Our work has recently shown that cholera outbreaks in Yemen are closely linked to reported air raids. Governorates experiencing severe air strikes had more than double the cholera incidence compared to those without air strikes. However, traditional conflict measures rely on incomplete reporting and often fail to capture infrastructure destruction and rebuilding, or population displacement. Using nighttime lights (NTL) data, we analyse conflict-related disruptions in Yemen and Ukraine, demonstrating their potential as a scalable alternative for measuring conflict intensity. By incorporating NTL into models of cholera incidence, we address biases in conflict reporting and provide an objective method for assessing the health impacts of conflict in real time.

Dr. Daniel Parker is a medical geographer and spatial epidemiologist specializing in infectious disease dynamics, human movement, and spatial interventions, particularly in under-resourced and conflict-affected regions. His research integrates geographic information systems (GIS), Earth observation data, molecular epidemiology, and advanced statistical modelling to examine disease transmission and barriers to healthcare. He has led large-scale geographic reconnaissance efforts for malaria interventions in Eastern Myanmar; worked on vector-borne disease ecology in Asia, East Africa, and the U.S.A.; and conducted research on displaced populations’ access to healthcare. Through collaborations with NGOs, governments, and academic institutions, his work directly informs scalable public health interventions, using geospatial technologies to analyse mobility patterns and model disease distributions across space and time, and to enhance healthcare delivery in vulnerable populations.