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International Journal of Remote Sensing

Vol. 31, No. 1, 10 January 2010, 311

Dengue vector (Aedes aegypti) larval habitats in an urban environment


of Costa Rica analysed with ASTER and QuickBird imagery
NDOUGLAS O. FULLER*, ADRIANA TROYO, OLGER CALDERO
ARGUEDAS and JOHN C. BEIER
Department of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA
Global Public Health Program, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health,
University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA
Centro de Investigacion en Enfermedades Tropicales, Departamento de Parasitologa,
Facultad de Microbiologa, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica
Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA
(Received 5 February 2008; in final form 27 February 2009)
Dengue fever is transmitted mainly by the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, which
breeds in water-filled containers in tropical urban areas. In this study medium- and
high-resolution satellite (ASTER and QuickBird) imagery were used to map tree
cover and built-up surfaces in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, where dengue fever has
been endemic since 1993. Hard and soft image classification algorithms were used
to generate these variables, which were analysed with respect to vector habitat
distribution as measured by the potential mosquito habitats during the wet season
of 2006. A multiple linear regression model revealed that built-up surfaces derived
from ASTER imagery explained 63.6% of the variance in the number of larval
habitats found during the wet season when transmission and incidence of dengue
were highest. The results suggest that elements of urban structure such as built-up
surfaces may be used to predict the presence of an important disease vector within
urban areas and that medium-resolution satellite imagery may help to inform
future prevention and control strategies in Costa Rica and other countries where
dengue fever is endemic.

1.

Introduction

Among vector-borne diseases, dengue fever is the most important arboviral disease
globally, with an estimated 50 to 100 million cases and 12 000 to 24 000 deaths per year
(Gibbons and Vaughn 2002, WHO 2002). The principal dengue mosquito vector,
Aedes aegypti, lives in close association with humans mainly in urban and suburban
environments (Service 1992, Gibbons and Vaughn 2002). Female Ae. aegypti mosquitoes preferentially ingest human blood and commonly lay their eggs in water-filled
artificial containers such as drums, buckets and tires where water can collect and
remain for several days (Service 1992, Focks and Chadee 1997, Gubler 1998,
Calderon-Arguedas et al. 2004). Although Ae. aegypti was eliminated from Costa
Rica in 1960, the vector became re-established during the 1980s and dengue virus
transmission was reported in 1993 (WHO 1994). Within Costa Rica, dengue is
currently the most important vector-borne disease, with over 140 000 cases reported
*Corresponding author. Email: dofuller@miami.edu
International Journal of Remote Sensing
ISSN 0143-1161 print/ISSN 1366-5901 online # 2010 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/01431160902865756

D. O. Fuller et al.

since its reintroduction, including almost 38 000 cases in 2005 (Ministerio de Salud
et al. 2004, Ministerio de Salud 2006).
Remotely sensed data can provide spatial information to study the epidemiology of
many vector-borne diseases (Hay et al. 1997, Beck et al. 2000, Thomson and Connor
2000, Bergquist 2001, Correia et al. 2004). Commercial imaging satellites such as
IKONOS and QuickBird offer new opportunities to assess urban habitats for disease
vectors by providing very high spatial resolutions (,0.05 to 4 m) appropriate for
identification of city blocks, individual roads, tree crowns, roadways, buildings, and
rooftops. Using classified QuickBird imagery, Troyo (2007) developed a series of
multiple regression models that included tree cover, built-up areas, and a variable that
accounted for the number of locations sampled within an urban grid cell. These
models explained between 61.5% and 65.0% of variance in containers adequate for
development for Ae. aegypti mosquito larvae. Here we extend this approach to
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imagery to examine whether such medium-resolution data can be substituted for more
costly and spatially limited commercial imagery. Small (2003) showed that the characteristic scale of urban reflectance is consistently between 10 and 20 m for a range of
different cities, which suggests that soft classification of 15 m ASTER imagery may
provide the opportunity to analyse urban structural variables that indicate the presence of vector habitats. Specifically, we derived two urban structural variables from
satellite imagery and examined how these related to the presence of larval habitats
within the Puntarenas area. The same variables were obtained from 15 m ASTER and
2.4 m QuickBird imagery acquired during the same time period (20022003). Thus,
the purpose of our study was: (1) to evaluate the suitability of medium-resolution
(15 m) ASTER imagery for deriving urban structural variables that may relate to
Ae. aegypti habitat distribution; and (2) to examine empirical relationships between
these variables derived from soft classification of ASTER imagery and larval habitats
in an endemic area.
2.

