GIS and Remote Sensing

Mapping helps us to see how the disease is spreading and how the environment is associated with disease cases. In this project, we will be examining distributions of infected humans, domestic animals, and triatomine bugs. We have a georeferenced database that is based on a detailed map of the locations of every domestic and peridomestic structure in the study area. The distances among all structures will be derived in ArcInfo GIS and used to create a distance matrix for statistical analyses and to incorporate spatial heterogeneity into mathematical models.

The map below is an IKONOS image acquired in October of 2002. This image was used to map out the houses and the out buildings in our study area. These maps will not only help in the spatial analysis described above but will also be used in the field to help navigate on-site.

A historical environmental database will be established from a series of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images starting from the mid 1980's. These images will be compared for vegetation cover, water surfaces, and other environmental parameters. All epidemiological, entomological, demographic, and habitat data will be integrated into the database.