Database of ambulance calls as an information basis for the geoecological study of urbanized areas

The use of emergency ambulance call data as a detailed basis for the geoecological study of urbanized areas is discussed. The study was performed for a large northern city of Petrozavodsk. The study has two information blocks, i. e. geochemical and medico-biological. Geochemical data show chemical element concentrations in the urban soil cover. Several basic pollutants with concentrations above the maximum allowable levels and background values were revealed (Pb, Zn, Cd, Cu, Sb, Sn, Co, V, W). Element associations in soils, which are due to various accumulation factors, were identified. The medico-biological block is based on the geo-database on emergency calls. The geo-database includes information about the diagnosis, age and sex of a patient and the date and time of a call. OpenStreetMap information is used to geo-code the calls and supplement them with the characteristics of buildings. According to the type of building the calls from the residential premises only are selected in order to link the patients to their place of residence. Segmented call distribution models are employed for spatial visualization. Sickness cases are calculated by two segment sizes, i. e. 200х200 m and 500х500 m. An index calculated from the open source data about the residential area and the average living area per 1 person is used for normalizing per the number of residents. The elaborated models could be used for the study of intra-system links by analyzing the emergency calls for different groups of patients and various diagnoses. The comparison of geochemical and medical spatial data contributed to the analysis of the effect of soil pollution on the population health in the «children under 13» age group with the diseases of respiratory and digestive organs. It was revealed that the most often response of soil pollution with heavy metals is an increasing number of digestive organ diseases in children.

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