigitalGlobe generously provided help creating this instance using ArcGIS Online, current satellite imagery, and human geography data as in the NGA Ebola Map.
For our final week's discussion, I want to focus on your geospatial analysis using the technique of Analysis of Competing Hypothesis (ACH). Separate from submitting your analysis for the peer assessment activity, this is your chance to share your work with the class and receive feedback. Here's what to do:
Go to the dedicated Lesson 5 Discussion Forum [14] to talk about these issues.
Participation in discussions is worth 10% of your overall grade in the class. To earn the full 10%, you need to make a total of 10 original posts or comments by the end of the class. If I were you, I'd shoot for posting twice each week. Read the Grading Policy [15] page for more details.
Links here go to Coursera.
The final exam for this class is due the last day of the course (check the syllabus and schedule [16] for the date!) at 11:59 PM (2359) UTC.
Use the following link to access the Quizzes and Exam page [17] where you will see the link to the Final Exam.
Question: I lost my Internet connection and the time expired, can you reset the exam for me?
Answer: Sorry, there is no way for me to do this on an individual basis in Coursera. In addition, there is no way I can manage the process of deciding who gets another try with thousands of students.
Question: What kinds of questions can I expect on the exam?
Answer: This exam features 30 questions, and is cumulative for the course. All of the questions were drawn from the course Lessons.
Question: Why are you setting a time limit and only letting us take it once?
Answer: This is a chance for me to understand how well you are retaining knowledge from the past weeks of the course. Leaving it wide open and offering multiple tries would not help me understand whether or not you've actually learned something that will carry on beyond this course.
Question: Why is the exam not longer (or shorter)?
Answer: I've provided more than two minutes for each question. That should be plenty of time for students who have completed the Lesson 1-4 quizzes and read the lesson content.
Provided by DigitalGlobe, Inc. in cooperation with Esri and NGA.
DigitalGlobe Landscape +Human [20] datasets are analyst-ready map layers that serve as a foundation for conducting geospatial analysis. The data conforms to the World-Wide Human Geography Data Working Group (WWHGD WG) [21] efforts to provide a basis for a deeper understanding of cultures, activities, and attitudes. Such datasets are especially useful in supporting crisis situations, such as the Ebola virus outbreak, in parts of the world that tend to lack publicly available map data for use with GIS tools such as ArcGIS Online.
The dataset used for this exercise to evaluate possible locations for Ebola treatment clinics in Monrovia, Liberia contains the following layers:
Links
[1] http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/141016-inside-ebola-clinic-vin
[2] http://www.who.int/features/2014/liberia-ebola-clinic/en/
[3] http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/preparing-ebola-treatment-centers.html
[4] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
[5] http://techsupportuk.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/?appid=deb9d5151d954de5b3933294c911b67f
[6] http://www.mcmanis-monsalve.com/files/publications/intelligence-methodology-1-07-chido.pdf
[7] https://class.coursera.org/geoint-001/human_grading
[8] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geointmooc/node/2039
[9] https://class.coursera.org/geoint-001/wiki/Human_Geography_Data
[10] http://education.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=684d5dab42824b3582cf224a6d5ba3c0
[11] https://class.coursera.org/geoint-001/forum/list?forum_id=3
[12] https://www.linkedin.com/pub/gary-parkhurst/41/504/84a
[13] http://www.josephkerski.com/
[14] https://class.coursera.org/geoint-001/forum
[15] https://class.coursera.org/geoint-001/wiki/grading
[16] https://class.coursera.org/geoint-001/wiki/syllabus
[17] https://class.coursera.org/geoint-001/quiz
[18] http://healthmap.org/ebola/
[19] http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/
[20] https://www.digitalglobe.com/products/human-landscape
[21] http://wwhgd.org/sites/default/files/OnePager.docx