Environmental and public health tracking to advance knowledge for planetary health.

Over the last two centuries, the nature of healthcare and public health has evolved from infectious disease control and sanitation to issues surrounding the 7-fold population growth and the emerging threats associated with chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), global climate change, pollution and diminishing resources.1 Knowledge is needed to support a range of sectors that contribute to the prevention and management of NCDs, such as transportation, housing, energy, waste management, land use and climate change. The physical environment has negative (e.g. air pollution) as well as positive impacts on lifestyle and health (e.g. availability of footpaths and cycle lanes, green areas). ‘Planetary health’, described by The Rockefeller Foundation- Lancet Commission on Planetary Health,1 and the related concept of ‘ecological public health’2 may be the ultimate ‘wicked problems’ of our time. Environmental health problems have often …