Remote Sensing and Geospatial Technologies in Public Health

[...]they feel comfortable to recommend their air pollution dispersion models for environmental justice studies to assess the impacts of the CAFOs and to address concerns regarding the health and quality of life of vulnerable populations. In the article, “Examining Personal Air Pollution Exposure, Intake, and Health Danger Zone Using Time Geography and 3D Geovisualization”, Yongmei Lu and Tianfang Fang from Texas State University examine personal exposure to air pollution and pollutant intake and define personal health danger zones by expanding traditional time geography and accounting for individual level space-time behavior [6]. James Acker and his colleagues diligently bring required information about the NASA Giovanni Data System and its potential use to the geospatial public health research community [7]. Since 2003, the Giovanni system has been providing access to a wide variety of NASA remote sensing data and other Earth science data sets, allowing researchers to apply it to a broad range of research topics. The authors study the short-term increases in PM2.5 concentrations resulting from forest fires in the province of Quebec, Canada and their impact on respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions for the elderly across the east coast of the U.S., as far south as Washington D.C. In their paper, “Nexus of Health and Development: Modelling Crude Birth Rate and Maternal Mortality Ratio Using Nighttime Satellite Images”, Koel Roychowdhury and Simon Jones combine development indicators, health indicators, and nighttime satellite images to propose models for predicting health determinants and development determinants [17].