Overview: Recent advances in the understanding of the northern Eurasian environments and of the urban air quality in China – a Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) programme perspective

The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) Science Plan, released in 2015, addressed a need for a holistic system understanding and outlined the most urgent research needs for the rapidly changing Arctic-boreal region. Air quality in China, together with the long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants, was also indicated as one of the most crucial topics of the research agenda. These two geographical regions, the northern Eurasian Arctic-boreal region and China, especially the megacities in China, were identified as a “PEEX region”. It is also important to recognize that the PEEX geographical region is an area where science-based policy actions would have significant impacts on the global climate. This paper summarizes results obtained during the last 5 years in the northern Eurasian region, together with recent observations of the air quality in the urban environments in China, in the context of the PEEX programme. The main regions of interest are the Russian Arctic, northern Eurasian boreal forests (Siberia) and peatlands, and the megacities in China. We frame our analysis against research themes introduced in the PEEX Science Plan in 2015. We summarize recent progress towards an enhanced holistic understanding of the land–atmosphere–ocean systems feedbacks. We conclude that although the scientific knowledge in these regions has increased, the new results are in many cases insufficient, and there are still gaps in our understanding of large-scale climate–Earth surface interactions and feedbacks. This arises from limitations in research infrastructures, especially the lack of coordinated, continuous and comprehensive in situ observations of the study region as well as integrative data analyses, hindering a comprehensive system analysis. The fast-changing environment and ecosystem changes driven by climate change, socio-economic activities like the China Silk Road Initiative, and the global trends like urbanization further complicate such analyses. We recognize new topics with an increasing importance in the near future, especially “the enhancing biological sequestration capacity of greenhouse gases into forests and soils to mitigate climate change” and the “socio-economic development to tackle air quality issues”

Overview: Recent advances in the understanding of the northern Eurasian environments and of the urban air quality in China – a Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) programme perspective

The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) Science Plan, released in 2015, addressed a need for a holistic system understanding and outlined the most urgent research needs for the rapidly changing Arctic-boreal region. Air quality in China, together with the long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants, was also indicated as one of the most crucial topics of the research agenda. These two geographical regions, the northern Eurasian Arctic-boreal region and China, especially the megacities in China, were identified as a "PEEX region". It is also important to recognize that the PEEX geographical region is an area where science-based policy actions would have significant impacts on the global climate. This paper summarizes results obtained during the last 5 years in the northern Eurasian region, together with recent observations of the air quality in the urban environments in China, in the context of the PEEX programme. The main regions of interest are the Russian Arctic, northern Eurasian boreal forests (Siberia) and peatlands, and the megacities in China. We frame our analysis against research themes introduced in the PEEX Science Plan in 2015. We summarize recent progress towards an enhanced holistic understanding of the land-atmosphere-ocean systems feedbacks. We conclude that although the scientific knowledge in these regions has increased, the new results are in many cases insufficient, and there are still gaps in our understanding of large-scale climate-Earth surface interactions and feedbacks. This arises from limitations in research infrastructures, especially the lack of coordinated, continuous and comprehensive in situ observations of the study region as well as integrative data analyses, hindering a comprehensive system analysis. The fast-changing environment and ecosystem changes driven by climate change, socio-economic activities like the China Silk Road Initiative, and the global trends like urbanization further complicate such analyses. We recognize new topics with an increasing importance in the near future, especially "the enhancing biological sequestration capacity of greenhouse gases into forests and soils to mitigate climate change" and the "socio-economic development to tackle air quality issues".Peer reviewe

Emerging and re-emerging natural focal diseases of European Russia (typological classification of nosological profiles and dynamics of incidence)

This study considers an automated typological classification version by using the extensive factual material in analysis of emerging and re-emerging natural focal diseases of European Russia.The typological classification of nosological profile (a set of diseases) and the incidence dynamics for five nosological forms (hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, ixodic tick-borne borreliosis, tick-borne encephalitis, tularemia, and leptospirosis) was created using the formal methods of mathematical-cartographical modeling. This classification of the incidence in 1997–2015 yielded five types of the nosological profiles. These types vary by years, which is associated with the dependence of the incidence on climatic conditions in each specific year and on extent of deratization and preventive measures. The results obtained can be used to forecast potential epidemiological outbreaks and to develop targeted and appropriate for each region measures

