Landscape structure and diseases profile: associating land use type composition with disease distribution

Abstract

Human health and well-being presuppose environmental quality. Several studies have documented the indicative role of land use types in environmental quality. However, the exact role of land use composition on disease distribution has remained scientifically vague. We assessed the congruence of diseases’ distribution with land use composition, focusing on high environmental quality areas, defined as tranquil areas with view to indicating places offering well-being. Landscape composition is linked to the presence of diseases across 51 prefectures of Greece. Agricultural and natural land use types proved to be the main drivers of disease distribution. Tranquility demonstrated a strong negative correlation with population density, thus could be considered as a quantitative spatial index of life-quality. We concluded that the landscape context affects the dominance of diseases’ patterns. Special emphasis should be put on the role of tranquil areas in human health and the relative environmental health policies.

Keywords:

• land use types
• tranquility
• environmental indicators
• disease distributional patterns
• environmental health policy

Acknowledgements

This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program “Education and Lifelong Learning” of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: Heracleitus II. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.