ABSTRACT
Global climate change effects lay a tremendous pressure on the state of public health. Therefore, we need to incorporate public health measures in the adaptation and mitigation strategies applied to solve environmental issues. In relation to human health, changing environmental conditions directly affect the magnitude of the spread or occurrence of diseases in the population. Numerous studies have shown the intensification of epidemics and environmental diseases attributed to negative environmental change. Therefore, the necessity to identify the health impacts that could emerge as a result of worsening environmental conditions becomes inevitable. Predictive models should consider adaptive capacity in terms of human health along with the development of adaptive measures that could be used to combat future environmental impacts. Several studies have shown that climate change plays an important role in the abundance of vector populations which are responsible for major epidemics like malaria and dengue fever etc. Geospatial approaches such as tools like GIS (geographic information system) can model the current and future spread of epidemics based on available environmental data and public health capacity figures, from which administrative bodies can identify solutions to manage future epidemics. Our chapter highlights these aspects and proposes a roadmap towards a better tomorrow.
