Silent Spring Institute

MassHEIS
Help Section

Getting Started Welcome to MassHEIS, an interactive mapping tool that allows you to explore the health, environmental, and demographic information for your community. This section of Help will get you started with the MassHEIS tool.
	1. From the MassHEIS home page, look for the “Get Started” box in the upper left hand corner. Enter your address, city or zipcode in the boxes provided, then click the “make my map” button. Click on the suggested location under “Did you mean…?” if needed.
	2. You will now be on the Mapping page. The street map in the “Your Location” tab shows the location you selected in the “Get Started” Box.
	3. Next you will need to select health, environment, or demographic information for your area of interest. This information is organized by tabs at the top of the map. Click on the tab of interest, then select a map from the drop-down menu. For example, to view breast cancer rates for your location, click on the “Health” tab, then click on “breast cancer invasive.”
	4. To learn more about the map displayed, click on the title of the map.
	5. Explore the information in the map using the map tools: Click on the arrow next to “Legend” on the bottom right of the map to display the map legend. Click on the arrow again to collapse the legend. Adjust the map transparency by using the transparency slider on the bottom right of the map. Zoom in and out by using the zoom bar on the left side of the map. View information for multiple years by using the time slider on the top right of the map (only available for maps with multi year data).
	6. To put the map in context and to learn ways to take action, explore the information and links in the box to the left of the map. Note: To go back to the MassHEIS home page at any time, you can click on the MassHEIS banner at the top of the page. The Back button on your browser is disabled for this application.
	7. Congratulations! You’ve explored a map with MassHEIS! To create a new map, return to the MassHEIS home. For more assistance, please browse the other HELP topics.