Sound management of the Earth system, in both its natural and human aspects, requires information that is timely, of known quality, long-term, and global. Remote Sensing provides such information and contributes to improving our understanding of how the environment affects human health and well-being. I would like to know more how we apply remote sensing tools to understand the impact of global changes on public health.
Remote sensing in association with GIS can be use to determine hotspot areas for most common diseases that are environmentally related. If you can evaluate environmental factors that influence a particular disease, then when you overlay these factors in GIS you will be able to delineate the most likely area to be affected. Moreover, RS and GIS can be use to study the pattern of an outbreak disease and how it spreading across a the area. In management aspect, these methods can be use to locate most suitable areas to set a hospital for maximum efficiency.
The ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information has a Special Issue on "Remote Sensing and Geospatial Technologies in Public Health".
Maybe you can find different articles that can help you to understand how to apply remote sensing and GIS to Public Health.
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi/special_issues/geospatial-technologies
Dear Shemelis,
As you noted, remote sensing data and associated GIS technology has developed into a powerful tool to address public health issues on a global scale. Groups around the world are integrating satellite information into dynamic mapping tools to create a more robust understanding over the spatial and temporal distribution of diseases and public health risks that are connected to climate. Some examples are meningitis, malaria and leishmaniasis.
For example, when analyzing the relationship between climate and vector borne diseases, the following connections (amongst others depending on the case) should be considered:
-Climate and the distribution and life cycle of the vector
-Climate and outbreaks of the disease
-Climate and the impact on endemicity
-Climates impact on the socioeconomic drivers of the diseases
One of the main hinderances on conducting such research is the availability of data. In some regions where epidemics of some vector borne disease (such as malaria and leishmaniasis) are known to occur, there is a dearth of in situ data.
To create a climatological record that can be compared to the above elements of a disease, remote sensing and GIS is highly relied upon. Recent improvement in spatial and temporal resolution of climatic variables has allowed for more robust analyses of the relationship of climate and diseases.
The international Research Institute for Climate and Society is currently working on this topic and has developed a Climate and Health Maproom that may be of interest to you. This maproom includes products and data that analyze the relationship that climate has with malaria and meningitis.
http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/Health/
Furthermore, I have a paper that goes into more depth on a potential relationship between precipitation and leishmaniasis in South Sudan. As this region lacks reliable weather data on the ground, remote sensing data and GIS was paramount in producing this analysis. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Best,
Andrew
Article Utilizing Remote Sensing to Explore Environmental Factors of...
Hello Shimelis,
In Brazil some groups are studying the relation of the dengue fever with the climate.
Here you can found some papers allready published.
http://marte.sid.inpe.br/col/dpi.inpe.br/sbsr@80/2008/11.17.20.59.53/doc/7569-7576.pdf
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rsbmt/v42n2/v42n2a08.pdf
Good luck in your research!
Cheers,
Flavia
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