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Use of land surface remotely sensed satellite and airborne data for environmental exposure assessment in cancer research

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 20, pages 176–185 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

In recent years, geographic information systems (GIS) have increasingly been used for reconstructing individual-level exposures to environmental contaminants in epidemiological research. Remotely sensed data can be useful in creating space-time models of environmental measures. The primary advantage of using remotely sensed data is that it allows for study at the local scale (e.g., residential level) without requiring expensive, time-consuming monitoring campaigns. The purpose of our study was to identify how land surface remotely sensed data are currently being used to study the relationship between cancer and environmental contaminants, focusing primarily on agricultural chemical exposure assessment applications. We present the results of a comprehensive literature review of epidemiological research where remotely sensed imagery or land cover maps derived from remotely sensed imagery were applied. We also discuss the strengths and limitations of the most commonly used imagery data (aerial photographs and Landsat satellite imagery) and land cover maps.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Carol Deering and Eric Wood for assisting with the library searches and collecting the literature for this study. This work was performed under BioMedware contract HHSN261200700061C and USGS contract 03CRCN0001.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resource Observation and Science Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA

    Susan K Maxwell

  2. Department of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA

    Jaymie R Meliker

  3. BioMedware, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Pierre Goovaerts

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  1. Susan K Maxwell
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Correspondence to Susan K Maxwell.

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Maxwell, S., Meliker, J. & Goovaerts, P. Use of land surface remotely sensed satellite and airborne data for environmental exposure assessment in cancer research. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 20, 176–185 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2009.7

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