Author: Jessica Hagins
The 2025 North Carolina Geographic Information Systems (NC GIS) Conference was held March 19 to 21 in Winston-Salem. The conference is sponsored, in part, by the N.C. Center for Geographic Information & Analysis (CGIA), a sister business unit of the NC HIEA within the Enterprise Data Office.
The NC GIS Conference is one of the largest state GIS conferences in the nation, bringing together professionals and enthusiasts from across the state and beyond to demonstrate the many ways that geospatial data can solve real-world problems in a variety of sectors, like public health and emergency management.
Secretary of the N.C. Department of Information Technology and State Chief Information Officer Teena Piccione gave the opening remarks at the conference commending the state’s immediate response to those affected by Hurricane Helene in western NC.
Thanks to the investment of our state in critical technological tools, particularly in geospatial data and geographic information systems, North Carolina was able to act swiftly and efficiently to coordinate disaster response and recovery efforts, keep residents connected to emergency services and address the devastation caused by this powerful storm.
Most importantly, in regions where power and communication infrastructure was damaged, the Next Generation 911 system helped reroute emergency calls to public safety answering points (PSAPs) that were still operational, allowing every single person who called 911 that night to speak to a 911 operator.
The Next Gen 911 system relies on GPS and advanced location tracking to provide more precise caller locations, all thanks to North Carolina’s robust GIS datasets.
This detailed emergency data is also proving useful to other GIS professional who study public health.
Christian Klaus, Spatial Analyst at the State Center for Health Statistics, Division of Public Health gave a presentation on how her team uses GIS data to study cancer incidence rates at a more granular scale than the county level. The study was conducted in response to resident’s concerns about the higher rates of cancer in their locations.
Klaus explained that, right now, the ways we measure uncertainty in where patients live don’t give a clear sense of how accurate the data is. In recent years, some U.S. states have started sharing cancer rates at the neighborhood level. This shift makes us rethink how we measure the quality of patient address data.
Several other presentations covered the role of GIS, from mapping and aerial imagery in analyzing the spread of disease, to determining access to mental health care and understanding social determinants of health in different regions.
You can read more about how the CGIA supports the state’s efforts, including public health, by visiting their website.