Okanagan College student to launch interactive COVID-19 map

Photo: Contributed

An Okanagan GIS mapping student is making the global coronavirus pandemic the focus of his studies.

Sean Heddle of Oyama first launched a global map of COVID-19's spread back in January.

Now, the Okanagan College advanced GIS (geographic information system) student has created an interactive B.C. map that shows the breakdown of virus cases by health authority region. He's working on the project while living and studying in Salmon Arm, where he was recently self-isolating due to the virus he's mapping.

While Heddle isn't an official spokesperson on the pandemic, he does use government numbers to make sure his project is accurate, and when it goes live (likely Tuesday), it will be updated daily as the province releases new stats.

We'll be sure to add a link once that happens.

Heddle, of 5iveby5ive Media, says the live map will show the number of cases in each region and have a gradient scale, showing a darker red in areas where there is more infection.

"I'm also going to include population density, so you can see where the rate of infection is highest in relation to population," he said Monday while taking a break from coding.

"You will see where people are, and how many are infected. And it will show where the hospitals are that can hold acute-care COVID patients."

This is his second school project, and since the first, he says it has been frustrating to watch the spread of the virus.

"You watch it, and it's so easy to predict ... there's got to be somebody who could have seen this coming," he said.

"You can literally watch the spread in Wuhan (China) and apply it to B.C. unless there is intervention – which is distancing, and why it's so important."

Heddle has been busy gathering data and building the map, getting ready for its launch, for about a week.

"This really wasn't a thing before I started this college program, so I thought why not apply my studies to real world things?" he added.

"When I did the first project, nobody thought it would have come here ... now, it has really started to hit home."

Heddle hopes to make his third GIS project on the recovery from the pandemic.