GIS thus produce material that is both useful and conducive to public participation in community health projects. GIS can contribute to community development in general, by helping people understand their environment. Effects in the health domain are obvious. It is evident that many questions concerning the provision of health care are related to space. People are distributed in space and they are not evenly distributed.
Health problems vary in space and so do the needs of the people.
These are problems that GIS can help resolve with their spatial analysis tools. Maps produced by a GIS can also be used by health officials as a monitoring and evaluation tool, showing the spatial distribution and differential evolution of diseases. Monitoring and evaluation are essential parts of health programs, as well as other programs related to development. Closely linked to monitoring is evaluation. Evaluation is a process by which program inputs, activities, and results are analyzed and judged explicitly against stated norms.