A remote sensing based expert system to detect and predict hanta viruses and Lyme infectious disease outbreaks using biophysical modelling, climate, vegetation and auxiliary data.

The objective of this interdisciplinary research is the construction of a general framework of an expert system that can localize and forecast the outbreak of hanta viruses and the Lyme disease based on biophysical modeling of vegetation and disease vectors using remote sensing techniques. This expert system, INFOPRESS, must also forecast the size of vegetation and climate related epidemics. In order to come to an improved approach, the interaction between climate variables (temperature, humidity, rainfall) and the dynamic properties of vegetation (growth and flowering) must be measured and modeled online. For these online models, it is important that they account for all relevant input variables, disturbing factors, feedbacks, and the spatial and temporal characteristics of these variables. As such, a more global approach applicable on large scales is obtained for the early detection and forecasting of climate related epidemics. Earth observation techniques can extract this information by providing spatial and temporal indicators that quantify the dynamics and interactions of vegetative systems and climate. This interaction is essential, because it determines the behavior of reservoir and vector of the diseases.

Keywords:Teledetectie, modellering, epidemiologie

Disciplines:Physical geography and environmental geoscience, Communications technology, Geomatic engineering, Public health care, Public health sciences, Public health services