Identifying Potential Areas of Human Zika Infection in the City of Los Angeles, California By Use of Remote Sensing Imagery

Zika is a disease which poses a significant risk to humans and due to strong links of microcephaly during pregnancy. This emerging disease highly contagious due to its spread of infection primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitos. Aedes mosquitos are able to breed in small rain collecting containers which allow the species to persevere in urban and semi urban environments. This study attempts to identify potential areas with risk of human infection within Los Angeles and its surrounding areas. The integration of remote sensing, GIS, geostatistical, and environmental techniques is utilized to study favorable habitats for this particular species of mosquitos and their larvae. Los Angeles was chosen due to its diverse landscape and human population factors. These factors are compared to the geographic and landscape factors which promote the larvae development allow for the disease spread to be analyzed and modeled. There are several goals in the development of this study. These include the coordination of statistical data from population risk modeling methods which can be utilized for disease prevention, identification of geographic risk factors, and human behavior for the spread of Zika