Digital Health for Climate Resilience

The most important environmental parameters to monitor for public health are those that directly influence disease burden and for which interventions can be targeted, including air quality metrics, meteorological variables, water quality indicators, and ecological markers . Ambient PM2.5 air pollution is paramount, as it was responsible for 4.2% of global DALYs and 4.7 million deaths in 2021, making it the leading environmental risk factor . Monitoring requires measuring fine particulate matter concentrations, their chemical composition for source apportionment, and spatial distribution to identify exposure hotspots. Household air pollution from solid fuel use for cooking accounts for 3.9% of global DALYs and 3.1 million deaths, necessitating indoor air quality monitoring in low-resource settings . Temperature and humidity are critical for predicting heat-related mortality and vector-borne disease transmission, with sustained night-time temperatures being particularly important for heatwave early warning . Precipitation patterns and water quality parameters including microbial contamination (E. coli, Vibrio cholerae) and chemical pollutants are essential for anticipating waterborne disease outbreaks . Vegetation indices derived from satellite imagery help predict vector habitat suitability for malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. Beyond these established parameters, other environmental risk factors not yet fully integrated into global monitoring include environmental noise pollution, various chemical exposures, and indoor air quality metrics beyond solid fuel use .