Study area and methods

Our study focused on the Greater Puntarenas area, Costa Rica, which is located on
the Pacific Coast of the country (figure 1). The most densely built-up part of
Puntarenas is on a narrow, low-lying, eastwest trending peninsula and adjacent
mainland areas that have served as a major tourist destination over the past several
decades. The study area encompasses ,20 km2 and census data indicate the presence
of approximately 100 000 people and 20 000 houses, most of which (.95%) are
classified as urban, although there is a marked heterogeneity in sizes and quality
(INEC 2002). Puntarenas is the site of dengue reintroduction to Costa Rica in 1993
(WHO 1994), and it has been greatly affected by the disease ever since. Between 2001
and 2005, more than 7000 cases of dengue were reported by the Ministry of Health
(Ministerio de Salud 2006).
Data were collected and analysed at two levels of spatial aggregation: administrative
districts or localities, and individual cells, where field sampling was conducted. A
larval field survey was performed during the wet season in the last week of July, which
involved a sampling method detailed in Troyo et al. (2008a) to select the locations for
larval habitat analysis. This entailed the establishment of variably sized grids that
resulted in a sample cell size of 1 ha, an area sufficient to contain 13  6 houses,
which is large enough for the field team to survey within half a day (Troyo et al. 2008a).

Figure 1. The study area shown at three different scales: (a) Costa Rica with the approximate location of Puntarenas in the rectangle; (b) map of the
localities from which dengue incidence and housing data were obtained; (c) ASTER satellite image (near-infrared band) from 2002 showing the area analysed
in medium-resolution satellite imagery.

ASTER imagery and Dengue vector distribution


5

D. O. Fuller et al.

A stratified random sample of 36 cells (10% from each locality) was selected, where all
the locations included would be searched for mosquito larval habitats. A location was
any legally limited section of land that may have included a house or a building such as
parks, streets and sidewalks, households, lots, and construction sites. All locations
surveyed in a sample cell were searched and a total of 829 larval habitats were sampled
for mosquito larvae during the wet season (Troyo et al. 2008b). These habitats included
cans, small plastic food containers, buckets, tires, drums, wash tubs, roof gutters, and
any other objects that might contain mosquito larvae. The presence or absence of
mosquito immature stages was noted for each habitat and, when present, samples
were collected and processed for species identification.
2.1

Satellite imagery and data

Four ASTER scenes (15 m) were acquired during the dry and wet seasons, respectively, of 2002 and 2003, and two QuickBird scenes available for March 2002 and
October 2003 were mosaiced to produce single high-resolution images, which covered
the districts of Puntarenas and most of Chacarita (10 localities in total). The
QuickBird scenes were individually georeferenced to increase their geospatial accuracy (root mean square error (RMSE) 2.9 m and 3.1 m for the 2002 and 2003
scenes, respectively) by using 38 ground control points obtained with a hand-held
global positioning system.
Urban land cover maps were produced from the QuickBird scenes by applying
supervised image classifiers to each QuickBird image. Classification algorithms
included the maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) and the backpropagation artificial
neural network (BPNN). These classifiers assigned each pixel to specific, predetermined land cover classes including tree, asphalt, building, and bare soil, and the
resultant classified images were mosaiced. Classification accuracy was assessed by
using points selected at random from the original panchromatic QuickBird scene and
the mean percentage cover for each class was calculated for the QuickBird and 15 m
ASTER pixels covering the cells sampled for vector habitats as well as localities in
which locations were examined for containers. The panchromatic image provided a
set of mutually exclusive training and validation points for the automated image
classifiers. The proportion of built-up area and tree cover was extracted for the
individual localities of Puntarenas as these had acceptable class accuracies (reported
below) and were assumed to relate to mosquito habitat distribution based on descriptions in the epidemiological literature (Focks and Chadee 1997, Gubler 1998, Vezzani
et al. 2005, Bisset-Lazcano et al. 2006). Geographic information system (GIS) operations were applied to the final classified products to extract data at the locality and
sample cell levels.
Owing to limited spatial coverage and high costs of the QuickBird imagery, we
applied a soft classification approach to the ASTER scenes to estimate fractional tree
and built-up cover for 36 sample cells in Puntarenas. We used a multilayer perceptron
(MLP) backpropagation algorithm to decompose pixel endmembers into proportional tree cover, built-up surfaces (paved and buildings), and open/green spaces.
Although neural networks function largely as a black box, research suggests that
they may produce superior results relative to linear unmixing and regression trees (Liu
and Wu 2005). The backpropagation MLP parameters such as learning rate, layer and
node numbers, and iterations were adjusted experimentally to produce a set of soft
classification outputs for visual and quantitative assessment. To incorporate

