The European project EO4Health Resilience, led by GMV in Portugal, has come to an end, marking a significant milestone in the application of Earth Observation (EO) data to the field of public health. Funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the Future EO Resilience framework, EO4Health Resilience assesses how environmental information derived from satellite data, combined with advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence techniques, can support the monitoring, modelling, and anticipation of health risks associated with environmental factors.

The project addresses a growing need for innovative, independent, and scalable tools that complement traditional health surveillance systems and enable progress towards more resilient, informed, and proactive systems, in the context of climate change, increasing environmental pressures, and the emergence of new disease patterns.

EO4Health Resilience has successfully demonstrated that EO data can play a concrete and operational role in public health, supporting early risk detection and more informed decision-making. The project focused on three main areas of relevance to public health: vector-borne diseases, water-borne diseases, non-communicable diseases and urban health.

Within the framework of the project, the consortium developed the EO4Health Virtual Observatory, a unified and user-friendly environment that provides access to information without requiring specialized knowledge of EO or geospatial analysis. This significantly lowers barriers to adoption for public health authorities, researchers, and other stakeholders.

Throughout the project’s development, a range of forums, training activities, and outreach initiatives were organized to engage the health community and promote dialogue between EO specialists and health professionals. These interactions helped ensure that the services developed were aligned with real operational needs, while also identifying persistent challenges related to data access, standardization, and interdisciplinary collaboration.