Integrating marginal urban areas into the analysis and governance of infectious risk in Thailand and India
Cases of dengue fever and daily mobility in the Delhi region: the limits of epidemic surveillance in the face of the functional city © Samuel Benkimoun, Géographie-cités
To better contain and anticipate infectious diseases, a movement has emerged since the 2000s: the One Health Initiative. This promotes greater awareness of the interdependence between human, environmental, and animal health. This integrated approach is becoming increasingly crucial, as climate change and increased pressure on the environment continue to increase the human and financial costs of epidemics.
While urbanization tends to impact the entire planet, its expansion is scarcely mentioned when it comes to explaining the global spread of pathogens. Admittedly, research into the circulation of viruses between cities is abundant, and it is recognized that the urbanization of the world is speeding up connections and widening their scope; however, it is also transforming local environments, particularly peri-urban fringes.
At the crossroads of environmental, urban, land, and health studies, the One Urban Health Project aims to integrate rapidly changing urban fringes into the analysis of infectious risks and their governance in Thailand and India. It aims to study peri-urban areas that are in the process of being built up and still receive little attention in terms of zoonotic risks despite the fact that they are fully integrated into extended urban contexts. This is one of the current limitations of the One Health approach. Marked by the rapid expansion of urban areas, Thailand and India are characterized by countless land conversions, which are poorly controlled and often unfinished, and are therefore marked by wastelands. These environments are still poorly documented from a One Health perspective and are not covered by health-monitoring systems.
The doctoral research included in this program will draw on the experience and resources of the international Health, Disease Ecology, Environment and Policy research laboratory directed by Serge Morand and based in Bangkok, as well as on the research on land conversions, mobility and the spread of vector-borne diseases conducted in India by Éric Denis and Olivier Telle of the Géographie-cités laboratory (CNRS / EHESS / Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne / Université Paris Cité). Olivier Telle is currently on temporary assignment at the Institut de Recherche sur l’Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine in Thailand.
