Climate change is one of the main challenges facing many countries, particularly developing countries, because of its negative impact on their various ecosystems and their socio-economic development, which very often leads them down a slow descent into poverty. This is because climate change can manifest itself in different forms such as climate variability and extreme events (droughts, epidemics, floods, storms and hurricanes), which can affect biodiversity and cause many human and animal diseases and deaths. In fact, the evolution of ecosystems is dependent on climate and environmental change and appears to be closely associated with many emerging or re-emerging diseases. In general, the ecosystems considered to be most exposed to climate change are those located in and around the intertropical convergence zone in particular. They are believed to be closely linked to the occurrence of several emerging diseases, particularly vector-borne diseases. For years, the Republic of Haiti has been experiencing the adverse effects of these global changes with a marked disruption of its rainfall pattern and prolonged periods of drought as well as a pronounced increase in temperatures even in high altitude areas. Although there is evidence that climate change is increasing the frequency of vector-borne diseases and may contribute to increasing the virulence of their pathogens, there are very few studies conducted in Haiti on the relationship between climate change and vector-borne diseases. The purpose of this chapter is to define the interrelationships between climate change and vector-borne diseases in Haiti by identifying avenues of research to better understand the effects of climate change on public health and to make appropriate recommendations to decision-makers to ensure proper management.
Haitian cities are more and more prone to demographic growth, which has a lasting effect on water distribution infrastructures, as well as those that make it possible to clean it up. They are in touch with the growing demand for water, but also with the management methods of this resource. Over the past 25 years, the enlarged agglomeration of Port-au-Prince, the largest agglomeration in the country, has experienced very strong urban expansion with the creation of new precarious spaces. The literature reports that Haiti is now more than 64% urban and 35% of its population lives in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, in the West Department. Over the past decade, the footprint of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area has grown by 35%. Recent observations on the formation and development of some slums highlight the country’s vulnerability to land-based hazards, which support this form of urbanization through the emergence of environmental displaced persons. Canaan, a human settlement created following the earthquake of January 12, 2010 by presidential decree, and inhabited by the victims of this event, has a deficit in infrastructure and basic urban services. The results of our previous work on this territory lead to a much more in-depth reflection on the need to develop an index of vulnerability to environmental diseases for the population. In fact, most of the households that live there face very precarious situations. The health conditions associated with this context expose the population to increased risks of disease. The measures taken by families to treat water at home do not seem to limit their vulnerability to environmental diseases (infectious and chronic). Improving living conditions in Canaan with a view to sustainability therefore underlies major challenges. What avenues of intervention should be favored to facilitate a favorable development of the population, while taking into account the strong constraints that weigh on their daily lives? The objective of this study is precisely to analyze the vulnerability of the population to water-borne diseases.
<p>Since 2014, the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) has been working on means to increase the contribution of satellite data to recovery from major disasters. The 4 year-long Recovery Observatory (RO) pilot project, led by CNIGS with technical support from CNES [www.recovery-observatory.org], was triggered to address the needs of the Haitian community in the south-west of the country involved in recovery after the impact of Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. Following that experience, the RO Concept was published in an Advocacy Paper [1] and the RO Demonstrator Team was created with the aim to activate a series of 3 to 6 ROs after major events between 2021 and late 2023 [2].</p><p>It is with regard to the RO pilot and the latest RO demonstrator activation after the 7.2 Mw earthquake and Hurricane Grace occurred in August 2021, that the following lessons learnt in Haiti are discussed:</p><ul><li>technical achievements and challenges in the use of SAR data from high revisit sensors (e.g. Sentinel-1) and on-demand acquisitions from high resolution missions (e.g. COSMO-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X) for terrain motion and land surface change applications;</li> <li>the role that the collaboration with users and stakeholders can play to add value to SAR-based scientific products;</li> <li>capacity building and training enabling local champions and public stakeholders to effectively uptake SAR technology for their own duties of disaster risk management.</li> </ul><p>During the pilot, a wide-area regional analysis was undertaken by processing Sentinel-1 in ESA&#8217;s Geohazards Exploitation Platform [3], to identify areas affected by ground motions not suitable for reconstruction. The exercise also allowed the understanding of the factors limiting the exploitation of this resource by users (e.g. skill gap, limited internet connectivity).</p><p>The high resolution monitoring activity with ASI&#8217;s COSMO-SkyMed data, CNES&#8217; Pl&#233;iades images and ground-truth validation over 3 priority areas defined by the Haitian users, allowed the identification of the following categories of surface changes:</p><p>(a) environmental, along the Grand&#8217;Anse River south of J&#233;r&#233;mie, mixed with quarrying and unregulated waste disposal [4];</p><p>(b) geological, along the rock cliffs north-west of J&#233;r&#233;mie where toppling and lateral spreading may be worsened by future disasters, thus causing potential risks to small villages and isolated dwellings;</p><p>(c) urban, within the outskirts of J&#233;r&#233;mie due to reconstruction and new constructions in unstable areas;</p><p>(d) rural, due to landslides to be distinguished by similar signals associated with agricultural practices along the slopes in Camp Perrin.</p><p>This knowledge was used as the most up-to-date baseline to assess the impact of the August 2021 earthquake and hurricane, and the current process of recovery on south-west Haiti peninsula in the framework of the RO demonstrator activation. The RO collaborated closely with local partners and the CNIGS performed satellite based analysis of damage after the earthquake. A long-term objective of the RO remains strong capacity development of local actors.</p><p>&#160;</p><p><strong>References: </strong></p><p>[1] https://www.gfdrr.org/en/publication/use-of-eo-satellites-recovery</p><p>[2] https://ceos.org/document_management/Working_Groups/WGDisasters/WGMeetings/WGDisasters_Mtg16_Virtual/CEOS_WGD16_RO_Demonstrator.pdf</p><p>[3] Cigna, F. et al. (2020) Proceedings of 2020 IEEE IGARSS, pp. 6867&#8211;6870. https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS39084.2020.9323231</p><p>[4] De Giorgi, A. et al. (2021) Remote Sensing, 13 (17), 3509. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13173509</p>
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