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Thematic Overview

Public health around the world faces several challenges, from inaccessibility to health infrastructure, to nutrition and food insecurity, to increasing health risks due to climate change and environmentally sensitive infectious diseases. International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have introduced agendas that target these challenges, e.g., by strengthening health systems and increasing disease preparedness and resilience to climate-induced health risks while improving nutrition (World Bank) and providing sustainable solutions to strengthen health infrastructure, governance and financing (Asian Development Bank). Pivotal to the work financed by IFIs is access to relevant data and synoptic information on health and their background environmental or socio-economic triggers. Earth Observation (EO) is increasingly seen as an essential source of information which can complement national data and support countries in the monitoring of key indicators related to health risks or factors of vulnerability. ESA GDA Public Health

Public Health Themes

The ESA GDA Public Health activity provides satellite EO information in response to requirements identified by IFIs and their client governments in developing countries, focusing on the following public health themes:

Health infrastructure accessibilityHealth infrastructure accessibility. Health infrastructure accessibility plays a critical role in shaping public well-being, particularly during natural disasters or crises. The central concern underscores the necessity to quantify and analyse population accessibility to health centres, emphasising the need for adequacy and responsiveness to the ever-evolving dynamics of population density and urban development. This analysis tackles the pressing issue of limited access to essential healthcare facilities, highlighting the urgent requirement for a solution capable of thoroughly assessing the sufficiency of healthcare infrastructure in alignment with population distribution.

Health infrastructure vulnerabilityHealth infrastructure vulnerability. Healthcare infrastructure is at risk from a variety of threats, both natural and human-made. Natural disasters include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, floods, fires, and pandemics. Human-made disasters encompass war, pollution, nuclear and other explosions, fires, hazardous materials exposures, transportation accidents, and pandemics. These events can lead to a mass exodus of people, disease outbreaks, and destruction of property, ultimately destabilising societies.


Climate-related health risks Climate-related health risks. Health is a transversal topic in climate-driven risk assessment as it assumes the negative impact of climate change in critical domains like agriculture, water, and landscape management. Climate affects directly the spreading patterns of infectious diseases by making them more intense, persistent and broader. Such pattern dynamics can put health resources in pressure due to lack of prevention and/or economic resources to admit and manage an increasing number of ill people and/or disease outbreaks. Indirectly, climate affects food and water access through more severe extreme events like droughts, flooding, storms, strong wind, or sea level rise. The result, according to new World Bank data, is that a warmer climate could lead to at least 21 million additional deaths by 2050 from just five health risks: extreme heat, stunting, diarrhoea, malaria, and dengue.

infectious diseasesEnvironmentally sensitive infectious diseases. Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria and yellow fever account for a large share of the overall burden of vector-borne diseases, which place 80% of the world’s population at risk of infection and take 700,000 lives each year. They are increasing in prevalence, geographical distribution, and severity, representing an increasing threat for humans and animals worldwide. Leptospirosis is another neglected public health threat, which affects roughly 1.03 million people per year across the globe. Vulnerable populations are particularly affected, and the disease is especially prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, with the highest burden among low- and middle-income countries. These zoonotic diseases often depend on complex interactions between vector and host species which, in turn, are influenced by changes in temperature, rainfall, land use, and other environmental factors. If these factors can be mapped in space and time, then human disease risk can be estimated.

Airborne and waterborne healthAirborne and waterborne health hazards. Air pollution, wildfires, dust storms, and algae blooms are some of the health hazards that affect large populations around the world. As the frequency and severity of these events have been increasing with climate change, so has the associated health risk.




Emerging diseasesEmerging diseases in the One Health context. ‘One Health’ is a collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary approach to balance and optimise the health of humans, animals and the environment by recognising the interconnectivity between people, flora, fauna and their shared environment. It is particularly important to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to global health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach mobilises multiple sectors and involves the public health, veterinary and environmental sectors, making it relevant for food and water security, nutrition and the control of zoonoses (diseases that can spread between animals and humans, such as flu, rabies and Rift Valley fever).

Nutrition and food insecurity.Nutrition and food insecurity. Food security has different dimensions, namely, food availability (enough food of appropriate quality), food access (access by individuals to adequate resources for acquiring appropriate foods for a nutritious diet), utilisation (through adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met) and stability (access to adequate food at all times). Chronic and acute hunger are on the rise due to various factors, including civil conflicts, socio-economic conditions, natural hazards, climate change and pests. From the health perspective, people affected by food insecurity are more prone to experience infectious diseases, chronic conditions (heart diseases, hypertension, etc.), or mental illness. Discover our brochure and e-flyer for more information regarding services and products provided on these themes in response to requirements identified in the water domain by IFIs and their Client Countries:
 ESA GDA Public Health Brochure Public Health eFlyer

Supported IFI projects

  1. Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria 2.0 by the World Bank
    Case study: Crop production forecasts to predict food crises in Nigeria. The goal of crop production forecasting in Nigeria is to strengthen public health resilience by improving food crisis prediction through the integration of EO data with geospatial analysis. Reliable forecasts help identify areas at risk of food shortages, enabling timely interventions that help prevent malnutrition, reduce health burdens, and support vulnerable populations. This data-driven approach equips policymakers, health authorities and other stakeholders with actionable insights to address the root of food insecurity and its public health impacts.
  2. Integrated Urban Services Emergency Project II by the World Bank
    Case study:  Groundwater analysis to prevent water scarcity crisis in Yemen. This case study focuses on the use of EO data and geospatial analysis to monitor groundwater dynamics and support early warning of water scarcity in Yemen. Combining satellite data with local observations, the approach aims to enable better identification of aquifer depletion trends and hotspots of over-extraction. These insights are critical for guiding sustainable water management policies, ensuring access to safe water, and mitigating the severe public health risks associated with water scarcity, such as dehydration, waterborne diseases, and disruption to hygiene and sanitation services.
  3. Timor-Leste Accelerating Human Capital PASA by the World Bank
    Case study: EO services to assess population and agriculture vulnerability to climate change. The goal of the case study is to develop a national EO service for Timor-Leste that supports evidence-based decision-making by assessing the vulnerability of the population to climate change and public health risks. The service will produce spatially explicit indicators such as EO-derived agricultural indices (e.g. vegetation health, density, soil moisture), population estimates, land use evolution, and dynamics of dengue and malaria outbreaks, all of which affect livelihoods, food security and public health. Outputs will directly support the Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) and the Timor-Leste Climate and Health Vulnerability Assessment, contributing to more targeted adaptation planning and resilience strategies in the health sector.
  4. Accelerating Climate Action, Innovation, and Private Sector Development through Sector Operations by the Asian Development Bank
    Case study: Climate-Health Data and EO Services Platform Pakistan. This case study will deliver an operational, user-friendly online platform designed to support initiatives examining the health impacts of climate change. It will showcase how climate, health, and EO data can be effectively integrated and visualised for use by non-experts in EO or GIS, such as public health practitioners and development planners. The platform will be designed for scalability, both in terms of geographic coverage and thematic content. As a first implementation, two EO-based services will be developed and demonstrated: one providing heat-stress related health risk estimates, and another offering a dengue outbreak early warning system These services will support the IFIs and national stakeholders in strengthening climate-informed public health monitoring and planning.
  5. Supporting Improved Health Outcomes in Asia and the Pacific by the Asian Development Bank
    Case study: Telemedicine pilot project in Bhutan. The goal of this case study is to enhance healthcare access and system resilience in rural and underserved regions in Bhutan by leveraging EO data to support telemedicine deployment. EO data will be used to identify optimal locations for telemedicine hubs, considering factors such as population distribution, terrain, infrastructure availability, and exposure to climate hazards, especially flooding. The case study also seeks to reduce travel-related emissions and improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery while strengthening the country’s capacity to provide continuous care during climate-related disruptions.

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