Satellite remote sensing, environmental quality, and human health and wellbeing

This chapter reviews how satellite data can provide key information relevant to efforts to improve human health and wellbeing. It first discusses how satellite remote sensing can be used to track, predict, and manage vectorborne disease such as malaria, dengue fever, and trypanosomiasis. The second section of this chapter focuses on the use of satellite data to monitor air quality, looking at how satellites can help (1) track air pollution associated with the release of harmful substances into the atmosphere through human activities, such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); (2) detect and forecast outbreaks of airborne substances that trigger an allergic reaction, such as pollen grains; (3) assess emissions from volcanic eruptions; and (4) monitor dust storms in space and time. The third part of this chapter explores how satellite data can be used to report on water quality, detailing how these data can be used to predict and manage harmful algae blooms and to study eutrophication. The fourth section addresses satellite remote sensing in the context of human wellbeing, highlighting how satellite data can be used to estimate economic welfare and poverty, and how this information can be used to test various hypotheses pertaining to the role of greenness in determining various aspects of our physical and mental health.