SDG 3 - Good health and well being

SDG 3

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development.

Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality, but working towards achieving the target of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030 would require improvements in skilled delivery care.

Achieving the target of reducing premature deaths due to incommunicable diseases by 1/3 by the year 2030 would also require more efficient technologies for clean fuel use during cooking and education on the risks of tobacco.

Many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues. By focusing on providing more efficient funding of health systems, improved sanitation and hygiene, increased access to physicians and more tips on ways to reduce ambient pollution, significant progress can be made in helping to save the lives of millions.

Facts and Figures

Child health

  • 17,000 fewer children die each day than in 1990, but more than five million children still die before their fifth birthday each year.
  • Since 2000, measles vaccines have averted nearly 15.6 million deaths.
  • Despite determined global progress, an increasing proportion of child deaths are in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Four out of every five deaths of children under age five occur in these regions.
  • Children born into poverty are almost twice as likely to die before the age of five as those from wealthier families.
  • Children of educated mothers—even mothers with only primary schooling—are more likely to survive than children of mothers with no education.

Maternal health

  • Maternal mortality has fallen by 37% since 2000.
  • In Eastern Asia, Northern Africa and Southern Asia, maternal mortality has declined by around two-thirds.
  • But maternal mortality ratio – the proportion of mothers that do not survive childbirth compared to those who do –   in developing regions is still 14 times higher than in the developed regions.
  • More women are receiving antenatal care. In developing regions, antenatal care increased from 65 per cent in 1990 to 83 per cent in 2012.
  • Only half of women in developing regions receive the recommended amount of health care they need.
  • Fewer teens are having children in most developing regions, but progress has slowed. The large increase in contraceptive use in the 1990s was not matched in the 2000s.
  • The need for family planning is slowly being met for more women, but demand is increasing at a rapid pace.

HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

  • 36.9 million people globally were living with HIV in 2017.
  • 21.7 million million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy in 2017.
  • 1.8 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2017.
  • 940 000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2017.
  • 77.3 million people have become infected with HIV since the start of the epidemic.
  • 35.4 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic.
  • Tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, accounting for around one in three AIDS-related deaths.
  • Globally, adolescent girls and young women face gender-based inequalities, exclusion, discrimination and violence, which put them at increased risk of acquiring HIV.
  • HIV is the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age worldwide.
  • AIDS is now the leading cause of death among adolescents (aged 10–19) in Africa and the second most common cause of death among adolescents globally.
  • Over 6.2 million malaria deaths have been averted between 2000 and 2015, primarily of children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. The global malaria incidence rate has fallen by an estimated 37 per cent and the mortality rates by 58 per cent.

Space-based Technologies for SDG 3

Health challenges often transcend national borders and traditional approaches. In developing countries, infectious diseases remain among the top causes of death. Space technology can be used to monitor disease patterns, understand environmental triggers for the spread of diseases and predict risk areas. UNOOSA strengthens the capacity of all countries to use space technology for better health services and public health decision-making. Read more here.
 

Learn more about the SDGs

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Interview with Prof. Rita Colwell

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Space Technology: A Tool for Epidemiology

Epidemiological mapping has been used for centuries. To give an example, John Snow, the father of epidemiology, created a map to determine the cause of the 1845 cholera outbreak in London, United Kingdom. The mapping allowed him to discover contaminated water as the source of the outbreak.

Les Technologies Spatiales : un Outil pour l'Epidémiologie

Merci à Jean Francois Regis Adoupou d'avoir traduit cet article volontairement.

La cartographie épidémiologique est utilisée depuis des siècles. A titre illustratif, John Snow, le père de l'épidémiologie, a créé une carte pour déterminer la cause de l’éclosion de l'épidémie de choléra en 1845, à Londres, au Royaume-Uni. La cartographie lui a permis de découvrir que l'eau contaminée était à l’origine de l'épidémie. 

Using space-based technologies to predict mosquito-borne disease outbreaks

Mosquitos are often cited as one of the deadliest animals in the world, causing up to one million deaths per year (WHO, 2020; CDC, 2021). They can carry and transmit a variety of diseases, including malaria, West Nile virus, dengue fever, and Zika virus; transmitting illness across the globe (Figure 1). To help decrease the burden of disease resulting from mosquitos, researchers are utilising satellite data and remote sensing models to better predict where mosquito breeding grounds may occur in the future.

