Jaxon Clifford has been working on a really cool map called the Snakebite: Antivenom Locations in NWA with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Derek Ratchford, and CroFab. We learned about venomous snakes in Arkansas and why snakebites can be dangerous if people don’t get help fast. Using ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro and OnX Backcountry GIS technology, we helped show where snakebites happen and where antivenom is important to have nearby. Antivenom, like CroFab, helps doctors treat people who get bitten by venomous snakes and can save lives. This project helped us learn how science, maps, and safety all work together in the real world.
Thanks to Dr. Timlin Glaser of UAMS and the Associate Medical Director of the Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center, we were able to get the records of every snakebite that occurred in the state of Arkansas for the last 7 years. He gave us records of the bite, the county location of the bite, the source of the emergency call (cell, healthcare facility, resident), level of care, breed of snake (LOTS of copperheads), and type of therapy. Dr. Glaser made sure each record did not violate any privacy laws and also kept the location limited to just the county.
For the Arkansas Game and Fish GenCon Summit competition, they asked us to make our maps using OnX Backcountry. OnX is a really good mapping app for hikers, hunters and fishermen and fisherwomen because it shows trails, fishing hot spots, and defined lines between public and private lands. But it's not the best at mapping large batches of locations. So Jaxon had to enter each individual hospital, clinic, and point of interest individually. No CSV batch entry...this took forever.
We to use ArcGIS online because you're able to put all of your data in one spreadsheet like Google Sheets, export it as a .CSV file, and then you have a map very quickly. It also gave me more tools like route developing, Thiessen polygons for proximity zoning, and layer buffering to create more helpful options out in the backcountry.
Jaxon shared his map at the Arkansas GIS User Conference in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His impactful EAST community project focused on mapping hospitals and clinics that stock snake antivenom across Northwest Arkansas , helping make critical safety information more accessible to our community. "Our GIS community was impressed and proud of the leadership shown by our local EAST program and the meaningful impact it has for Arkansas citizens. Project-based learning keeps education relevant and inspiring." - Brian Culpepper from CAST. We're wanting to expand this map to the state level. Right now, we feel pretty confident that we have Northwest Arkansas taken care of. We would like to also work with the River Valley, Northeast Arkansas, Central Arkansas, the Delta, and Southern Arkansas to fill out this map completely.