Health Geography: Innovative Geospatial Epidemiology

Health Geography: Innovative Geospatial Epidemiology presents a comprehensive exploration of the fundamental principles and methodologies underpinning remote sensing for spatial epidemiology. Organised in two parts, the first delves into the methodology of utilizing cutting-edge remote sensing technologies to detect, analyze, and predict the spatial distribution of infectious diseases through the process of extracting critical information and creating accurate geospatial models for disease mapping and monitoring. The second part provides numerous case studies that illustrate the real-world applications and transformative potential of the interdisciplinary approaches, allowing the book to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical implementation. Health Geography is an indispensable resource for researchers, practitioners, and graduate students in spatial epidemiology, geospatial sciences, and geostatistics seeking to utilize the potential of remote sensing technologies in tackling spatial epidemiological challenges.

• Provides Earth Observation techniques to analyze spatial data and space–time variations in disease incidences
• Delivers methodology for digital image processing, analysis and processing of primary data for monitoring, analyzing and spatiotemporal prediction of possible outbreaks
• Includes a section of case studies on the use of remote sensing technologies for specific techniques, models and workflows to deal with disease

Professor Andreas Tsatsaris is a Rural and Surveying Engineer and President of the Department of Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering of the University of West Attica (UniWA), Greece. He is also Director of the Research Laboratory "GAEA". He has been teaching since 1996 in Spatial Epidemiology, Medical Geography, GIS, and Thematic Cartography in both Postgraduate and Undergraduate Studies Programs of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Crete and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and the Faculty of Engineering at UniWA. He has published over 90 articles in scientific journals and international conferences and has participated in over 30 national and international research programs. He is a certified evaluator of the State Scholarship Foundation and General Secretariat in Research and Technology in the evaluation of research proposals.

Professor Anna Psaroulaki is a Clinical Biologist and Head of the Zoonoses & Geographical Medicine, Rickettsiae & TickBorne diseases and Microbiology of Food, Water & Environment Units, School of Medicine, UoC since 2017. Since 2014 she has been Scientific coordinator of the Regional Laboratory of Public Health of Crete, and has been Deputy scientific coordinator of the Regional Laboratory of Public Health of Crete since 2009. From 2006 to 2017, She was Head of the Unit of Zoonoses, and Geographical Medicine School of Medicine University of Crete. She teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels including Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, and Tropical and Geographical Medicine.

Dr Dimosthenis Chochlakis collaborates with the laboratory of Clinical Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis of the School of Medicine of the University of Crete. He also serves as the Technical Manager of the Regional Laboratory of Public Health of Crete. For the last 15 years he has been working on Legionella detection and has also taken part in many epidemiological investigations. He has participated in eight research protocols granted by the NSRF, the Ministry of Education Republic of Serbia and the Ministry of Health of Greece. Since October 2020 he also served for the setting up of the molecular analysis and detection of SARS-Cov-2 from waste-water samples.

Dr. Kleomenis Kalogeropoulos is a Survey Engineer (Ph.D., MSc, and BSc), and an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, University of West Attica, Greece. His research interests are focused on GIS, SDI, spatial analysis, spatial epidemiology, natural disaster modeling, geoarchaeology, digital cartography, and geography. He is also a lecturer at the Greek National Centre for Public Administration & Local Government, a certified evaluator of the Greek General Secretariat in Research and Technology and an Expert in Earth Sciences in the use of GIS and Remote Sensing applications for the Institute of Educational Policy, of the Greek Ministry of Education. He boasts a publication record of over 100 articles in scientific journals and international conferences, which have garnered numerous references. His involvement extends to over 15 national and international research programs. Additionally, he serves as a reviewer for more than 25 esteemed scientific journals.

Dr. Nikolaos Stathopoulos is Scientific Project Manager at the Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, BEYOND Centre of EO Research & Satellite Remote Sensing, Greece. He holds a PhD in Geoenvironmental Hazards & Water Resources via GIS & Remote Sensing from the National Technical University of Athens, MSc in Geoinformatics from Harokopio University of Athens, MSc in Water Resources from the National Technical University of Athens, and Bachelor in Mining Engineering specializing in Geotechnology. He has published over 35 scientific publications including journal papers, conference papers, and book chapters covering fields such as remote sensing, geographic information systems, hazards (e.g. floods, erosion, desertification, etc.), spatial analysis, geostatistics, and more. He has over 10 years of research, teaching and professional experience in the field of remote sensing and his main research interests are geoenvironmental hazards, climate change, hydrology and groundwater, modeling, quality and quantity of water resources, change detection, remote sensing, and GIS.