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Representation of occupational hygiene data by way of a Geospatial Information System: influence on occupational hygiene knowledge
Author(s)
Van der Westhuizen, Hendrik Willem Johannes
Date Issued
2018
Type
Thesis
Publisher
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Abstract
Occupational Hygiene is an international professional discipline that is involved in the
anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of conditions (stressors) in the workplace that
could cause occupational related illness and disease. In the process risk assessments,
technical reports, sampling results and management plans are generated. These documents
may be found in various formats e.g. electronic versions and hard copies and may be
geographically dispersed within a company.
In order to manage the stressors e.g. chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic the
gathered data need to be transformed into information. Retrieval and cross correlation of
information could be optimized if the information was consolidated in one site and format.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has the ability to capture, consolidate, integrate,
interrogate and display large volumes of data. In this research project, the ability of GIS to
add value to management data within the paradigm of the knowledge cycle was investigated
in terms of an increase of knowledge. Apart from previous work by the author that was done
on noise management, no evidence could be found of similar studies combining occupational
hygiene, GIS and the knowledge cycle and it appears as if this is the first study of its kind.
The process involved a design science approach in the design of a model that could
accommodate the Occupational Hygiene (OH) data. The model consisted of a generic
framework that was structured in layers to accommodate the spatial data of the various
stressors. In addition, a layer was created to deal with nonspatial management data. The
model was applied to three industrial plants of two international companies on two
continents, after which the opinions of staff members of the individual plants were gathered
by way of semi-structured interviews.
It was found that GIS could successfully capture OH data and provided an improved level of
information to manage and present OH related data. Value was added in that new
perspectives of existing data were created by superimposing the various layers. Despite the
differences in products and the geographic distribution, the results of the evaluative feedback
interviews proved to be almost identical for all three industrial plants. The results supported
an increase of knowledge as interpreted within the paradigm of the elements and subelements of the knowledge cycle. In addition to this, a strong spike in the ability of GIS to
integrate knowledge and present it in an understandable visual format was reported.
anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of conditions (stressors) in the workplace that
could cause occupational related illness and disease. In the process risk assessments,
technical reports, sampling results and management plans are generated. These documents
may be found in various formats e.g. electronic versions and hard copies and may be
geographically dispersed within a company.
In order to manage the stressors e.g. chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic the
gathered data need to be transformed into information. Retrieval and cross correlation of
information could be optimized if the information was consolidated in one site and format.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has the ability to capture, consolidate, integrate,
interrogate and display large volumes of data. In this research project, the ability of GIS to
add value to management data within the paradigm of the knowledge cycle was investigated
in terms of an increase of knowledge. Apart from previous work by the author that was done
on noise management, no evidence could be found of similar studies combining occupational
hygiene, GIS and the knowledge cycle and it appears as if this is the first study of its kind.
The process involved a design science approach in the design of a model that could
accommodate the Occupational Hygiene (OH) data. The model consisted of a generic
framework that was structured in layers to accommodate the spatial data of the various
stressors. In addition, a layer was created to deal with nonspatial management data. The
model was applied to three industrial plants of two international companies on two
continents, after which the opinions of staff members of the individual plants were gathered
by way of semi-structured interviews.
It was found that GIS could successfully capture OH data and provided an improved level of
information to manage and present OH related data. Value was added in that new
perspectives of existing data were created by superimposing the various layers. Despite the
differences in products and the geographic distribution, the results of the evaluative feedback
interviews proved to be almost identical for all three industrial plants. The results supported
an increase of knowledge as interpreted within the paradigm of the elements and subelements of the knowledge cycle. In addition to this, a strong spike in the ability of GIS to
integrate knowledge and present it in an understandable visual format was reported.
Additional information
Thesis (PhD (Environmental Health))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018
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