The LANDOR project
The quality and availability of health and environmental data are key factors for research in the field of environmental health. However, the latter—data relating to geographical areas—have limitations due to a lack of historical depth, heterogeneity, and the complexities involved in utilizing and/or reconstructing them.
Furthermore, they are not built to study the effects of the environment on health. However, knowledge of the environment is at the heart of the Preventive, Predictive and Personalized objectives of tomorrow’s medicine (5P Medicine), and beyond that, concerns humans, animals and the health of the environment itself (One-Health).
The LANDOR project proposes a reconstruction of historical and current land cover in metropolitan France, explicitly integrating considerations and needs related to environmental health issues and enabling the scientific community to utilize this data.
The project is structured around a Space/Time/Health triad:
- First, a detailed reconstruction of land use and occupancy since the 1950s, incorporating the best methodologies for the various analysis periods based on specific needs and available data.
- Next, an exploration of environmental health issues in relation to the territory—its evolution and usage—drawing on examples such as known cases of exposure or health-related controversies.
- Finally, the use of environmental data within two lifetime case-control epidemiological studies to assess environmental risk factors: specifically, the link between lifelong individual exposure to plant protection products (starting from conception) and two types of cancer (testicular cancer and paraganglioma).
Combining this expertise will create a synergy enabling us to refine our approaches to understanding spatiotemporal data related to living environments—including the generation of such data via AI-driven spatial computer vision algorithms and their application in health studies.
Project leaders:
Marc BOURGEOIS
As a geography lecturer and researcher at the Environnement Ville Société laboratory, I specialize in landscape ecology—a discipline situated at the interface of geography and ecology. My work generally focuses on research questions related to conservation geography and nature-based solutions, and more specifically on the spatial modeling of ecological networks for animal species.
Astrid COSTE
An epidemiologist with the Prévention Cancer Environnement Department since 2020—and affiliated with Inserm Unit 1296 (Radiation: Defense, Health, Environment)—I have approached the link between the environment and health through two disciplines: geography and epidemiology.
During my PhD in epidemiology and an initial post-doctoral position in Switzerland, I investigated the role of exposure to ultraviolet radiation and pesticides in the development of pediatric cancers. My research at the Centre Léon Bérard allows me to delve deeper into the health effects of residential exposure to agricultural pesticides—focusing this time on testicular germ cell tumors as part of the TESTIS case-control study. Additionally, I am developing an interventional research project, SOLSTEEN , which focuses on preventing UV exposure in middle schools across the Lyon metropolitan area.
Lény GRASSOT
As a geomatics researcher within an environmental epidemiology team at the Centre de Lutte Contre le Cancer Léon Bérard, I develop data, tools, and methods to optimize the estimation of individual exposures, specifically accounting for individuals’ spatial and temporal trajectories (e.g., tracking residential moves over the course of a lifetime). The ultimate goal is to better understand the relationship between location, behavior, and the onset of diseases—in this case, cancer.