The case study about our pilot EYWA was developed for the European Climate and Health Observatory of the European Environment Agency, entitled “Managing mosquito borne disease through EYWA: an European tool to support public health authorities in preventing epidemics”.

The EYWA Early Warning System is based on a plethora of satellite and in-situ data and state-of-the-art technological tools. The primary role of the system is to inform the activities of the National Public Health Organisations, Vector Counter Actors and citizens. The specific goals are: (i) enhanced health and healthcare systems' preparedness and their ability to detect, monitor and control current and future public health threats; (ii) optimised mosquito control, by supporting intensive entomological and epidemiological surveillance and taking preventive measures to curtail the spread of MBDs in Europe; (iii) improved information for the European citizens about the complex health problem of MBDs.

In more detail the overall EYWA objectives are:

• On the strategic vision front, EYWA aims to handle MBD outbreaks; reliably support the enhanced decision making and anticipation of vector control measures by providing assessments on vector abundance and MBD risk; create a list of EU standards in MBD control; as well as continuously engage key stakeholders in Europe and globally.
• On the technology front, EYWA strives to prove the effective management of big satellite data and their fusion with non-EO data from multiple sources (in-situ, citizen); forecast MBD outbreaks and improve health risk assessment by developing effective data-driven entomological and epidemiological predictive models that work across difference scales and forecasting horizons; as well as deliver databases handling vast amount of data, APIs providing open access, as well as a platform making the data available freely and widely.
• On the science front, EYWA aims to disseminate the generated data, results and IP to be exploited by scientists and innovators in national and international research projects, and also support the transnational scientific collaboration that fosters the development of novel tools and models on the field of epidemics.
• Finally, on the socio-economical front, the expected outcome of EYWA is to contribute to the prevention and reduction of MBD cases; reduce the impact of MBD in the communities; perform optimal management of the resources of mosquito and vector control (that are usually limited); and identify the critical areas to reach out to in order to inform the population on expected disease outbreaks.

Find the full case study here