In 1854, Dr. John Snow explored the cholera epidemic and located the source as the Broadstreet water pump using a spatial analysis. Modern day spatial analyses mean we can understand the world like never before. This project followed in John Snow's footsteps...

First, the GISt of It:

The previous video was created using Animation in ArcGIS Pro.

Tools:

• Esri ArcGIS Pro

Data:

• John Mackenzie, University of Deleware

Skills:

georeference, digitization, kernel density, Thiessen polygons, average nearest neighbor analysis

I created several maps to spatially analyze the Broadstreet pump and the cholera epidemic (see pictures below or click on a link for full size image):

• John Snow's 1854 map georeferenced on modern London.
• Digitized point layers of John Snow's marked water pumps and cholera fatalities.
• A heat map showing where most cholera fatalities occurred. Most fatalities occur near the Broadstreet pump polygon!
• Thiessen Polygons showing the area of influence of each water pump. Most fatalities occur in the Broadstreet pump polygon!
• Average nearest neighbor analysis tells us that the fatalities are statistically clustered and not randomly distributed.