AbstractExposure to air pollution can cause detrimental health and be an economic burden. With newly developed equipment, monitoring of different air pollutants, identifying the sources, types of air pollutants and their corresponding concentrations, and applying mitigation intervention techniques became a crucial step in public health protection. Countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) are highly exposed to dust storms, have high levels of particulate matter (PM) concentrations, and have a unique climatic as well as topographic and socio-economic structure. This is the first study conducted to systemically and qualitatively assess the health impacts of air pollution in the EMR, identify susceptible populations, and ascertain research and knowledge gaps in the literature to better inform decisions by policy makers. We screened relevant papers and reports published between 2000 and 2014 in research databases. A total of 36 published studies met the inclusion criteria. A variety of indoor and outdoor exposures associated with various acute and chronic respiratory health outcomes were included. Respiratory health outcomes ranged in severity, from allergies and general respiratory complaints to lung cancer and mortality. Several adverse health outcomes were positively associated with various indoor/outdoor air pollutants throughout the EMR. However, epidemiological literature concerning the EMR is limited to a few studies in a few countries. More research is needed to elucidate the health outcomes of air pollution. Standardized reliable assessments on the national level for various air pollutants in different regions should be implemented and made publically available for researchers to utilize in their research. Moreover, advancing and utilizing more sound epidemiological designs and studies on the effect of air pollution on the respiratory health outcomes is needed to portray the actual situation in the region.

No abstract

AbstractTo summarize the existing knowledge of the impact of climate change on health from previous research in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR) and identify knowledge and research gaps.Different databases were searched for relevant studies published in the region between 2000 and 2014. The review was limited to studies reporting the impacts of climate change on health or studying associations between meteorological parameters and well-defined human health outcomes.This systematic review of 78 studies identified many knowledge and research gaps. Research linking climate change and health is scarce in the most vulnerable countries of the region. There is limited information regarding how changes in temperature, precipitation and other weather variables might affect the geographic range and incidence of mortality and morbidity from various diseases. Available research has many limitations and shortcomings that arise from inappropriate study designs, poor assessment of exposure and outcomes, questionable sources of data, lack of standardized methods, poor adjustment of confounders, limited geographical area studies, small sample sizes, poor statistical modeling and not testing for possible interactions between exposures.Research and information on the effect of climate change on health are limited. Longitudinal studies over extended periods of time that investigate the link between climate change and health are needed. There is a need for studies to be expanded to include more countries in the region and to include other environmental, social and economic factors that might affect the spread of the disease.

Jordan is an arid country with limited water resources, so there is a chronic need to study and understand its hydrology at the watershed scale which will eventually help in achieving good management for the existing scarce water resources. The studied watershed was the Zarqa River Basin which is considered as the largest watershed in Jordan. The objective of this study was to calibrate the hydrological component of the Hydrological Simulation Program -FORTRAN (HSPF) model for the Zarqa River Basin. The calibrated model could be used in a later stage to examine the impact of different management practices and climate change scenarios on the water resources in the basin. The calibration of the HSPF water quantity parameters was aided by GIS and by the automatic calibration model (PEST). The automatic calibration was done for the years 1988-1991 and the validation was done for the years 1996-1998. The coefficient of determination, R 2 for the calibration and verification years of the monthly flows was 0.81 and 0.76, respectively.

No abstract