Do you GIS?

[GreenEyesBright]

So I'm taking this really cool GIS class at school, and I have to admit, its pretty awesome. Here's where I need your help. I have to come up with an awesome, but informative project idea that I can execute by the end of April for a city poster project. Now the project can be on practically anything that you can map out using GIS, but the focus is Savannah. Most of the projects that other people have done include marine sciences based - invasive species, an evacuation plan for daycares in Savannah (scary considering that this concept was not anywhere in the city evacuation plans already), homeland security, etc. Personally I'd like to come up with a citywide containment plan in case of a zombie outbreak, but I seriously doubt this would fly with my Professor. So any ideas?

[Elastigirl]

Ask your professor, I think your idea sounds fun. Ok we live in Wa, so take this with a grain of salt. But my son's college economic class was on economics and Zombies, how a zombie attack would affect the economy. And there were other subjects where they made it relevant to zombies too. So, here in WA the prof would most liekly like it.

[GreenEyesBright]

I will ask, and in that vein I'm toying with the idea of showing how the city bus system could be an effective way to distribute a biological warfare agent. The buses hit major points throughout the city, major malls, ports, schools, wal-mart, etc. Might be interesting. Its not Zombies, but fairly close...

[Guest guest4729]

I will ask, and in that vein I'm toying with the idea of showing how the city bus system could be an effective way to distribute a biological warfare agent. The buses hit major points throughout the city, major malls, ports, schools, wal-mart, etc. Might be interesting. Its not Zombies, but fairly close...

That could work or even how rapidly a disease or contaminant can spread. Orrr...what would happen if the local water supply was poisoned orrr....uh...drawing a blank.

Also, I would TOTALLY bring up the zombie thing with your teacher. If you're actually taking it SERIOUSLY why is that a problem?

[GreenEyesBright]

So I asked my professor and she said.... To do a write up on both ideas but in order to do zombies, I'd have to find a way of getting scientific data about said zombies. Sooooo challenge accepted!

[Guest guest4729]

So I asked my professor and she said.... To do a write up on both ideas but in order to do zombies, I'd have to find a way of getting scientific data about said zombies. Sooooo challenge accepted!

Well I mean there IS a lot of data about the rapid spread of disease, both in the real world and virtual world. There are also lots of viruses in the world right now that COULD potentially cause some sort of terrible outbreak.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-scientific-reasons-zombie-apocalypse-could-actually-happen.html

http://io9.com/5547673/5-real-diseases-that-could-make-you-act-just-like-a-zombie

There are also molds and spores and stuff in the fungal kingdom that literally turn animals into zombies. The one that pops into mind is this virus that turns ants into zombies. Then the fungus sprouts out of its head and stuff. Weird. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fungus-makes-zombie-ants

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Why not try running the zombie thing as rabies that is extremely contagious in humans and causes severe aggressiveness and other symptoms mimicking zombies? The scientific data you could use would be that of rabies, tweaked to fit your new strain. All my professors were usually up for us using out of the box ideas as long as we made sure we went above and beyond to demonstrate working knowledge and understanding of what was being taught in the class and weren't just screwing around.

[Sco]

Love GIS! Zombies would be a sweet way to go, if you figured out what data to focus on...

Actually, I'm pretty sure someone in my class managed to actually do their poster about a potential zombie attack on our school. Unfortunately, I can't really remember what variables they used. It could have had something to do with secure, multi-story buildings, elevation, and access to food supplies, but I'm not sure. They might have made up two or three zombie "traits" - like, zombies suck at walking uphill, so a steep rise in elevation makes certain areas safer or zombies can't cross open water, so lakes and rivers are good barriers and so on - and then figured out where the most secure locations would be from that.

So make up zombie traits that you can get collectible data from - elevation, rivers OR, decide what human factors need to be in place for people to survive (people need food, so places with food is good, and multi-story buildings with locking doors are good etc etc), plot your data points, and do some sort of analysis that way. They're your zombies, you can make them have whatever traits you want.

~~~

I do really like the bus system idea as well. Spread of disease, water poisoning, etc. The spread and higher risk areas if a certain point is infected etc. (Buffers ftw!) You could figure something out with any city system, really. Water, electric, gas lines, major roads etc. You could map the grids and find high risk areas, using buffers, or possibly some regression modeling or something like that.

Sorry for the semi-rambling post, but I hope you find something that works! I do have to admit that I was one of those invasive species people when I did my GIS class project though. But you know, zebra mussels are sort of like marine zombies...they multiply, spread like crazy, and are almost impossible to exterminate.

[GreenEyesBright]

Sweet! These are some excellent ideas to run with! Thanks guys! Now I'm really excited!

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

[Guest guest4729]

Why not try running the zombie thing as rabies that is extremely contagious in humans and causes severe aggressiveness and other symptoms mimicking zombies? The scientific data you could use would be that of rabies, tweaked to fit your new strain. All my professors were usually up for us using out of the box ideas as long as we made sure we went above and beyond to demonstrate working knowledge and understanding of what was being taught in the class and weren't just screwing around.

I like that rabies idea! They would be the fast zombies.

Or in my one link it mentioned the "Sleeping Sickness" caused by the tsetse fly. Perhaps you could do it like...shipments from Africa brought in an invasive species of fly which caused massive amounts of people with Sleeping Sickness? These would be the slow zombies.

[sashi]

If it helps making your argument to your prof, consider that the CDC has gotten behind the "zombie craze" as a means of helping people be better prepared for any sort of disaster, including infectious disease. http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/

[andygates]

If you're prepared for zombies, you're prepared for anything.

Non-formal GIS here: active OpenStreetMap nerd. Open geo goodness.

[KillerGriller]

I'm a Jizz (err.....GIS) Analyst by trade, if you need any help with the tech specs send me a PM.

As for the project, use the zombie stuff to dress it up, but as mentioned earlier with the rabies comments; treat it as en epidemiology exercise and you'll have an easier job doing your supplementary research. Then you can slap the zombie criteria (i.e. - orally spread, slow vs. fast moving, Romero driven, etc.) on it and you are off to the races.

If you have time, check out the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z for good overviews of how the general public could/woudl react to an infection as well as different source/vectors for the zombie-ism.

In terms of GIS, are you focusing on containment/battling the infection or the spread of the virus?

Check out the 1854 Cholera Epidemic, it's the first (famous) example of GIS being used in this manner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system#History_of_development