Assessing and Monitoring Spatiotemporal Distribution of Mosquito Habitats, Suez Canal Zone

Abstract

This study aims to predict the potential mosquito larval habitats and monitoring the environmental factors associated with mosquito habitats to assess the spatiotemporal distribution in Suez Canal Zone, during the period of November 2014 - April 2016 by integrating remote sensing and GIS techniques. Larvae were collected using a standard dipping with a small ladle from all accessible breeding habitats. Environmental factors Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) associated with mosquitoes breeding habitats were derived from multispectral images. Results showed that, the maximum predicted area in Port Said governorate (Sector A) was detected at April 2016 recording 134.37 km2, while in Ismailia (Sector B) and Suez Governorates (Sector C) at October 2015 (295.27 km2, 74.37 km2 respectively). Total predicted area in Suez Canal Zone, in the whole study period, could be ordered as following; Ismailia (1196.91 km2, 70%), Port Said (254.61 km2, 17%) and Suez (213.9 km2, 13%). Significant positive correlations were found between the total predicted area in Sector A, B and C with the studied environmental variables. The strongest positive correlation was observed in Ismailia (Sector B). The present study provides the baseline information for decision makers to take necessary optimal control strategies to mitigate mosquito nuisance, proliferation and potential diseases transmission.