Advancing Environmental Health Applications to Mitigate Emerging "One Health" Threats

The emergence of global health threats, such as air pollution and the spread of vector-borne diseases, continue to challenge environmental health scientists and practitioners in their current practices. To address this burden, scientists and practitioners can continue to advance their environmental health programs in the classroom, laboratory, and field settings through two specific measures. First, the "One Health" concept can form the holistic framework for transdisciplinary teams to identify risk factors and develop novel approaches for field applications that relate to human, animal, and environmental health. Second, the integration of cutting-edge remote sensing technology and citizen-based field observations, can provide additional insight into environmental health challenges as well as highlight knowledge gaps within traditional practices. One key example where scientists and practitioners can apply these two measures is the use of NASA Earth observation data and tools in research and community practice. When these environmental data are integrated with citizen-based field observations, subsequent data analysis and interpretation can enhance understanding of the dynamic processes of the aquatic, atmospheric, and terrestrial ecosystems. In this paper, we will describe the "One Health" concept that promotes the use of transdisciplinary scientific collaborations that relate to human, animal, and environmental health. We will present two examples that showcase how Earth-observing satellites provide real-time environmental data for end-user communities. These scientific efforts can enhance public health surveillance and protection to mitigate risk of emerging "One Health" threats.