全球变化知识资源中心

The United Nations has called on all nations to take immediate actions to fight noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which have become an increasingly significant burden to public health systems around the world. NCDs tend to be more common in developed countries but are also becoming of growing concern in low-and middle-income countries. Earth observation (EO) technologies have been used in many infectious disease studies but have been less commonly employed in NCD studies. This review discusses the roles that EO data and technologies can play inNCDresearch, including (a) integrating natural and built environment factors intoNCDresearch, (b) explaining individual-environment interactions, (c) scaling up local studies and interventions, (d) providing repeated measurements for longitudinal studies including cohorts, and (e) advancing methodologies in NCD research. Such extensions hold great potential for overcoming the challenges of inaccurate and infrequent measurements of environmental exposure at the level of both the individual and the population, which is of great importance to NCD research, practice, and policy.