Exploring fine-scale urban landscapes using satellite data to predict the distribution of Aedes mosquito breeding sites
Teillet C., Devillers R., Tran A., Catry T., Marti R., Dessay N., Rwagitinywa J., Restrepo J., Roux E.. 2024. International Journal of Health Geographics, 23 : 20 p..
Background: The spread of mosquito-transmitted diseases such as dengue is a major public health issue worldwide. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, a primary vector for dengue, thrives in urban environments and breeds mainly in artificial or natural water containers. While the relationship between urban landscapes and potential breeding sites remains poorly understood, such a knowledge could help mitigate the risks associated with these diseases. This study aimed to analyze the relationships between urban landscape characteristics and potential breeding site abundance and type in cities of French Guiana (South America), and to evaluate the potential of such variables to be used in predictive models. Methods: We use Multifactorial Analysis to explore the relationship between urban landscape characteristics derived from very high resolution satellite imagery, and potential breeding sites recorded from in-situ surveys. We then applied Random Forest models with different sets of urban variables to predict the number of potential breeding sites where entomological data are not available. Results: Landscape analyses applied to satellite images showed that urban types can be clearly identified using texture indices. The Multiple Factor Analysis helped identify variables related to the distribution of potential breeding sites, such as buildings class area, landscape shape index, building number, and the first component of texture indices. Models predicting the number of potential breeding sites using the entire dataset provided an R² of 0.90, possibly influenced by overfitting, but allowing the prediction over all the study sites. Predictions of potential breeding sites varied highly depending on their type, with better results on breeding sites types commonly found in urban landscapes, such as containers of less than 200 L, large volumes and barrels. The study also outlined the limitation offered by the entomological data, whose sampling was not specifically designed for this stu
Mots-clés : télédétection; aedes aegypti; vecteur de maladie; paysage; imagerie par satellite; zone urbaine; environnement urbain; aedes; méthode statistique; urbanisation; distribution spatiale; site de reproduction; guyane française; france
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Agents Cirad, auteurs de cette publication :
- Tran Annelise — Es / UMR TETIS