Climate Change and Human Health in the MENA Region: A Geoinformatics Perspective

Climate change significantly threatens human health and well-being globally. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, already the most water-scarce regions globally, faces a critical climate change challenge with projected temperature increases of 20% above the global average. This escalation is expected to intensify and prolong droughts and the human health consequences in the region. This chapter investigates five primary driving hazards in the MENA region, including extreme heat, water scarcity, air pollution, vector-borne diseases, and population displacement, all threatening human health. It also explores the role of Geoinformatics in modeling and mapping climate change’s impacts and human health, incorporating case studies from the region focusing on GIS-based multi-criteria decision-making, machine learning, and GeoAI. Pertinent remote sensing data and geospatial analyses are discussed, enhanced by illustrative examples.