Document Type : CASE STUDY

Authors

• C. Payus ^{1, 2}
• J. Sentian ^{1, 2}

¹ Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

² Natural Disasters Research Centre, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study analyzed the changes in land use and land cover trends and their implication on malaria transmission using satellite imagery applications. Deforestation or human land use activity related to water and development has expanded the ideal habitats for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, resulting in an upsurge of malaria transmission.
The presence of these habitats and breeding increased the contact between humans and mosquitoes, thus increasing the number of malaria cases. The decrease of canopy and forest cover has increased the temperature, resulting in the shortening of aquatic stages and sporogony development of the mosquitoes. This study aims to provide an understanding of the relationship between the topography effect over the land-use factor and land cover change on malaria for more than ten years from 2005 to 2019 of transmission.
METHODS: Malaria case data obtained were analyzed for the trends, incidence rate, and spatial distribution. Remote Sensing and geographic information system were used to determine the land use and land cover change in selected districts of North Borneo in Sabah, as the study areas.
FINDING: The malaria incidence rate shows an increase from 2005 to 2019, with 149.64%. The transmission of the malaria vector dynamics and abundance with topography changes has changed with time, including with forest declination at 8.38%, and cropland change decreased at 16.61%. However, an expansion of 33.6% was observed for oil palm plantations. Overall, the results have shown that the range of incidence rate was found` highly viable from 0.29/1000 persons to 4.09/1000 people.
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, using geographic information system remote sensing with malaria integrated topography transmission information will be targeted by zoning most affected areas or the most productive larval habitat for remedial measures. This study can help to reduce the malaria vector population through environmental management related to the mosquito larval cycle in different land-use settings and change by minimizing the transmission by the targeted malaria control program.

Graphical Abstract

Highlights

• The results indicated that the highland districts have a high distribution of malaria transmission, similar to the topography changes to oil palm plantations from 2005 to 2019;
• The blueprint and framework on malaria patterns using satellite imagery with GIS and remote sensing on the effect of land use and land cover change the altitudinal effect of high-altitude zones despite the lower altitude were developed, which has rarely been analyzed and discussed;
• The methodological extension was designed to combine the topographical factor with malaria transmission and control intervention using satellite imagery;
• Provided the up-to-date baseline conditions of malaria transmission and occurrence due to land-use effects for the Government as the information is very lacking in the study area.

Keywords

• Climate change
• Geographic information system (GIS)
• Land use and land cover change
• Malaria
• Remote sensing
• Topography
• Transmission risk

Main Subjects

• Health, safety and environment (HSE)

Open Access

©2022 The author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher’s Note

GJESM Publisher remains neutral concerning jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affliations.

Citation Metrics & Captures

Google Scholar | Scopus | Web of Science | PlumX Metrics | Altmetrics | Mendeley |

Current Publisher

GJESM Publisher