The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Poverty, health and satellite-derived vegetation indices: their inter-spatial relationship in West Africa

Poverty, health and satellite-derived vegetation indices: their inter-spatial relationship in West Africa
Poverty, health and satellite-derived vegetation indices: their inter-spatial relationship in West Africa
Background Previous analyses have shown the individual correlations between poverty, health and satellite-derived vegetation indices such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). However, generally these analyses did not explore the statistical interconnections between poverty, health outcomes and NDVI.

Methods In this research aspatial methods (principal component analysis) and spatial models (variography, factorial kriging and cokriging) were applied to investigate the correlations and spatial relationships between intensity of poverty, health (expressed as child mortality and undernutrition), and NDVI for a large area of West Africa.

Results This research showed that the intensity of poverty (and hence child mortality and nutrition) varies inversely with NDVI. From the spatial point-of-view, similarities in the spatial variation of intensity of poverty and NDVI were found.

Conclusions These results highlight the utility of satellite-based metrics for poverty models including health and ecological components and, in general for large scale analysis, estimation and optimisation of multidimensional poverty metrics. However, it also stresses the need for further studies on the causes of the association between NDVI, health and poverty. Once these relationships are confirmed and better understood, the presence of this ecological component in poverty metrics has the potential to facilitate the analysis of the impacts of climate change on the rural populations afflicted by poverty and child mortality.
child mortality, geostatistics, multidimensional poverty index, normalized difference vegetation index, nutrition, poverty
1876-3413
99-106
Sedda, L.
ae6a74e0-ff67-4678-aefc-9976179294f6
Tatem, A.J.
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e
Morley, D.W.
aacdc86f-ebf2-4b29-bfa1-5690b5bffbd1
Atkinson, P. M.
96e96579-56fe-424d-a21c-17b6eed13b0b
Wardrop, N.A.
8f3a8171-0727-4375-bc68-10e7d616e176
Pezzulo, C.
876a5393-ffbd-479a-9edf-f72a59ca2cb5
Sorichetta, A.
c80d941b-a3f5-4a6d-9a19-e3eeba84443c
Kuleszo, J.
8513d411-1980-4166-9b32-c441bed9135f
Rogers, D.J.
90d6a7d6-f68c-4056-8ac9-3f52ced25f30
Sedda, L.
ae6a74e0-ff67-4678-aefc-9976179294f6
Tatem, A.J.
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e
Morley, D.W.
aacdc86f-ebf2-4b29-bfa1-5690b5bffbd1
Atkinson, P. M.
96e96579-56fe-424d-a21c-17b6eed13b0b
Wardrop, N.A.
8f3a8171-0727-4375-bc68-10e7d616e176
Pezzulo, C.
876a5393-ffbd-479a-9edf-f72a59ca2cb5
Sorichetta, A.
c80d941b-a3f5-4a6d-9a19-e3eeba84443c
Kuleszo, J.
8513d411-1980-4166-9b32-c441bed9135f
Rogers, D.J.
90d6a7d6-f68c-4056-8ac9-3f52ced25f30

Sedda, L., Tatem, A.J., Morley, D.W., Atkinson, P. M., Wardrop, N.A., Pezzulo, C., Sorichetta, A., Kuleszo, J. and Rogers, D.J. (2015) Poverty, health and satellite-derived vegetation indices: their inter-spatial relationship in West Africa. International Health, 7 (2), 99-106. (doi:10.1093/inthealth/ihv005).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background Previous analyses have shown the individual correlations between poverty, health and satellite-derived vegetation indices such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). However, generally these analyses did not explore the statistical interconnections between poverty, health outcomes and NDVI.

Methods In this research aspatial methods (principal component analysis) and spatial models (variography, factorial kriging and cokriging) were applied to investigate the correlations and spatial relationships between intensity of poverty, health (expressed as child mortality and undernutrition), and NDVI for a large area of West Africa.

Results This research showed that the intensity of poverty (and hence child mortality and nutrition) varies inversely with NDVI. From the spatial point-of-view, similarities in the spatial variation of intensity of poverty and NDVI were found.

Conclusions These results highlight the utility of satellite-based metrics for poverty models including health and ecological components and, in general for large scale analysis, estimation and optimisation of multidimensional poverty metrics. However, it also stresses the need for further studies on the causes of the association between NDVI, health and poverty. Once these relationships are confirmed and better understood, the presence of this ecological component in poverty metrics has the potential to facilitate the analysis of the impacts of climate change on the rural populations afflicted by poverty and child mortality.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 12 January 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 26 February 2015
Published date: 2015
Keywords: child mortality, geostatistics, multidimensional poverty index, normalized difference vegetation index, nutrition, poverty
Organisations: Global Env Change & Earth Observation, WorldPop, Geography & Environment, Population, Health & Wellbeing (PHeW)

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 374814
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/374814
ISSN: 1876-3413
PURE UUID: d07c6904-509b-46f8-aa8d-0aaeeadf5404
ORCID for A.J. Tatem: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7270-941X
ORCID for P. M. Atkinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5489-6880
ORCID for C. Pezzulo: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4775-1787
ORCID for A. Sorichetta: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3576-5826

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 03 Mar 2015 13:45
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:46

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: L. Sedda
Author: A.J. Tatem ORCID iD
Author: D.W. Morley
Author: P. M. Atkinson ORCID iD
Author: N.A. Wardrop
Author: C. Pezzulo ORCID iD
Author: A. Sorichetta ORCID iD
Author: J. Kuleszo
Author: D.J. Rogers

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×