? To date, there has been only limited professional interaction between scientists who primarily consider themselves landscape ecologists, and scientists from biomedical fields who are addressing the linkages between environmental change and disease risk. Landscape ecology explores the effects of spatial patterns on ecological processes, placing a particular emphasis on linkages across multiple spatial scales. Spatial epidemiology examines the influences the influences of demographic, environmental, behavioral, socioeconomic, genetic, and infectious risk factors on the geographic patterns of diseases. The development of both of these fields has been closely tied to the emergence of geographical information systems and satellite remote sensing technologies. There is much to be gained by encouraging cross- disciplinary interactions between landscape ecology and the health scientists to foster the exchange of concepts and methodologies. To facilitate this type of interaction, a special session addressing the landscape ecology of infectious disease will be held at the 2008 US-IALE meeting. Travel awards will be offered to graduate student and postdoctoral trainees to stimulate interest and future research in this emerging, interdisciplinary field. The symposium will specifically address how the concepts and techniques developed in the field of landscape ecology can contribute to research into the effects of environmental change on infectious disease risk. It will also explore how a fusion of landscape ecology and the health sciences could result in the development of new tools and practical applications for improving public health. Landscape ecology explores the effects of spatial patterns on ecological processes, placing a particular emphasis on linkages across multiple spatial scales. These themes are clearly relevant to understanding the biological, environmental, and anthropogenic factors that influence the geographic distributions of vector-borne and zoonotic pathogens, as well as the consequent risks of human exposure. Developing a closer linkage between landscape ecology and the health sciences will lead to the development of tools and methodologies with the potential to enhance public health, including improved disease risk maps, new approaches to disease surveillance, and early warning systems to predict disease outbreaks resulting from environmental change. ? ? ?