INFLUENCE OF CLIMATIC FACTOR ON NATURALLY DETERMINED DISEASES IN А REGIONAL CONTEXT

The spread of almost all diseases caused by living pathogens is determined primarily by environmental conditions. These pathogens like any other biological objects are the components of the certain natural ecosystems. An essential part of any medico- geographical assessment is the search for links between the spread of diseases and factors of the geographical environment. The role of factors that affect the spread of the natural diseases is unequal. The climatic factor is deemed one of the main determinants for the spread of naturally-determined diseases. This factor manifests itself at all levels of territorial differentiation. The goal of these studies was to identify the natural and climatic suitability of the certain territory for spread of diseases in order to assess the possible influence of the climatic factor on the medico-geographical situation in the context of the regional environment. The objectives are to estimate the role of climatic and weather parameters in the functioning of natural foci inRussia; to assess the natural and climatic suitability of the territory for spread of diseases; and to identify the climatic preconditions of spread of particular climate-dependent infections. In this study, on the example of several climate- depended diseases different approaches to medico-geographical assessment have been implemented and number of new methodological solutions have been proposed

VISUALIZATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH DYNAMICS

Public health dynamics is one of the main methodological approaches to study spatiotemporal patterns of the population diseases spreading and to create nosogeographic maps. It is one of validity terms of geographic public health assessment and forecast. Dynamics maps usually show emergence, development, past stages, changes, and movement of analyzed phenomena. Analysis of medical-geographic maps showed that the choice of methods and techniques for elaborating dynamic aspects is limited. The results of comprehensive medical-geographic atlas mapping obtained in the Department of Biogeography and Laboratory of Integrated Mapping (Faculty of Geography, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) have significantly improved this situation and demonstrated the benefits of cartographic approaches and graphic methods of visualization of public health dynamics. However, these benefits as an integral problem has not been fully realized yet and research in this direction should continue

HEALTH OF URBAN POPULATION IN MOSCOW AND BEIJING AGGLOMERETIONS

The paper presents the results obtained under the joint Russian-Chinese RFBR project № 12-05-91175-ГФЕН_а aimed at assessment of the state of the environment and health of the population in urban areas in Russia and China. The paper presents the authors’ approach to a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of the environment on the populationhealth of urban agglomerations and a method of regional medico-geographical analysis. A series of analytical and synthetic maps was compiled and used for a comparative geographical analysis of medical and environmental situation in Moscow and Beijing – major metropolitan areas with different natural and socio-economic conditions. The paper discusses the influence of the environment on the state of public health and identifies the leading risk factors, both general and specific to each region

Overview: Recent advances in the understanding of the northern Eurasian environments and of the urban air quality in China-a Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) programme perspective

The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) Science Plan, released in 2015, addressed a need for a holistic system understanding and outlined the most urgent research needs for the rapidly changing Arctic-boreal region. Air quality in China, together with the long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants, was also indicated as one of the most crucial topics of the research agenda. These two geographical regions, the northern Eurasian Arctic-boreal region and China, especially the megacities in China, were identified as a "PEEX region". It is also important to recognize that the PEEX geographical region is an area where science-based policy actions would have significant impacts on the global climate. This paper summarizes results obtained during the last 5 years in the northern Eurasian region, together with recent observations of the air quality in the urban environments in China, in the context of the PEEX programme. The main regions of interest are the Russian Arctic, northern Eurasian boreal forests (Siberia) and peatlands, and the megacities in China. We frame our analysis against research themes introduced in the PEEX Science Plan in 2015. We summarize recent progress towards an enhanced holistic understanding of the land-atmosphere-ocean systems feedbacks. We conclude that although the scientific knowledge in these regions has increased, the new results are in many cases insufficient, and there are still gaps in our understanding of large-scale climate-Earth surface interactions and feedbacks. This arises from limitations in research infrastructures, especially the lack of coordinated, continuous and comprehensive in situ observations of the study region as well as integrative data analyses, hindering a comprehensive system analysis. The fast-changing environment and ecosystem changes driven by climate change, socio-economic activities like the China Silk Road Initiative, and the global trends like urbanization further complicate such analyses. We recognize new topics with an increasing importance in the near future, especially "the enhancing biological sequestration capacity of greenhouse gases into forests and soils to mitigate climate change"and the "socio-economic development to tackle air quality issues". © Copyright