The emergence and spread of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases (ZVBDs), exacerbated by environmental change, pose serious threats to global public health and the economy. Understanding the role of environmental factors in disease transmission is critical for improving risk assessments and implementing effective preventive strategies. However, current approaches often lack a comprehensive framework that integrates the three risk components (hazard, exposure, and vulnerability), limiting the reliability and actionability of assessments. Here, we reviewed studies that incorporated environmental variables into research on ZVBDs, extracting information on the three risk components. We found that 52% of studies measured only hazard, whereas only 7.4% integrated all three components. Landscape composition and temperature were the most commonly used environmental variables. Our findings highlight key gaps in disease risk assessment and offer a roadmap with targeted indicators for each component, advancing the conceptual and structural foundations of disease ecology research in the context of environmental change
