Urban Vector-Borne Pathogens in Tropical Cities Under Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

There has been a substantial effort focusing on how climate change will impact vector-borne diseases globally and regionally, most especially emphasizing the changing exposure and disease burden distributions. One neglected aspect is how climate change will impact the burden at the urban scale and that specifically in the tropics and subtropics and what mitigation and adaptation strategies are being performed and should be developed to alleviate this burden. Cities generate their own climate to an extent, and it is unclear how global climate change and urban-specific climate, especially in the tropics, interact to impact VBDs. Crucial aspects to this concern urban development and what can be done not only to alleviate the recognized problems of urban heat and pollution islands but also how to simultaneously plan for mitigating VBDs. This Special Issue therefore aims to fill this gap by addressing (i) how climate change is anticipated to impact subtropical and tropical cities, most notably from a socio-demographic viewpoint in the context of projections under the different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, with specific respect to the VBD burden; (ii) what the consequences are for the intra-urban VBD burden that can already be seen and what is expected to occur in the near future; and (iii) what mitigation and adaptation strategies can be envisaged, including those that focus on the sprawling peri-urban development we are currently witnessing. Papers addressing case studies on specific cities with respect to the VBD burden as well as mitigation and adaptation strategies will be most welcome, as will more general papers addressing the relative contributions of climate change vs. the urban climate on VBDs. Whilst the focus is for the most part on mosquito-borne pathogens, including both human-specific pathogens and zoonoses, other arthropod vectors, including other dipteran vectors and ticks, will be especially welcome.

Dr. Rick E. Paul
Guest Editor

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• vector-borne diseases
• urban climate
• climate change
• mitigation and adaptation strategies