GRID3 DRC Health Zone and Health Area Boundaries - Haut-Katanga, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Kinshasa, and Lomami Provinces, Version 01

With the support of provincial and national health authorities, local healthcare workers (“head nurses,” “health zone management staff,” and “head doctors of the health zones”) and GRID3 GIS specialists (“mappers” and “provincial coordinators”) engaged in a participatory mapping process in Haut-Katanga, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Kinshasa, and Lomami from January to July 2021. This mapping process occurred at the level of the health zone (an operational unit made up of approximately 15-20 health areas).

Mappers were deployed to health zones in teams of two for approximately nine (9) days. They started their work in the health zone by training the head nurses of each health area on data collection using the Geospatial Tracking System (GTS), an Open Data Kit (ODK)-based smartphone application. The GTS application, developed by Novel-T, is an Android mobile application that collects data in the field and a cloud-based central server with a dashboard to manage activities, display data on maps, and permit downloading of datasets for further analysis. While the head nurses were collecting data in the health areas they regularly work in, the mappers worked with the health zone management team to validate and modify data from the field. After all data were collected, cleaned, and integrated into final geospatial layers, the first round of validation was conducted on preliminary data by the head doctor of the health zone before the mappers left the health zone.

From July 2021 through October 2022, the DRC mappers and provincial coordinators worked with CIESIN staff to consolidate the data (including spelling, gaps and overlaps, topology). The data were then used to produce basemaps at the health area level and shared back with every health zone and province for the second round of validation. From November through January 2022, the DRC GIS team worked with CIESIN staff to integrate these corrections into a final geodatabase.

This work was done with the participation and supervision of the Direction du Système National d'Information Sanitaire (DSNIS). The Agence Nationale d'Ingénierie Clinique, de l'Information et de l'Informatique de Santé (ANICiiS) also played an important role regarding data governance.

See data release notes for more details.

The health areas and health zones boundaries are purely based on the data collected in the field by the head nurses of each health area and the feedback provided by the health team staff in their respective provinces. These health area and health zone boundaries are not intended to replace any existing/official administrative boundaries endorsed by the government.

CIESIN, Columbia University, and the GRID3 programme follow procedures designed to ensure that data disseminated by the project are of reasonable quality. If, despite these procedures, users encounter apparent errors or misstatements in the data, they should contact GRID3 at data.queries@grid3.org.

CIESIN, Columbia University, and their sponsors do not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of any data provided. We provide this data without warranty of any kind whatsoever, either expressed or implied, and shall not be liable for incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of the use of any data provided.