Using Geovisualizations to Educate the Public About Environmental Health Hazards: What Works and Why.

IF 7.4 2区 医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH Current Environmental Health Reports Pub Date : 2024-09-25 DOI:10.1007/s40572-024-00461-8
Catherine E Slavik, Carolyn Fish, Ellen Peters
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Abstract

Purpose of review: Informing the public about environmental risks to health is crucial for raising awareness around hazards, and promoting actions that minimize exposures. Geographic visualizations-geovisualizations-have become an increasingly common way to disseminate web-based information about environmental hazards, displaying spatial variations in exposures and health outcomes using a map. Unfortunately, ineffective geovisualizations can result in inaccurate inferences about a hazard, leading to misguided actions or policies. In this narrative review, we discuss key considerations for the use of geovisualizations to promote environmental health literacy.

Recent findings: Many conventional geovisualizations used for hazard education and risk communication fail to consider how people process visual information. Design choices that prompt viewers to think and feel, leveraging processes such as individual attention, memory, and emotion, could promote improved comprehension and decision making around environmental health risks using geovisualizations. Based on the studies reviewed, we recommend six strategies for designing effective, evidence-based geovisualizations, synthesizing evidence from the cognitive sciences, cartography, and environmental health. These strategies include: Displaying only key data, tailoring and testing geovisualizations with the desired audience, using salient cues, leveraging emotion, aiding pattern recognition, and limiting visual distractions. Geovisualizations offer a promising avenue for advancing public awareness and fostering proactive measures in addressing complex environmental health challenges. This review highlights how incorporating evidence-based design principles into geovisualizations could promote environmental health literacy. More experimental research evaluating geovisualizations, using interdisciplinary approaches, is needed.

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利用地理可视化教育公众了解环境健康危害:什么有效,为什么有效?
审查目的:让公众了解环境对健康的危害,对于提高人们对危害的认识和促进尽量减少暴露的行动至关重要。地理可视化(geovisualizations)已成为一种日益普遍的方式,用于传播基于网络的环境危害信息,利用地图显示暴露和健康结果的空间变化。不幸的是,无效的地理可视化可能导致对危害的不准确推断,从而导致错误的行动或政策。在这篇叙述性综述中,我们讨论了使用地理可视化促进环境健康知识普及的主要注意事项:许多用于危害教育和风险交流的传统地理可视化没有考虑到人们是如何处理视觉信息的。利用个人的注意力、记忆力和情感等过程来促使观众思考和感受的设计选择,可以利用地理可视化促进人们对环境健康风险的理解和决策制定。根据所回顾的研究,我们综合认知科学、制图学和环境健康方面的证据,提出了设计有效、基于证据的地理可视化的六项策略。这些策略包括只显示关键数据、为所需受众量身定制并测试地理可视化、使用突出线索、利用情感、帮助模式识别以及限制视觉干扰。地理可视化为提高公众意识、促进采取积极措施应对复杂的环境健康挑战提供了一条大有可为的途径。本综述强调了将循证设计原则纳入地理可视化如何促进环境健康知识的普及。需要利用跨学科方法开展更多评估地理可视化的实验研究。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
13.60
自引率
1.30%
发文量
47
期刊介绍: Current Environmental Health Reports provides up-to-date expert reviews in environmental health. The goal is to evaluate and synthesize original research in all disciplines relevant for environmental health sciences, including basic research, clinical research, epidemiology, and environmental policy.
期刊最新文献
Mechanisms of Metal-Induced Hepatic Inflammation. Carcinogenic Mechanisms of Hexavalent Chromium: From DNA Breaks to Chromosome Instability and Neoplastic Transformation. Toxic Metals and Metalloids in Food: Current Status, Health Risks, and Mitigation Strategies. Using Geovisualizations to Educate the Public About Environmental Health Hazards: What Works and Why. Correction: Tear Fluid as a Matrix for Biomonitoring Environmental and Chemical Exposures.
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