Contributions of Land Remote Sensing for Decisions About Food Security and Human Health Workshop Report (2007) / Chapter Skim
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3 Challenges and Potential for Applying Land Remote Sensing to Human Welfare
3 Challenges and Potential for Applying Land Remote Sensing to Human Welfare
Pages 29-40
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From page 29... ...
Workshop participants again assembled into two groups to discuss these questions as they relate to food security and human health issues, respectively. Workshop participants noted that as in other areas of science, the integration of knowledge gained from remotely sensed data into decisions on human welfare can be categorized into four separate processes: observing, explaining, projecting (forecasting)
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From page 30... ...
THE POTENTIAL OF REMOTE SENSINg APPLICATIONS FOR FOOD SECuRITy Although substantial donor resources are dedicated to providing food aid, the ability to monitor food availability and predict food shortages is of equal -- or arguably greater -- importance in promoting food security. Food security issues can be divided into three general elements: food availability, accessibility, and utilization.
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From page 31... ...
To help decision makers comprehend the potential of remotely sensed data applications, data must be provided in the form of knowledge delivery and as a tool for decision making, rather than as a list of observations or prescriptions. The integration of data is key: when combined with socioeconomic data, remote sensing data can be useful for direct applications to decisions about human welfare.
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From page 32... ...
Livelihood analysis, as done by FEWS NET, is an example of socially informed remote sensing analysis and the benefits of cross-disciplinary collaborations. Remote sensing, natural, and social scientists are beginning to develop approaches to integrate the natural and social sciences with remotely sensed data and can work together with decision makers to apply remote sensing information to decisions about human welfare.
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From page 33... ...
Remotely sensed data, in combination with other data, can provide spatial information on environmental conditions for understanding distributions of water-borne disease, air quality, soil, and vegetation as they influence community health and livestock. Remotely sensed data also provide spatial information on land use and infrastructure, which aids in determining where people live, where vulnerable populations live, the distribution of urban populations, and the quality of roads and other infrastructure for health care delivery.
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From page 34... ...
· Heat and conditions allows for temperature indirect measurement of · UV diseases such as asthma measurements · Wind dynamics · Dust movements Soil and · Soil moisture Habitats for disease vectors Multi-temporal, vegetation · Vegetation types multi-spectral · Vegetation optical productivity (MODIS, Landsat) Land use · Land cover Soil, water, and livestock Multi-temporal, and land · Livestock interactions; land-sea multi-spectral cover · NDVI interface; detection of optical · Cropland extent floodplains, ice cover (MODIS, Landsat)
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From page 35... ...
3. Health research professionals are not typically trained to use the tools required to analyze remotely sensed data.
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From page 36... ...
The common themes that emerged about the needs to realize the potential for human health applications include the following: · Need for integration of spatial data on environmental conditions derived from land remote sensing with socioeconomic data; · Need for communication between remote sensing scientists and decision makers to determine effective use of land remote sensing for human welfare issues; and · Needforacquisition,archiving,andaccesstolong-termdata -- both historical and future -- and for development of the capacity to interpret data.
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From page 37... ...
In the human health domain, the integration of socioeconomic information, such as locations and vulnerabilities of human populations and access to health infrastructure, with environmental conditions, such as habitats for disease vectors and potential disease outbreaks, is key to providing information that is effective in generating response strategies. Effective Communication between Land Remote Sensing Community and Decision Makers To be most useful in decision making, technicians and policy analysts trained in remote sensing and geographic information analysis could
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From page 38... ...
Short-term (five-year) priorities include the following: · Understanding ecological processes and how they interact with disease occurrences; · Fusingsettlementandpopulationdatawithothertypesofremotely sensed data into geographic information systems (GIS)
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From page 39... ...
With the exception of the Landsat program, remote sensing platforms were generally not designed to generate data for current research and applications addressing the links between land cover, environmental conditions, and human welfare. Nevertheless, the data are potentially useful for early warning systems similar to FEWS NET.
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From page 40... ...
and other data sources as major barriers to the application of remote sensing technologies to human welfare improvement. Decisions will also have to be made on whether resources are better spent on the collection of more remotely sensed data or on more data analysis.
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