• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.186-198
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• 2016

HPAI(Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) is a contagious animal disease that spreads rapidly by diffusion after the first occurrence. The disease has brought tremendous social costs and economic losses. KAHIS (Korea Animal Health Information System) is the integrated system for supporting the task of preventing epidemics. They provide decision-support information, recording vehicle visiting times and facility location, etc., which is possible by enforcing registration of all livestock related facilities and vehicles. KAHIS has accumulated spatial and temporal information that enables effective tracing of potential disease trajectories and diffusion through vehicle movements. The contact network is created utilizing spatial and temporal information in KAHIS to inform facility connection via vehicle visitation. Based on the contact network, it is possible to infer spatial and temporal mechanism of disease spread and diffusion. The study objective is to empirically demonstrate how to utilize primary spatial and temporal information in KAHIS in the form of the contact network. Based on the contact network, facilities with the possibility of infection can be pinpointed within the potential spatial and temporal extent where the disease has spread and diffused. This aids the decision-making process in the task of preventing epidemics. By interpreting our demonstration results, policy implications were presented. Finally, some suggestions were made to comprehensively utilize the contact network to draw enhanced decision-support information.