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and user-friendly for both mobile and web platforms.

The DHS Program

World Water Day: New ways to see WASH data on the Spatial Data Repository

New Resource in Time for World Water Day!

World Water Day is celebrated on March 22 to raise awareness of and to inspire action to tackle water and sanitation issues globally.

Blue Raster, with leadership from and in close collaboration with The DHS Program, has developed the Local Data Mapping tool, debuting today on the DHS Program Spatial Data Repository(SDR).

Just in time for World Water Day, the tool features new visualizations for four WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) indicators disaggregated to a more granular level then previously available and in both vector and raster format! Browse to the new page here: https://spatialdata.dhsprogram.com/local-data-mapping-tool/

To visualize:

  • Administrative Area Level 2 in vector format
  • Raster images at a 5 x 5 KM resolution
  • Traditional Administrative Area 1 disaggregation
World Water Day

Viewing and interacting with raster data on a map is an entirely new offering for the USAID funded DHS Program. The 5 x 5 KM raster layers are stored on Esri ArcGIS Enterprise and accessed using the ArcGIS SDK for JavaScript. Raster and vector data are processed and published using the powerful ArcGIS Pro desktop software. Blue Raster’s Bojan Zivkovic and Chris Messerich tightly integrated with Dr. Ben Mayala and Dr. Rose Donohue from the DHS Program GIS team to make sure the data and application was developed to the requirements from USAID.

World Water Day 2024

Blue Raster and The DHS Program have a successful 15 year partnership and the venerable Spatial Data Repository has served GIS data to the public for over 10 years.  We love seeing this workhorse tool getting updated and adapted to more and more uses. It's perfect for viewing water indicators for World Water Day! Visit spatialdata.dhsprogram.com today!

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New Updates to The DHS Program Spatial Data Repository: A one stop shop for Spatial Analysis Datasets

You may be familiar with the USAID funded DHS Program Spatial Data Repository (SDR) and use it to access spatial and non-spatial indicator data produced by The DHS Program surveys.  However, if you have not visited recently or are new to the tool check it out today!

The DHS Program Spatial Data Repository

 

There are brand new features, like a Model Dataset to use for familiarizing yourself with The DHS Program data, lesser known features like Geospatial Covariates and Modeled Surfaces and even some amazing new visualizations under construction that will debut in spring 2024.

Model Dataset

The new Model Dataset is useful for learning how to use DHS Program data to produce your own results.

The SDR is a custom application built with JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Python, Node and other tools. It relies on Esri’s ArcGIS Enterprise for serving boundary files, Python tools for creating customized datasets and The DHS Program Indicator Data API for instant access to the vast universe of DHS Program survey data and Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting and serverless solutions. Blue Raster is a trusted technology partner to The DHS Program with over 15 years of dedicated service to the USAID funded project.

Keep your eye on this space and visit the Spatial Data Repository today!

Survey estimates

Download Modeled Surfaces produced from DHS Program survey estimates like this one from the Philippines.

 

Look Good, Feel Good: DHS Program Launches Re-Designed Website

DHS website header

Having access to global population and health data is critical to understanding and addressing public health issues. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program collects and disseminates nationally representative and accurate data on population, health, and nutrition data across more than 90 countries.

This year, Blue Raster worked with The DHS Program to re-design and launch its website. The modernized look and simplified layout make it easier than ever for users to access what they need: country-specific data, powerful tools and resources, survey reports, and more.

The DHS Program's website is also mobile-friendly, meaning you can access it anytime and anywhere on your mobile device.

A new, clean look offers a feel-good navigation.

DHS_01_Mobile

1. Explore by Country search

Search for your country of interest immediately after opening the website. Navigate to country-specific reports and statistics through this panel.

2. Featured Tool panel

DHS provides powerful tools to explore and download data. This panel gives you the chance to explore tools you may not have known about before.

DHS website

3. Tools & Resources panel

View and access the complete collection of tools and resources that help make the most use of country data. This handy panel displays all of the available items. Additionally, it allows you to sort by type in order to view featured items or sort by analysis and learning tools.

