STEM Events and Workshops | Summer 2025
Addressing Environmental Health with GIS – Mapping the Patterns and Relationships of Human-Environment Interactions
July 9, 6 – 7 p.m. | Join via Webex 
Theodros M. Woldeyohannes, M.S.
Ph.D. Candidate, Research Assistant
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide versatile tools for uncovering spatial patterns of public health and environmental justice issues at multiple scales within the exposome. GIS provides a framework to represent and process data spatially, allowing for the geographic organization of real-world phenomena into a GIS-based or geo-spatial model. GIS modeling is a powerful application for visualizing, understanding, and mapping the patterns and relationships of environmental health issues, such as dispersal of pollutants and pathways of exposure. In this talk, Theodros Woldeyohannes will give an introduction and overview of GIS, background on his journey into the GIS field, and illustrate the applications of geospatial modeling with specific examples in the areas of environmental monitoring and health. In the first portion of the talk, Theodros will go over the core concepts of geographic theory, the GIS framework, and general areas of application. In the second portion, he will go over his academic journey and how he ended up working in the field of GIS. In the last part of the talk, he will dive into specific applications of geospatial modeling from his research with collaborators at the University of New Mexico Health and Environmental Research (HER) GIS laboratory, and highlight examples of GIS and data-science work conducted by BHCC students as interns at the HER lab.
Theodros Woldeyohannes is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of New Mexico. His interests are in applying GIScience and geospatial technologies for addressing environmental health issues and understanding the spatial patterns behind exposure and human-environment interactions. Some of his research has been published in the journals of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment and Cartography and Geographic Information Science. Theodros has been recognized by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for his work on the environmental impacts of unregulated waste disposal and waste fires. Theodros is a member of the American Association of Geographers and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science.