Automated drone validation of satellite-based detection of water-based indicators of infectious disease
Abstract
Cities in coastal regions are increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards such as typhoons, hurricanes and tropical storms, which are predicted to become both more severe and more frequent due to climate change. These storms bring flooding and destruction to already vulnerable communities causing crowding and disrupting health systems, increasing the risk of both waterborne and vector-borne disease outbreaks. After Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico experienced a spike in cases of Leptospirosis, Zika, Chikungunya and Dengue. In resource constrained post-disaster circumstances, real-time surveillance of the environmental drivers of such diseases is nearly impossible using existing methods. Responders cannot make efficient decisions about the best ways to deploy their resources without the information that such surveillance would provide. Satellite-based monitoring of post-disaster settings has shown great promise in identifying critical indicators of waterborne and vector-borne disease reservoirs. These indicators include turbidity, inundation extent, and dissolved organic matter. Monitoring with moderate resolution satellite systems facilitates broad spatial and temporal coverage of post-disaster areas at low cost. However, this information must be validated by higher resolution systems to be actionable in the public health setting. We present a framework of interoperation between satellite-based change detection and automated drone validation that can reduce the time and cost to survey broad regions for water-based indicators of infectious disease in real time following natural hazard events. This framework can be used to produce actionable information following natural hazards, when risk of waterborne and vector-borne disease is high, by integrating satellite-based change detection with an automated validation process.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGH41C1215M
- Keywords:
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- 0230 Impacts of climate change: human health;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 0240 Public health;
- GEOHEALTH;
- 0245 Vector born diseases;
- GEOHEALTH