Analysing the effects of the weather, landscape, and air quality conditions on asthma-effected population in Abu Dhabi City

Abstract

This thesis research aims to evaluate how urban air quality and vegetation cover conditions are affecting people with asthma in Abu Dhabi Metropolitan area. A comprehensive scientific analytical research has been carried out to study the effect of several environmental factors, such as weather conditions, aeroallergens, dust, and air pollutants on a large sample of asthma-affected individuals. This study was based on detailed hospital admission records collected over 24-months period in 13 public hospitals located in Abu Dhabi Emirate. In addition to air quality measurements, biweekly vegetation maps of Abu Dhabi metropolitan area have been generated from NASA’s high resolution satellite (LANDSAT) to assess the effects of vegetation (mainly pollen activities) on the number of asthmatics’ admissions. In this regard, additional effort has been made to have better understanding on how pollen activities can be detected by Earth observation satellites. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been used to classify the vegetation into different greenness indices. Seasonal variation of NDVI was found to have an effect on the variability of asthma cases where vegetation variability was found to be associated with rising cases of asthma admissions. The effects of weather conditions has also been investigated. Air temperature and relative humidity (Humidex) was also found to contribute to the number of recorded admissions of asthma patients. In depth analysis of the collected data proved that air quality and weather conditions contribute to the health condition of asthma affected population in Abu Dhabi.

Date of Award	May 2015
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Mohamed Hosni Ghedira (Supervisor)