Interview with Dr. Sherine Ahmed El Baradei

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Interview with Shaima Almeer, Senior Space Data Analyst at Bahrain National Space Science Agency

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Interview with Shaima Almeer, Senior Space Data Analyst at Bahrain National Space Science Agency

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Event

Local Perspectives Case Studies

Groundwater resource management using artificial intelligence and remote sensing technologies

Groundwater index maps for Bihar
Groundwater is a critical resource for drinking water, agriculture, and industry. With increasing anthropogenic activities and exponentially increasing population, groundwater in India is facing several challenges, related to quality as well as quantity, due to over-extraction, pollution, and climate change. Over-exploitation of groundwater may impact the availability and quality of groundwater which is not sustainable. Moreover, due to pollution in surface water, groundwater quality is also affected. In most of the cities of India, the quality of groundwater is below standard. Remote sensing and artificial intelligence can play a very vital role in monitoring the quantity as well as quality of groundwater. As, it is clear that presently no remote sensors can directly be used for groundwater observations, but by using surface features anomalies and gravity data obtained by various satellites, optimal groundwater management can be done using remote sensing. Space4water is one of the best communities addressing water related issues and work towards sustainable solutions. For the last three years, I am following this community, and I find that the community consists of scientists, NGO, policy makers etc. This combination has the potential to resolve issues related to any challenges related to social issues. I am looking for few global research partners who work for groundwater management using space technology. I am equally looking for data driven resource persons who can collaborate with me on real field conditions of various countries, related to groundwater management. What has been done so far is listed below: • Worked on GRACE satellite data and used it in field condition to study groundwater anomalies of few cities of India. • Developed spatio-temporal maps of Standardized Groundwater Index (SGI). • Worked on water quality of water bodies. • Used various satellite data to map water spread areas of various water bodies. • Worked on machine learning models to study in situ remediation of contaminated groundwater.

Project / Mission / Initiative / Community Portal

e-shape

e-shape is a unique initiative that brings together decades of public investment in Earth Observation and in cloud capabilities into services for the decision-makers, the citizens, the industry and the researchers. It allows Europe to position itself as global force in Earth observation through leveraging Copernicus, making use of existing European capacities and improving user uptake of the data from GEO assets.  EuroGEO, as Europe's contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), aims at bringing together Earth Observation resources in Europe.

Hydrography90m: A new high-resolution global hydrographic dataset

In tandem with the monumental increase in geo-data availability from remote sensors, field sensors and various publicly available environmental datasets, state-of-the-art geoinformatics algorithms have evolved to harness earth science data as never before. In the field of computational hydrology, these processes have yielded global information in fine detail, and of exceptional precision.

Stakeholder

Remote Sensing, GIS and Climatic Research Lab, University of the Punjab

The emerging demand of GIS and Space Applications for Climate Change studies for the socio-economic development of Pakistan along with Government of Pakistan Vision 2025, Space Vision 2047 of National Space Agency of Pakistan, and achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) impelled the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) to establish Remote Sensing, GIS and Climatic Research Lab (RSGCRL) at University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS)

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) is a research and training institute of the United Nations University. UNU is a global network of institutes and programs engaged in research and capacity development to support the universal goals of the UN. It brings together leading scholars from around the world with a view to generate strong and innovative knowledge on how to tackle pressing global problems. UNU-CRIS focuses on the study of processes of global cooperation and regional integration and their implications.

Publication

Space-based Solution

Addressed challenge(s)

Groundwater resource management using artificial intelligence and remote sensing technologies

Collaborating actors (stakeholders, professionals, young professionals or Indigenous voices)
Suggested solution

Remote sensing can significantly aid in groundwater resource management. Further with the integration of Internet of Things (IoT), the information of groundwater storage and change in groundwater level can be shared through mobile technology to end users, policy makers and also to the government.

Here are a few key steps showing how it can be useful:

  1. Mapping and monitoring land use/land cover: Remote sensing helps identify areas of vegetation, agriculture, urbanisation and water bodies, which influence groundwater recharge and extraction.
  2. Identifying potential groundwater zones: Satellite imagery, combined with GIS, can analyse geological, hydrological and geomorphological features to locate promising groundwater zones.
  3. Monitoring groundwater levels and storage: Missions like Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) measure changes in Earth's gravity field, enabling estimation of groundwater storage changes over time.
  4. Assessing drought and recharge conditions: Remote sensing provides data on precipitation, soil moisture and evapotranspiration, essential for evaluating recharge potential and drought impacts.
  5. Supporting sustainable management: Continuous remote sensing data supports long-term planning, policy-making and sustainable groundwater resource development.
  6. Integration of remote sensing with IoT: IoT modules can be developed for groundwater level; total groundwater storage; drought level etc and can be sent to end users using mobile technology.

