Analysis of electromagnetic pollution by means of geographic information system

Abstract

Currently, telecommunications systems have become more widespread and there is still a discrepancy between whether or not non-ionizing radiation produces health problems in living beings at cellular level. From an experimental point of view, it is interesting to raise the correlation of high levels of electromagnetic pollution with health problems in urban populations which would make it possible to clearly determine the effects of this type of radiation on human health and the environment. By means of remote sensing, a geographic information system (GIS) has been developed for the analysis of electromagnetic pollution levels generated by emissions from non-ionizing radiation (NIR) sources in a city. A method for measuring electromagnetic pollution was applied, which allows the generation of a table of attributes of the GIS that is the input to generate by inverse distance weighting (IDW), the layer of electromagnetic pollution. The method, as a case study, was applied in the city of Manizales, located in Colombia, obtaining as a result a layer that allows evidence that the highest levels of electromagnetic pollution are concentrated in the most central area of the city. In this way, the effects of NIR on public health can be analyzed by means of correlations.