Environmental change, in particular changing climate, land-use and water management practices together with increased pressures due to locally and regional anthropogenic drivers such as population growth and mobility (displacement and migration) lead to inequalities in water security and access to safe water infrastructure. The resulting inequality bears the risk of increased prevalence, distribution and emergence of water-born pathogens. This will inevitably lead to increased human- but also wider ecosystem-exposure to existing and new types of pathogens with adverse health and economic consequences associated with it.
The spatial dispersal and migration mechanisms of many pathogens as well as the conditions that determine their replication and growth are largely controlled by hydrometeorological conditions. Spread of water-borne disease remains poorly understood and its impacts difficult to quantify. In particular, mechanisms of transport and vectors of transmission together with their spatiotemporally varying controls and the impact of hydrometeorological extremes on the efficiency and functioning of mitigating Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure are poorly understood.
In this session, we solicit contributions that
1. Explore, quantify, analyse and predict the spread of water-borne pathogens in terrestrial-aquatic systems
2. Advance the understanding of the role of rivers and subsurface water as vectors of dispersal.
3. Analyze potential links between water-borne pathogen dispersal in various environments under changing climate, land-use and water management.
4. Develop approaches/methods for robust predictions of spatio-temporal pathogen distribution as a result of hydrological extremes across river basins, including floods, droughts or heat waves.