The AmeriGEO Week 2023, using the theme Data Driven Solutions for a Sustainable Planet, will be held from August 7-12, 2023 at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica (and virtual), with support by the Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment and Energy.
One Health Scientific Session (August 8 from 9:00-11:00AM MT/GMT-6)
Theme: “Connecting Earth and Health Science Communities through One Health Regional Partnerships”
Description: Supported by the EO4Health and IAI teams, this event will highlight valuable partnerships in the Americas region that assess air quality exposure in the Caribbean basin and Brazil, develop water-related and vector-borne early warning systems in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, and prepare climate, environment, and health tools for decision-making activities within the Americas region. Panelists will share best practices on how these regional collaborations have helped guide stakeholder engagement, identify relevant health interventions that promote population health, and develop capacity-building activities for the global health workforce.
Panelists:
John Haynes (NASA), Juli Trtanj (NOAA), and Helena Chapman (NASA) - Welcome Words
Yana Gevorgyan and Martyn Clark (GEO Secretariat) - GEO Heat-Health Incubator
Carlos Barboza (Uruguay) - Geospatial tools for vector control: Example in Uruguay
Rodrigo Marin (Costa Rica Ministry of Health) - Costa Rica Ministry of Health’s priorities, partnerships, and use of environmental observations to address health priorities
Adriana Troyo Rodríguez (University of Costa Rica’s Tropical Disease Research Center) - Understanding the Role of Arthropod Vectors in Disease Epidemiology and the Uuse of Geospatial Technologies for Fector Control
Hunter Jones (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA) and Emilia Alfaro (US Embassy of Costa Rica) - Developing Dengue Early Warning Capacity in Costa Rica
William Pan (Duke University) - Malaria early warning systems in the Americas
Anna Stewart Ibarra (Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, IAI) - IAI/PAHO Story: Building Collaborations across Environment, Climate, and Health Topics
Rayana Palharini (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) - Climate, health, and environment initiatives in Chile
Pablo Méndez-Lázaro (University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus) - Improving health through early warning of air quality events: Saharan dust clouds
Nelson Gouveia (University of São Paulo) - Urban Health and Air Quality in Brazil
One Health Side Event (August 8 from 3:00-5:00PM MT/GMT-6)
Theme: “Deep Dive on Using Earth Observations for Public Health Applications”
Description: Supported by the EO4Health and IAI teams, this event will include brief project highlights on vector-borne and water-related diseases, air quality, and urban heat, followed by an interactive group discussion on two case studies (malaria early warning system and urban heat mapping), which will facilitate knowledge sharing and networking across disciplines, sectors, and geographic regions. This side event is open to all AmeriGEO attendees, but the target audience is medical and other health professional students.
Introduction
Juli Trtanj | NOAA
Helena Chapman | NASA/BAH
Presentation of clinical case
IFMSA-Costa Rica (Asociación Costarricense de Estudiantes de Medicina, ACEM)
Flash talks on vector-borne and water-related diseases:
Assaf Anyamba (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) - Machine Learning, Climate Variability and Disease Dynamics (MEDINA)
Michael Wimberly (University of Oklahoma) - Operational Forecasting of West Nile Virus Risk in U.S. State Health Departments
Antarpreet Jutla (University of Florida) - Using Earth Observations to Strengthen Anticipatory Decision-Making Processes for Waterborne Diseases: A Case of Cholera
Case discussion: Malaria early warning system
William Pan (Duke University)
Presentation of clinical case
IFMSA-Costa Rica (Asociación Costarricense de Estudiantes de Medicina, ACEM)
Flash talks on air quality and urban heat:
K. Emma Knowland (NASA Goddard / Morgan State University) - Data Fusion for Urban Air Quality Assessment and Forecasting
Liana Anderson (National Centre for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, CEMADEN) - Air Quality Monitoring in Amazonia
Chris Uejio (Florida State University) - Extreme Heat and Health Using NASA Earth Observations
Case discussion: Urban heat mapping
Hunter Jones | NOAA
One Health Training Session (August 10-11 from 9:00AM-6:00PM MT/GMT-6)
Theme: “Environmental-Epidemiological Models for Dengue Early Warning Training”
Description: Supported by NOAA, US Department of State, and US Embassy in Costa Rica teams, this training event will teach attendees how to develop environmental-epidemiological models (Generalized Additive Models and Seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average with eXogenous factors, SARIMAX) to predict the number of cases of a vector-borne disease such as dengue. Models like these can be important components of early warning systems, affording valuable time to preventative medical countermeasures and communication to reduce the incidence of disease. The course will be taught using the R and/or Python languages. Students unfamiliar with R and/or Python will be encouraged to complete a quick primer in advance.