Joan Aron stated that the international health and development community needs more training in applications of earth system science. She recommended that educators develop more interactive training tools oriented toward decision-makers.

Zhong Liu provided some information about tools developed by the hydrology data support team at NASA/GSFC/DAAC and George Mason University. He especially recommended TOVAS (TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System).

Ulisses Confalonieri stated that the most important topics should be those with direct impacts on human population health, such as climate variability and change; depletion of stratospheric ozone; water issues; and biodiversity issues. An assessment of human vulnerability is central since it is a major factor in determining the impacts of environmental changes.

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Diagnostics and prediction of climate variability and human health impacts in the tropical Americas