DHS website Tools

4. Publications panel

View the most recent publications or search based on a country, topic, or survey. The DHS Program is known worldwide for its rigorous collection, analysis, and publishing of their data through these reports.

DHS website blog post (1)

5. DHS Topics panel

Another way to access data and reports is through the DHS topics menu. Select topics like Malaria, Maternal Mortality, Gender, and much more.

DHS website blog post (4)
DHS_headshot

 

Sunita Kishor, Director of The DHS Program had this to say “ ….congratulations to our amazing website team for the public launch of the ‘new’ DHS website….Thank you for making us all so proud.”

Learn more about our work with The DHS Program and STATcompiler.

In addition to leveraging Esri technologies for web mapping solutions, Blue Raster leverages our in-house design team to enhance user experiences through design-driven solutions. Read about the design work we have done for ocean conservation.

Virtualizing ArcGIS in the Cloud

Blue Raster helps clients achieve rapid, cost-effective cloud solutions for server and application hosting. Our team is now taking this concept a step further to completely Virtualize your ArcGIS Environment. As an Amazon Web Service and Microsoft Azure partner, our team strives to understand the latest ways to use GIS systems more efficiently.Amazon Web Service Partner

Coupled with ArcGIS Pro, an application which handles licensing completely in the cloud, our team has been able to provide full GIS work spaces for several organizations. Our team works with a variety of cloud hosting options including AWS WorkSpaces, AWS AppStream, and Azure Virtual Desktops, each of these options providing a variety of benefits:

  • Removes Operating System requirements
  • Eliminates the need for high performance hardware
  • Offers scalable solutions for organizations with many software users
  • Utilizes the ArcGIS Pro Parallel Processing capabilities, allowing multiple CPU, cores, or processes to work on a large job at the same time
  • Provides more cost efficient solutions for long running, highly intensive workflows

Blue Raster is working with the Natural Resource Defense Council and the Demographic and Healthy Surveys Program to build all encompassing cloud environments. The pilot cloud environment Esri ArcGIS Pro Cloud hooks into existing systems and caters to the needs of the organization. For example, the addition of Amazon FSx and Attached Storage to easily share files from a local, network, or virtual desktop drive. Our team can also integrate these work spaces with previously existing Active Directory and Single Sign On (SSO) technologies for large-scale, organizational access.

Ben Mayala, the Senior GIS Coordinator at the Demographic and Health Surveys Program, has been using his Amazon Web Service WorkSpace to run complex, statistic and spatial analysis which was not only taking days to complete, but completely using up machine resources while doing so.

"So far the WorkSpace is really good. It's loading the Geospatial Covariates super fast, data extractions are super fast, and I've already gotten through over half my work" 

Ready to find out more?

Contact us today to learn about ways we can make the cloud work for you.

Dig deeper with new Topics pages from The DHS Program

Blue Raster is a long term partner of USAID funded The DHS Program – since 2009 we have collaborated on and created such tools as STATcompiler, Spatial Data Repository, The DHS Program Mobile app, The DHS Program API and the central communications hub: DHSProgram.com.

The DHS Program API already powers the STATcompiler, Mobile App and SDR- and now you can visualize the indicator data that the API provides on DHSProgram.com as well.

New Topics pages have been created to help interested users narrow their focus and uncover relevant indicators:

The topics pages showcase the latest relevant survey data and were built using HTML5 and JavaScript.  Each page is essentially a mini application that calls to The DHS Program API to automatically update when new surveys are released so that the freshest data is served and visualized.

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Some Topics pages, such as Gender, allow users to easily compare certain indicators side by side in a table- new functionality specific to the Topics pages.  Handy links to contextual information are provided in the page sidebars.

More topics pages are on the way…see this post by The DHS Program and you can help decide what comes next!

“Data visualization has always been a key part of communicating DHS data to our audiences. We started with STATcompiler, a tool allowing users to create custom tables based on thousands of health indicators across over 90 countries and compare trends across time. Now, with the continuing support from Blue Raster, we’re pleased to see we have expanded our data visualization practices to our topic pages. With their guidance, we’ve developed a simplified version of STATcompiler as a mini-tool easing our users into the world of data visualization of DHS data.”

Sarah Kim, Digital Media Specialist, The DHS Program