Why is geocoding important?
Geocoding is essential for many reasons. Georeferenced data can be useful for visualization, such as mapping locations where events of interest occur. Geocoding is also often the first step in linking environmental and health data for a variety of public health purposes, such as research and surveillance. Georeferencing personal health outcome data and demographics offers an ability to add individual level information to the neighborhood level data (e.g., census demographics) and environmental hazards (e.g., air pollution or pesticide use).
