A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING THE FIELD EFFICIENCY OF DRONES IN IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL BREEDING SITES OF THE Aedes MOSQUITO

Abstract

The identification of breeding sites is key to dengue prevention strategies. Community involvement and breeding site surveillance play a vital role in controlling the Aedes population. Drones have emerged as a promising tool to be used in surveillance activities. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework and present comprehensive intervention methods to control dengue cases. This study explores the concepts of community engagement, habitat profiling and mapping, and technology integration that will be implemented in the three main phases. Phase I: Community engagement, in which to understand the implementation characteristics of the proposed system using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and Human-Centred Design (HCD); Phase II: Profiling and mapping potential breeding sites, in order to compare and characterise vector breeding sites of the Aedes mosquito in selected urban and rural areas using innovative drone technologies; Phase III: Technology integration by developing automated linkage of information on the mapping of mosquito breeding sites for dengue risk to an application platform. This conceptual framework can assess the efficiency of drones as an alternative tool for dengue surveillance and the use of technology to locate breeding sites effortlessly, which can later be applied in dengue-endemic regions.