Integrating remote sensing and GIS for investigating malaria risk areas in morobe province-papua new guinea

Tropical countries suffer the largest death tolls from the vector borne diseases like Malaria. The Malaria parasites are carried by the female anopheles mosquito. Tropical countries, being located in equatorial region normally have hot humid climate, the ideal breeding ground for such vector borne diseases. Papua New Guinea is one of those countries in tropical region where malaria happens to be the most dreaded disease. Malaria infection is transmitted from human to human through mosquito bite when a female anopheles mosquito has to complete their reproductive life cycle by sucking human blood. The paper tries to identify the possible geographical features or the input factors and then integrates them into the composite mapping units. Finally these units pinpoints the possible areas of different proneness for malaria in Morobe province of Papua New Guinea. GIS and remote sensing technology are basically used here for spatial analysis with a view to identifying various degrees of risk areas for malaria. Several factors responsible for attracting the vectors were identified and investigated using GIS and remote sensing and these are; elevation of the study area from mean sea level, distance from breeding site, slope factor, vulnerability index and Land use land cover type of the study area. Multi criteria evaluation (MCE) and AHP technique was attempted in GIS environment for assessing these factors’ contribution to malaria diseases in the Morobe province and the risk areas were identified and mapped with the aid of on MCE.