REACH Center Exposure Assessment Core

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY - EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT CORE The REACH Center Exposure Assessment Core aims to provide expertise and services on big data use, exposure assessment, and statistical analysis to support research exploring health-protective solutions for climate-sensitive risk factors. The Core will develop unique, new services and capabilities in selecting and using appropriate techniques and tools to assess exposure for a variety of research applications, including epidemiology, risk analysis, burden of disease assessment, disease forecasting, and policy analysis. Datasets and tools will include satellite remote sensing, ground stationary and mobile monitoring, statistical and geophysical modeling, among other techniques. Specifically, the Core will build capacity among Center investigators to identify and select appropriate geospatial environmental datasets. To do so, the Core will empower researchers to identify important climaterelevant hazards with screening-level mapping tools and aid researchers in selecting fit-for-purpose geospatial datasets. The Core will also lower the barrier to using geospatial datasets in research at the intersection of climate and health. This will be accomplished by spatially and temporally aligning environmental data with health data, providing user guides with data descriptions and sample code, and providing consultation services for researchers to ask questions about applying the datasets. Finally, the Core will provide statistical support, including comprehensive statistical analysis, data usage advisory and consultancy, and conducting statistical and collaborative research to advance beyond what is available in the current literature. The Exposure Assessment Core will bridge the gap between novel geospatial datasets and research on health-protective solutions by making geospatial datasets more accessible, interoperable, and interpretable for health researchers. The Core enables the Center and the broader community to overcome a major challenge in climate and health research: that environmental data are often spatiotemporally mis-aligned with health data, are poorly accessible to researchers outside of geosciences, and come with various strengths, weaknesses, and uncertainties.