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Geospatial Data Uploads

Geospatial data allows researchers to analyze health information with a location component- from mapping disease outbreak to understanding healthcare access across different regions. The CEMA warehouse supports various geospatial data formarts to help ypu visualize and analyze location-based health data across Kenya.

Geospatial Upload Overview

The GIS section (accessible from the top navigation) is a separate catalogue for spatial data.

What you can upload

Types of GIS data

Type What it is File format
Shapefile Vector data - boundaries, points, lines (e.g. subcounty boundaries) .zip containing .shp, .shx, .dbf, .prj
Raster Grid data - satellite imagery, elevation, climate (e.g. rainfall maps) .tif / .tiff

Vector Data (Shapefiles)

  • Health facility locations - hospitals, clinics, community health units
  • Administrative boundaries - counties, wards, health zones
  • Disease outbreak areas - affected regions during epidemics
  • Transportation networks - roads affecting healthcare access

Raster Data (Grid/Image Data)

  • Population density maps - showing where people live
  • Environmental data - rainfall, temperature, elevation
  • Disease risk maps - malaria risk zones, habitat suitability maps, pollution levels
  • Land use patterns - urban/rural classification

Uploading GIS data

  1. Go to GIS in the navigation, then click Upload GIS data. Geospatial Upload

  2. Select whether you are uploading a Shapefile or a Raster.

  3. For shapefiles:

    Your file MUST be a ZIP archive containing at minimum .shp, .shx, and .dbf files (all with the same base name). The .prj file is strongly recommended since without it the coordinate system may be assumed incorrectly.

📁 Required Files:
  ├── dataset.shp    (main shapefile)
  ├── dataset.dbf    (attribute database)
  ├── dataset.shx    (shape index)
  └── dataset.prj    (projection info)
4. Fill in the dataset details and provenance fields then click Upload GIS data.

After upload, shapefiles are immediately available for map preview via the interactive viewer.

Viewing a shapefile

Click any shapefile in the GIS catalogue to open its detail page. The map preview tab will load an interactive map. You can:

  • Hover over any feature to see its attributes (name, ID, etc.)
  • Scroll to zoom in and out
  • Click Reset view to return to the default zoom level
  • Switch to the Attribute Table tab to see the data in table form

Downloading a shapefile

Three download options are available:

Option What you get Open with
Shapefile (.zip) The original shapefile components QGIS, ArcGIS
GeoJSON A web-friendly format Python (geopandas), R (sf), any GIS tool
Attributes CSV The data table only, without the geometry Excel, pandas, R

For Raster files, you will see the download raster button, and can download it from there. There is no preview available for these.

Supported File Formats

Format Extension Best For Notes
Shapefile .shp, .dbf, .shx, .prj Boundaries, points, lines Most common, upload as zip
GeoTIFF .tif, .tiff Satellite imagery, grids Include coordinate info
GeoJSON .geojson Web mapping Lightweight, good for sharing

Need help? Contact or consult the documentation sections for detailed guidance on specific tasks.