Capturing the Use of Earth Observations for Health Assessments of Climate Change: Learnings from the 2016 GCRP Climate Health Assessment

The growing body of research on the health impacts of climate change illustrates the complex demand for integrated earth observations data, as data from atmospheric observations and climate models are combined with other EO data on air and water quality, infectious disease agents, and other human exposures. With the growth of both sophistication and quantity of sensors for gathering environmental data, including satellites, drones, land and water-based sensors, etc., the ability to characterize human exposures for epidemiological studies has expanded over recent decades. This is especially true for studies of the health impacts of air quality, infectious diseases spread through water, insect vectors, or other animals, and toxic contamination of water and soil. The importance of earth observations for public health has been widely recognized, including through the creation of a community of practice devoted to public health within the international Group on Earth Observations (https://www.earthobservations.org/area.php?a=phs).

To help document and foster the use of EO data for climate change and health research, we have undertaken an analysis of the EO data and systems cited in a major governmental report, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health: A Scientific Assessment. This special report, produced by the US Global Change Research Program, is the most comprehensive review of the scientific literature on climate change and health every undertaken by the US government. The citations contained in the report offer a snapshot of the scientific literature deemed credible and valuable by the report’s authors, and as such, provide some insight into the use of EO in climate and health literature. We have assessed the use of EO in literature on four specific exposure pathways contained within the report: extremes of temperature, air quality, waterborne diseases, and vector borne diseases. Our analysis captures the parameters and datasets used in epidemiologic studies of these exposures, was well as the sensors and monitoring systems used to capture the relevant observations. This presentation will present the results of our analysis of this set of applications of earth observations for climate and health epidemiology.