Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Malaria Risk: Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing Mapping Using Environmental Factors: A Case of Humbo Woreda, Chewkare kebele, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional State
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia is a predominantly malaria prone country like most sub Saharan African countries, the landscape being favorable for the breeding of malaria vector. This study aims to explore how the interplay between environmental factors, GIS and Remote Sensing could be applied for the identification, mapping of malaria risk and contribute to the prevention and control efforts of malaria in Humbo Woreda of Wolaita Zone particularly Chewkare kebele. The study reveals that ability of GIS and remote sensing to deal with large data sets and incorporate satellite images makes it easy to analyze the environmental determinants of malaria. For mapping malaria hazard areas at Chewkare kebele seven parameters were selected. The parameters include rainfall, temperature, altitude, soil, slope, distance from swamp areas, and distance from rivers. These layers were combined by using weighted multi criteria evaluation. Similarly, risk map was developed depending on the malaria hazard layer, land use/land cover, distance from ponds and population density layers of the study area. The resulting malaria hazard map depicts that 15%, 74 % and 11.2% of the total area is subject to moderate, high and very high level of malaria hazard. The risk map produced from the overlay analysis of the four parameters shows as a result 5.0%, 46.5%, 24.3% and 24.2% of the total area is subject to very high, high, moderate and low to malaria risk respectively. In conclusion, more than 85% of the total area is highly exposed to malaria hazard and over 51% of the total area is under high and very high risk of malaria. Since maps of malaria risk are considered as one of the very vital input it is therefore, critical to use them in every aspect of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of any development processes as well as malaria eradication and prevention program in the kebele
\Key words: GIS, Malaria, Remote Sensing, Risk and Weighted Overlay
Description
Keywords
GIS, Malaria, Remote Sensing, Risk and Weighted Overlay