Sensing human health from Space: An assessment of applications and big data platforms

IF 4.5 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Remote Sensing Applications-Society and Environment Pub Date : 2025-08-01 DOI:10.1016/j.rsase.2025.101701

Dhritiraj Sengupta , Filipe Girbal Brandão , Shubha Sathyendranath , Gemma Kulk , Annamaria Conte , Carla Ippoliti , Luca Candeloro , Monica Bucciarelli , David Moffat , William Wint , Marcello Maranesi , Raffaele Scarano , Joao Vitorino , Gunnar Brandt , Tejas Morbagal Harish

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The integration of Earth Observation (EO) into human health research has expanded significantly, particularly since 2009, highlighting its potential for disease modelling, environmental exposure assessment, and public health decision-making. This review explores the evolving role of EO in health applications through a bibliometric analysis of 1751 research documents retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database. These documents were selected using targeted keywords and after excluding non-primary literature such as reviews, editorials, and meeting abstracts. Findings revealed a substantial increase in EO-health research outputs, growing from 2 publications in 1991 to 266 in 2024, with a notable surge beginning in 2009. More than 65 % of the selected studies contributed to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on Climate Action, followed by SDG 3 on Good Health and Wellbeing (n = 994) and SDG 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities (n = 980), illustrating EO's cross-cutting relevance. Despite this growth, the field remains fragmented due to inconsistent data formats, limited accessibility, and weak interdisciplinary collaboration. A key challenge is the persistent divide between EO data producers and health practitioners, which hampers the effective translation of EO insights into practice. This review highlights the importance of co-production approaches that bring together researchers, policymakers, and communities to address these barriers. By promoting standardisation, enhancing data interoperability, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, EO can be more effectively leveraged to support disease surveillance, environmental health monitoring, and evidence-based policy interventions aligned with global health and sustainability goals.

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从空间感知人类健康：应用和大数据平台评估

特别是自2009年以来，将地球观测纳入人类健康研究的工作已大大扩大，突出了其在疾病建模、环境暴露评估和公共卫生决策方面的潜力。本文通过对从Web of Science （WoS）数据库中检索的1751篇研究文献进行文献计量分析，探讨了生物信息学在健康应用中的作用。在排除非主要文献（如综述、社论和会议摘要）后，使用目标关键词选择这些文件。调查结果显示，EO-health研究产出大幅增加，从1991年的2篇出版物增加到2024年的266篇，从2009年开始出现显著增长。超过65%的选定研究有助于实现关于气候行动的可持续发展目标（SDG） 13，其次是关于良好健康和福祉的可持续发展目标3 （n = 994）和关于可持续城市和社区的可持续发展目标11 (n = 980)，说明了EO的跨领域相关性。尽管有这样的增长，但由于数据格式不一致、可访问性有限以及跨学科合作薄弱，该领域仍然是碎片化的。一个关键的挑战是数据生产者和卫生从业人员之间的持续分歧，这阻碍了将数据生产者的见解有效地转化为实践。这篇综述强调了将研究人员、决策者和社区聚集在一起解决这些障碍的合作生产方法的重要性。通过促进标准化、加强数据互操作性和促进跨学科合作，可以更有效地利用环境信息系统来支持疾病监测、环境卫生监测以及符合全球卫生和可持续性目标的循证政策干预。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Remote Sensing Applications-Society and Environment Multiple-

CiteScore

8.00

自引率

8.50%

发文量

204

审稿时长

65 days

期刊介绍： The journal ''Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment'' (RSASE) focuses on remote sensing studies that address specific topics with an emphasis on environmental and societal issues - regional / local studies with global significance. Subjects are encouraged to have an interdisciplinary approach and include, but are not limited by: " -Global and climate change studies addressing the impact of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, CO2 emission, carbon balance and carbon mitigation, energy system on social and environmental systems -Ecological and environmental issues including biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, land degradation, atmospheric and water pollution, urban footprint, ecosystem management and natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes, typhoons, floods, landslides) -Natural resource studies including land-use in general, biomass estimation, forests, agricultural land, plantation, soils, coral reefs, wetland and water resources -Agriculture, food production systems and food security outcomes -Socio-economic issues including urban systems, urban growth, public health, epidemics, land-use transition and land use conflicts -Oceanography and coastal zone studies, including sea level rise projections, coastlines changes and the ocean-land interface -Regional challenges for remote sensing application techniques, monitoring and analysis, such as cloud screening and atmospheric correction for tropical regions -Interdisciplinary studies combining remote sensing, household survey data, field measurements and models to address environmental, societal and sustainability issues -Quantitative and qualitative analysis that documents the impact of using remote sensing studies in social, political, environmental or economic systems