Vector-Borne Disease Risk Assessment in Africa: A Canadian Geomatics Approach

要旨

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is strengthening partnerships with African countries and organizations by developing geomatics-based solutions for vector-borne disease risk assessment and mitigation. NRCan supports the use of geomatics technologies and is currently focused on fostering collaborative projects with African partners in areas where Canadian geomatics expertise can make a difference. As the world, and less-developed countries in particular, face serious health challenges from several devastating vector-borne diseases such as malaria, modern tools are needed to prevent and control epidemic situations and respond to serious disease outbreaks. Geomatics, in particular Earth observation and geographic information systems, are among today's advanced tools that can be used to gather and analyse disease-related environmental data, and provide useful information and solutions to practitioners and decision-makers. The Canadian Earth Sciences community has developed several geomatics-based tools and geospatial products that can be used to monitor health-related problems around the world. In particular, this paper will highlight the Canadian Earth observation satellite, RADARSAT-1, the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure, GeoSemantica application, and some of the research that is currently on-going to make use of important geomatics technologies in the fight against vector-borne diseases in Africa