The HARMONIZE project was featured in several sessions and received positive feedback from the academic and technical communities. One of the highlights was the session titled “In Search of Lost Time: How to (Re)Establish Dialogue Between Earth Observation and Health Research Communities to Bridge the Gap Between Research and Services in Public/Collective Health Programs?”, organized by Miguel Monteiro (INPE). Claudia Codeço (Fiocruz/RJ) and Maria Isabel Escada (INPE) opened the session, which featured five large-scale projects — all multi-institutional, multi-scalar, and multidisciplinary — including HARMONIZE. These initiatives share a focus on understanding health-disease processes in shared territories, fostering cross-sector dialogue, community engagement, and the development of policies and tools for public health across different geographic scales.

Maria Isabel Escada (INPE) and Diego Xavier (Fiocruz/RJ) also coordinated a roundtable discussion titled “Perspectives on the Use of Drones in Socio-Environmental Studies and Public Health: What Are the Ethical Issues and Technical Protocols to Follow?” The session highlighted experiences from three drone-based research projects:
– HARMONIZE, which investigates public health in the context of climate change using aerial imagery in at-risk areas;
– Netflora, focused on mapping economically valuable tree species in the Amazon;
– PaCTAS, which monitors landscape changes in border territories in the Upper Solimões region.

Representing the HARMONIZE project, researchers Diego Xavier (Fiocruz/RJ), Ana Rorato (INPE), and Sidnei Sant’Anna (INPE) participated in the discussion.

Ana Paula Dal’Asta (INPE) presented research on “Agricultural Production Landscapes and Health”, conducted in Cametá, Pará. The study explored the presence of malaria, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, and dengue in various land use units (PLUs) within a hotspot in the Lower Tocantins region.

Lucas Bianchi introduced a new application of the clim2health tool with his presentation “Spatio-Temporal Interpolation of Land Surface Temperature Using SPDE-INLA.” The approach allows for the estimation of uncertainty in mapping, inference of underlying spatial processes, and modeling of additional variability. The resulting high-resolution interpolated maps underscore the potential of these statistical methods to enhance environmental monitoring and support public health decision-making amid climate variability and extreme events, such as wildfires.

Marcos Rodrigues presented two studies: “Experiments for Multispectral Image Recording Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” based on drone data from the project’s hotspots, and “The Potential of Brazil Data Cube Products in Building and Analyzing Health Surveillance Alert Systems Based on Vegetation Indices in Brazil.” Both works emphasized the importance of analysis-ready data (ARD) for monitoring vegetation changes related to disease outbreaks.

Students also made significant contributions. Danylo presented estimates on the açaí transportation network in the Lower Tocantins, examining its relation to Chagas disease transmission. PhD candidate Ayrton Gouveia presented a poster titled “Winter Temperature Rise and Its Impacts on the Viability of Aedes Mosquitoes in Southern Brazil,” using the clim2health tool to analyze how warming winters affect dengue spread across Latin America.

HARMONIZE’s participation in the XXI SBSR reinforces the project’s commitment to integrating public health, remote sensing technologies, and socio-environmental justice in contexts impacted by climate vulnerability.