Geospatial techniques for environmental modeling of mosquito breeding habitats at Suez Canal Zone, Egypt

Abstract

Egypt is currently witnessing a number of mega projects, along the axis of Suez Canal, which consequently have a great effect on environment and its biological components including mosquito vectors of diseases. This study is an attempt to explore the use and efficiency of integrated remote sensing-GIS techniques and field surveys for detection of mosquito breeding habitats at Suez Canal Zone. Remote sensing and field surveys provided the necessary verified ground truth information to the present study. A corrected Landsat8 image, acquired in Jan. 2015, was utilized to produce NDVI, NDMI and LST to identify environmental variables associated with mosquitoes breeding habitats. Concurrently, a GIS model was developed to predict probable mosquito habitats and areas under environmental risk of diseases transmission. Results revealed that Culex pipiens and Ochlerotatus detritus are the most abundant species in Suez Canal Zone recording total number of 362 larvae (51.86%) and 244 larvae (34.96%), respectively. The model predicted that Ismailia is the most subjected Suez Canal Governorate to mosquito borne diseases. It recorded the maximum levels of high risk, risk and vulnerable areas to mosquito proliferation; 6.06km2 (64.26%), 954.65km2 (54.58%) and 152.87km2 (80.09%), respectively. The developed prediction model achieved an accuracy of 80.95% and increased to 100% at sites where predicted larval habitats were ascertained by in-situ checks.