Mapping of mosquito-borne diseases in Kolkata Municipal Corporation using GIS and AHP based decision making approach

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases are those which transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. Stagnant water bodies are often preferable for breeding sites of mosquitos. But from breeding eggs to final stage, there are many factors responsible for its incubation, maturation and growth enough to bite and transmit diseases. The main aim of present study is to focus on associated environmental factors that provide suitable breeding sites and susceptibility mapping of mosquito-borne-diseases through geospatial technique and decision making approach. Analytic hierarchy process as a decision making approach was integrated with geographic information system to map of mosquito-borne diseases in Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Choice based various ranking was used to decide the weights of selected factors through establishing pairwise comparison matrix. Initially, 10 relevant environmental factors were chosen to determine their weight through pairwise comparison matrix. Concomitantly, weight of each causative factor was used as geo-database to support overlay analysis. Consistency ratio was calculated to check the decision process and significance measurement. The consistency ratio of decision factors was calculated as 0.0470, which is < 0.1 and considered as consistent and acceptable. The study analysis shows that proximity to water bodies is a major responsible factor and subsequently moisture content, water index, availability of shadow area and presence of vegetation are also influential factors in prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases. The present result shows the high applicability of satellite data and spatial technique in epidemic diseases zonation.