Data mashups: potential contribution to decision support on climate change and health.
Linking environmental, socioeconomic and health datasets provides new insights into the potential associations between climate change and human health and wellbeing, and underpins the development of decision support tools that will promote resilience to climate change, and thus enable more effective adaptation. This paper outlines the challenges and opportunities presented by advances in data collection, storage, analysis, and access, particularly focusing on "data mashups". These data mashups are integrations of different types and sources of data, frequently using open application programming interfaces and data sources, to produce enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for assembling the raw source data. As an illustration of this potential, this paper describes a recently funded initiative to create such a facility in the UK for use in decision support around climate change and health, and provides examples of suitable sources of data and the purposes to which they can be directed, particularly for policy makers and public health decision makers.
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3HD, UK. L.E.Fleming@exeter.ac.uk.
Lora E
LE
Fleming
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK. Andy.Haines@lshtm.ac.uk.
Andy
A
Haines
Met Office, Exeter, Devon EX1 3PB, UK. brian.golding@metoffice.gov.uk.
Brian
B
Golding
Public Health England, London SW1W 9SZ, UK. Anthony.Kessel@phe.gov.uk.
Anthony
A
Kessel
Public Health England, London SW1W 9SZ, UK. Anna.Cichowska@phe.gov.uk.
Anna
A
Cichowska
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK. c.sabel@bristol.ac.uk.
Clive E
CE
Sabel
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3HD, UK. M.Depledge@exeter.ac.uk.
Michael H
MH
Depledge
Met Office, Exeter, Devon EX1 3PB, UK. christophe.sarran@metoffice.gov.uk.
Christophe
C
Sarran
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3HD, UK. N.J.Osborne@exeter.ac.uk.
Nicholas J
NJ
Osborne
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3HD, UK. C.Whitmore@exeter.ac.uk.
Ceri
C
Whitmore
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3HD, UK. N.Cocksedge@exeter.ac.uk.
Nicola
N
Cocksedge
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3HD, UK. D.Bloomfield@exeter.ac.uk.
Daniel
D
Bloomfield
D057231:Climate Change; D003625:Data Collection; D057225:Data Mining; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans