Amanda Hoffman-Hall

As marginalized communities continue to bear disproportionate impacts from environmental hazards, we urgently call for researchers and institutions to elevate the principles of Environmental Justice. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) GeoHealth section supports members' engagement in health-related community-engaged and community-led transdisciplinary research. We highlight intersectional research that provides examples and actions for both individuals and organizations on community science and trust building, removing barriers created by scientific agency priorities and career expectations, and opportunities in education and policy. Justice does not start or end at one meeting; this is ongoing work that is active, evolving, and an ethical responsibility of AGU's membership.
Plain Language Summary GeoHealth was recently defined as a new field of science that combines earth, environmental, and health sciences with a mission to answer scientific questions important to the health of humans and our planet. An incredibly important topic within GeoHealth is how racism affects environmental and human health. This topic is known as Environmental Justice: the right of all people and communities to have equal and fair protection by environmental laws and policies, regardless of race or color. However, many scientists feel underprepared to apply Environmental Justice to their own research due to a lack of training. Using GeoHealth projects from the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2021 as examples, we highlight recent research that provides examples and clear suggested actions for both individuals and organizations on community science and trust building, changing funding methods for science, education, and policy in order to incorporate Environmental Justice across the all of the types of research we conduct.

Despite progress toward malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion, challenges remain owing to the emergence of drug resistance and the persistence of focal transmission reservoirs. Malaria transmission foci in Myanmar are heterogeneous and complex, and many remaining infections are clinically silent, rendering them invisible to routine monitoring. The goal of this research is to define criteria for easy‐to‐implement methodologies, not reliant on routine monitoring, that can increase the efficiency of targeted malaria elimination strategies. Studies have shown relationships between malaria risk and land cover and land use (LCLU), which can be mapped using remote sensing methodologies. Here we aim to explain malaria risk as a function of LCLU for five rural villages in Myanmar's Rakhine State. Malaria prevalence and incidence data were analyzed through logistic regression with a land use survey of ~1,000 participants and a 30‐m land cover map. Malaria prevalence per village ranged from 5% to 20% with the overwhelming majority of cases being subclinical. Villages with high forest cover were associated with increased risk of malaria, even for villagers who did not report visits to forests. Villagers living near croplands experienced decreased malaria risk unless they were directly engaged in farm work. Finally, land cover change (specifically, natural forest loss) appeared to be a substantial contributor to malaria risk in the region, although this was not confirmed through sensitivity analyses. Overall, this study demonstrates that remotely sensed data contextualized with field survey data can be used to inform critical targeting strategies in support of malaria elimination.
Villages in Ann Township, Myanmar, exhibiting high forest cover are strongly associated with increased risk of malaria
Ann Township, Myanmar, villagers living in villages where croplands are the dominant land cover type experience decreased malaria risk
Remote sensing offers a means to locate LCLU areas associated with high malaria risk to allow for more efficient targeted interventions