The role of Information Technology in environment protection and improvement of human health

1. Role of IT in
Environment &
Human Health
Presentation by:
Tanvi, Harshith & Sruti

2. ROLE IN
ENVIRONMENT

3. Information Technology
(IT)
• Application of computers and
telecommunications and their
equipments.
• To store, retrieve, transmit and
manipulate data.
• Spans several industries such as-
Computer hardware, software,
electronics, semiconductors,
internet, telecom equipment, e-commerce
and computer services.

4. Information Technology in India
• Industry consisting of two major
components: IT services and Business
process outsourcing (BPO).
• Important role in revenue. Employs
2.5 million. Growing at over 9% p.a.
• India is one of the biggest IT
capitals of the modern world
• Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata,
Chennai, Trivandrum, Noida, Mumbai
and Pune contribute to 90% of all the
IT export.

5. IT for Environment
• Tremendous potential
• Can acquire, store, analyze and
visualize satellite data for
observation, and protection of
environment.
• Easily accessible around the
world
• Dramatically reduces costs,
increases speed, improved
productivity and opens up new
challenges and opportunities.

6. Databases
• The most important application
of IT in environment
• Collection of inter-related
data on various subjects.
• Can be retrieved when required.
• User friendly and convenient to
store large amount of data and
analyze the data gathered.

7. Environmental Databases
• US EPA Office of Pesticide Programs
has three environmental databases
that it uses to assess hazards to the
environment; to wildlife, aquatic
life and plants.
• Ecotoxixity Database is one of them.
• UNEP maintains several data sets as
national, sub regional, regional and
global statistics or as geospatial
data sets (maps), covering themes
like Freshwater, Population, Forests,
Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP.

8. Databases (contd.)
• In India, Ministry of Environment
& Forests, GOI compiles a
database on various biotic
communities.
• It also maintains wildlife
database, conservation database
and forest cover database.
• National Management Information
System (NMIS), DST compiled a
database on Research and
Developmental Projects.

9. ENVIS
• The Ministry of Environment & Forests,
GOI has created an Information System
called Environmental Information System
(ENVIS).
• Headquartered at Delhi with 25 different
centers all over the country.
• ENVIS centers work for generating a
network of databases in areas like
pollution control, clean technologies,
remote sensing, coastal ecology,
biodiversity, Western Ghats and eastern
environmental management, media related
to environment, renewable energy,
desertification, mangroves, wildlife,
Himalayan ecology, mining, etc

10. Remote sensing
• Acquisition of information about
an object or phenomenon without
making physical contact.
• Generally refers to using aerial
sensor technologies to detect and
classify objects on earth.
• New sensors being developed
rapidly.
• Important for weather forecasts,
climate change or natural
disasters.

11. Using Remote Sensing Data
• Studies have focused on Mapping and
monitoring changes in productivity
caused by:
1. Monitoring wind erosion
2. Monitoring water logging
3. Monitoring the condition of remnant
vegetation
4. Cereal crop yield mapping
5. Predicting salinity
6. Monitoring rangeland condition
• Cost Effective. Can monitor broader
areas
• Eg. The Land Monitor Project in
Australia

12. GIS
• Geographical Information System (GIS)
• Designed to capture, store, manipulate,
analyze, manage and present all types of
spatial or geographical data.
• Broader academic discipline of
Geoinformatics
• Science underlying geographic concepts,
applications and systems.
• Can use GIS to study the environment,
report on the phenomena and model the
working and responding of environment to
natural and man-made factors.

13. Using GIS
• Manage multiple types of geographical data
• Assess relationships such as run-off and
groundwater purity
• Measure changes in wildlife habitat
encroachment
• Model events such as drought impact on forest
health
• Improve workflow processes from data
gathering and analysis to publication and
distribution of findings.
• For example, Project Tiger uses GIS to
accurately estimate, track and protect the
remaining 1706 tigers left in the country

14. Overcoming Challenges
• Many parts of the world yet to adapt
to new technologies and IT sectors.
• A large amount of information
available. Difficult to process and
filter accurate information and infer
from the huge data.
• Overloading of information and less
storage.
• Also, increasing “silicon valley”
products further generate the problem
of e-waste which are difficult to
dispose.

15. ROLE IN
HUMAN
HEALTH

16. Human Health
• WHO describes Health as a state of complete
physical, mental and social well-being and
not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.
• Innovations leading to converging of IT &
Life Sciences creating vast qualities of
data.
• HIT (Health Information Technology)
provides the umbrella framework to describe
the comprehensive management of health
information across computerized systems.
• Helps in exchange between consumers,
providers, government, quality entities and
insurers.

