Geographical environment and global health. conceptual and practical aspects
1 Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, 5-7 Clinicilor Str., 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2 Oradea University, Faculty of Geography, Tourism and Sport, Oradea, Romania
2 Oradea University, Faculty of Geography, Tourism and Sport, Oradea, Romania
Abstract
The link between the spread of diseases and the geographical environment has been made by scientists since a long time. Every element has an entire spectrum of possible effects on a community. One of the main reasons of studying the environment is the understanding of the way the environment conditions influence the human health and the identification of the modalities through which the negative effects of some external factors on this universal good of the society can be reduced. The environmental factors are in a permanent relationship with the human body and influence significantly the health status. Among these factors, the city is present as a social structure and it occurs more strikingly in the public health, in the mental and conceptual environment of humans. In many countries, the appearance of urban explosion induced major problems in the organization of space and quality of life. Geography, with the help of its medical branch and through the way of mental and conceptual approaching, represents an interdisciplinary and complex way to deal with the necessity of explaining the human health damage due to the excess or deficiency of certain chemicals or to some complex environmental problems. In the beginning of the 21st century, geographical environment and global health are issues of major concern. Environmental problems are more and more taken into account at a global scale and promoting understanding of some of the planetary problems and adopting favorable behaviors concerning the environment represent simultaneously the approach of the addressed theme. The complex connections between the elements of the geographical environment, urban environment in relation to medical geography and environmental psychology are analyzed under the form of case studies. The pluridisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity represent the methodological basis applied to the relationship between the geographical environment and global health.
Keywords
geographical environment; global health; urban environment