REMOTE SENSING AND GIS FOR DENGUE EPIDEMIC RISK MAPPING IN LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Over the last two decades, dengue fever has become a major mosquito borne disease
in Pakistan. Dengue outbreaks were reported in the major cities of Pakistan especially in Lahore where
the number of dengue cases increased radically in 2011 making it the worst epidemic in the national
history. It had been observed that dengue virus population increases in specific climatic conditions and
there were some Environmental Factors EFs that promoted its growth. The objective of this study was
to propose an advance approach to identify the risk prone areas by linking these factors with dengue
outbreaks using satellite data and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques. Information
provided in terms of spatial and temporal distribution patterns of dengue fever outbreaks in Lahore and
its relationships with EFs was helpful in developing dengue risk map. The results showed that most of
the cases occurred in those areas which received heavy rainfall R2 ranging from 0.66 to 0.8 followed by high temperature and low Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).