Requirements

Data

  • GRACE & GRACE FO satellite data set
  • Central Groundwater Board, India
  • Water Resources Information System (WRIS) India
  • USGS data sets of remote sensing imagery

Software

  • QGIS
  • Visual MODFLOW flex
  • HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System)
  • MATLAB
  • R software
  • ERDAS IMAGINE

Physical

  • Workstation as servers lab for developing IoT for groundwater management

 

Outline steps to a solution

  • Worked on GRACE satellite data and used it in field condition to study groundwater anomalies of few cities of India (completed).
  • Developed spatio-temporal maps of Standardized Groundwater Index (SGI) (completed).
  • Water quality monitoring of water bodies using remote sensing (in progress).
  • Water spread mapping and its monitoring, of various water bodies using remote sensing and artificial intelligence (research is in progress).
  • Internet of Things (IoT) models which can link groundwater depletion/anomalies information with the end-users (in progress).

 

Steps to a solution

  1. Study area and data acquisition  
  • Study area has to be selected for groundwater monitoring and management.  
  • The shapefile of the study area has to be downloaded from government websites or can be ordered on request basis. Gridded GRACE products (Level-3) can be used from the Jet propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to get the monthly water equivalent thickness data.
  1. Development of Standardized Groundwater Index (SGI) for understanding the severity of groundwater anomalies or draught

Standardized Groundwater Index (SGI) is a drought indicator which was developed by Bloomfield and Marchant (2013) to quantify groundwater drought. It is used for estimating groundwater level deficit at any time scale which reflects the extreme drought condition of any location. It is similar to the traditional drought index, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and can be calculated on the same basis like SPI. In SGI, groundwater level data is used for measuring drought condition, instead of precipitation data which is used in SPI. Groundwater time series data obtained from ground observation can be appropriately normalized to evaluating the groundwater drought. SGI values can also be analysed by calculating groundwater deviation from the mean groundwater value (Halder et al., 2020). SGI can be given by following formula

 

where, K is groundwater level of the respective year; M is long term mean groundwater level of 18 years, σ is standard deviation

  1. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite for groundwater anomalies study

GRACE was launched by NASA on March 17, 2002. It was a joint mission of NASA and German Aerospace Centre (DLR). The two twin satellites of GRACE are monitored to observe the changes in the Earth's gravity field. GRACE satellite, a first remote sensing satellite which provides an efficient and cost-effective way to map Earth’s gravity field and measure the total groundwater storage changes (TWS) with unprecedented accuracy (Yirdaw et al, 2008). GRACE studies the variation in the gravity which are caused due to effects that include: changes due to deep currents in the ocean; runoff and ground water storage on land mass; exchanges between ice sheets or glaciers and the oceans, and variations of mass within the solid Earth. The distance between the twin satellite as they orbit the Earth help in measuring changes in the Earth's gravity field for each month. From these monthly gravity field, time series of regional mass anomalies can be derived using specially designed averaging function. GRACE mission provides an opportunity to directly measure the total groundwater storage changes and with the help of gravity field data of GRACE drought conditions can also be monitored over a region. GRACE satellite has coarse resolution of 300-400 km and provides data in an interval of 30 days. The distance between the two satellite is about 200 km at a starting altitude of about 500 km. The GRACE gridded TWS products (1˚×1˚) from spherical harmonics are provided by the Centre of Research (CSR) at the University of Texas, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and German Research Centre for Geoscience (GFZ). The gridded products estimate the changes in mass in unit of water equivalent thickness (WET).

  1. Machine learning algorithms to model data from GRACE with observed data

Using machine learning (ML) for modelling GRACE  satellite data alongside observation datasets (e.g., in-situ hydrological measurements, meteorological data) is a powerful approach to extract spatiotemporal patterns, downscale or predict terrestrial water storage (TWS) anomalies. Machine learning algorithms like artificial neural network, random forest, support vector machines etc can be used to model satellite data with observed data. For more details following journal articles can be studied:

 

  1. IoT for groundwater monitoring and sending information to end users

Using IoT for groundwater level monitoring is an effective way to automate the collection, transmission and dissemination of real-time groundwater data to decision-makers, farmers or the public.

Results

Today, no remote sensors can directly monitor groundwater, a combination of surface features anomalies and gravity data obtained by various satellites, allows for optimal groundwater management. Example satellites for monitoring include: GRACE and its Follow-On mission (GRACE-FO) to study groundwater fluctuations, Landsat, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) etc, groundwater management can be done using space technology.

I developed a Standardized Groundwater Index (SGI) for Bihar state of India which proved to be very important to understand the severity of groundwater problems in that region. The spatio-temporal variation of SGI using geographical information systems (see figure 1) was published in the peer reviewed Journal of the Geological Society of India (Kumar and Kumari, 2024).

Groundwater Index for Bihar state in India for different years
Related space-based solutions
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Climate Zone (addressed by the solution)
Habitat (addressed by the solution)
Region/Country (the solution was designed for, if any)
Relevant SDGs