17. Databases
• Again Databases come to the rescue.
• Data regarding birth, death rates,
immunization programs can be
maintained more accurately than before
in health centers due to computers.
• Information and statistics about
diseases like malaria, fluorosis,
AIDS, etc.
• DNA databases and genetic information
about population, medical records,
fingerprints, etc can be stored and
accessed.

18. Biological Databases
• NCBI- National Centre for Biotechnology
Information. Contains several databases
which store genome data, protein data,
nucleotide, genotypes, etc
• The National Centre for Biotechnology
Information advances science and health
by providing access to biomedical and
genomic information.
• PDB- Protein Data Bank
• Several other databases including PCR
databases, Metabolic and signal
pathways, RNA, Proteomics, Protein
Interaction databases, etc.

19. Global Burden of Disease
• GBD is a comprehensive regional and global
assessment of mortality and disability from
major diseases, injuries and risk factors.
• Collaboration of 500 researchers in 300
institutions over 50 countries.
• Commissioned in 1990 between hundreds of
experts.
• Helped in estimating the spread and
prevalence of diseases and the major causes
of death worldwide.
• The whole project was made possible due to
increased ease of storing, accessing and
inferring data

20. Biometrics
• Metrics related to human
characteristics and traits.
• Biometric authentication is used in
computer science as a form of
identification and access control. It
is also used to identify individuals
in groups under surveillance.
• Distinct, measurable to describe and
label individuals.
• Aadhaar is the world’s largest
biometric database in the world.
Fingerprint, Iris Scan and face photo
along with demographic data of a
person is compiled.

21. Bioinformatics
• Inter-disciplinary field that develops
methods and software tools for
understanding biological data.
• Combines computer science, statistics,
mathematics and engineering to study
and process biological data.
• Major applications in sequence
analysis, Databases, literature,
structural bioinformatics, gene and
protein expression analysis and
algorithms, statistical methods to
assess relationships.

22. Telemedicine
• Use of telecommunication and
information technologies in order to
provide clinical care at a distance.
• Helps eliminate distance barriers.
• Saves lives in critical care and
emergency situations.
• Benefit remote regions with
specialists living far away.
• Also eliminates the possibility of
transmission in case of infectious
diseases. E.g. In MRSA cases

23. eHEALTH
• eHealth is a relatively recent term for
healthcare practice supported by
electronic processes and communication.
• It can also include health applications
and links on mobile phones, referred to
as mHealth.
• In case of mental illnesses like
depression, eHealth provided anonymity
to users. It is also easily accessible.
• It is gaining momentum in academic
research as well as in psychology,
clinical work, family and marriage
therapy and mental health counseling.

25. Biomechanics
• Robots that emulate or simulate living
biological organisms or are inspired by
them chemically or mechanically.
• Nanotechnology use is also being
studied.
• Nano-bots are programmed to act as
delivery systems within the organism
(like blood).
• In biomimicry, robots have to be
programmed to make the mechanism simpler
and more effective.
• Research on humanoid robots is also
becoming increasingly popular.

27. Broadcasting
• This is another major role of IT and
Telecommunications.
• IT helps in spreading awareness about
diseases and preventive measures to
be taken.
• One of the best ways to spread
awareness about preventive measure is
by media.
• Recently, Ebola outbreak has been
extensively covered and reported.
• Telecommunication helped in
containment of the disease.

29. Controlling diseases
• Isolation is one of the major step in
controlling highly infectious diseases.
• In the ongoing Ebola virus containment,
spreading awareness was the first step
taken.
• This reduces panic and provides information
about prevention and if infected, treatment
options.
• Several airports in many countries, screened
passengers for high temperature and other
symptoms via thermal sensors and computers
without any manual labor need. This was
possible due to applying IT services in
medical fields.

30. Biological Equipment
• Most of the biological equipment
(be it Lab or Diagnostic
medicine) run on programs and
algorithms.
• This makes the machines user-friendly
and time saving.
• Most machines run on pre-designed
programs with specific
applications which make usage
easier.
• Additive manufacturing (or 3D
Printing) also makes use of
programming techniques.

31. Summary
• The rapid growth in IT and the
highly qualified man power in
India are bound to have a
positive impact on the earth’s
environment and health care among
others.
• With the help of IT, we are able
to note down the ongoing changes
or we can predict things that are
to happen in near future.