ASTER imagery and Dengue vector distribution

seasonality in the classification, the first three multispectral ASTER bands (15 m)
from three relatively cloud-free ASTER scenes (,10% cloud) from both wet and dry
seasons were included as inputs to the MLP and training data were derived from the
panchromatic bands of the QuickBird imagery described above. Changes in urban
structure from 2002 to 2006 were assumed to be minimal; therefore, the imagery was
considered suitable for analysis of larval habitat data collected in 2006. Both classified
imagery and panchromatic imagery from QuickBird were used along with housing
data aggregated to the locality level to assess the soft classification outputs from the
ASTER imagery and the percentage built-up surfaces and tree cover were averaged
for each of the 1 ha grid cells where larvae were sampled.
3.

Results

The most accurate thematic map resulting from classification of the 2002/2003
QuickBird images correctly classified 80% of the urban land cover and had a
Kappa index of 0.74. In this map the built class had 24% errors of omission and
20% errors of commission, while the tree class had 7% errors of omission and 10%
errors of commission. Values for each locality extracted from the ASTER imagery
revealed a significant correlation (r 0.682, p , 0.05) between proportional built-up
area derived from ASTER and the same variable extracted from the QuickBird
(figure 2(a)). Furthermore, the ASTER-based product produced a higher estimate
of proportional built-up area than the QuickBird product. However, agreement
between the two products was higher for proportional tree cover (r 0.970,
p , 0.01), although the QuickBird product produced a slightly higher estimate of
tree cover per locality than the ASTER-based product (figure 2(b)). Using house
density data from the Ministry of Health, we found a positive relationship (r 0.742,
p , 0.01) between one element of the built class (houses) and the proportion built-up
area derived from ASTER.

Figure 2. Scatter diagrams showing the relationships between tree cover and built-up area
derived from ASTER and QuickBird imagery, averaged by locality for 10 localities covered by
both image sources: (a) ASTERBUILT versus proportional built-up area from QuickBird;
(b) ASTERTREE versus proportional tree cover obtained from QuickBird imagery.

D. O. Fuller et al.

Table 1. Detailed results of the multiple regression analysis involving the independent variable,
#HABITATS, and the dependent variables ASTERTREE, ASTERBUILT and LOCE.

Intercept
ASTERTREE
ASTERBUILT
LOCE

Beta

SE

SE

t(30)

p-level

0.087
0.407
0.749

0.178
0.167915
0.120

21.550
16.857
46.124
1.659

11.117
34.42709
18.98943
0.267

1.938
0.489
2.428
6.213

0.062
0.627
0.021
0.000

To explain the variation in containers (#HABITATS), we used a multiple regression model based on cell-level data that included a correction factor to account for the
spatial heterogeneity of locations evaluated (LOCE) in each cell, and the independent
variables proportional tree cover (ASTERTREE) and built-up area (ASTERBUILT)
derived from ASTER. The LOCE corresponds to the total number of accessible
locations (households, parks, streets, lots, fields, buildings, and so on) surveyed
completely for mosquito larval habitats. The following equation gives the result for
the wet season, when vector abundance is greatest:
#HABITATS 39:17ASTERBUILT 1:71LOCE 17:05
R2 0:636; p 0:000; df 31
The inclusion of ASTERTREE in the multiple regression models did not improve the
results and was not found to be significant (table 1). Furthermore, we tested for
normality of the residuals using the KolmogorovSmirnov d statistic (K-S
d 0.087, p . 0.2) and Lillefors p (p . 0.2), and both indicated a normal data
structure. We also assessed the model residuals with the DurbinWatson statistic
(D-W 1.71), which suggested no serial autocorrelation.
4.

Discussion and conclusions

Although the spatial resolution of the imagery used in this study was inappropriate
for resolving Ae. aegypti larval habitats, the results are comparable to those that
Troyo (2007) achieved using QuickBird imagery. Therefore, medium-resolution data
from ASTER appeared to provide a proxy variable (ASTERBUILT) for statistical
modelling of vector habitats in an endemic urban area. Previous studies that have
used satellite imagery have shown that dengue is related to urban or built-up areas as
opposed to forested areas (e.g. Nakhapakorn and Tripathy 2005). However, our
results are inconsistent with this finding, perhaps because the field survey found few
positive containers reported in the most densely built-up areas of Puntarenas (e.g. El
Centro), where there was low tree cover, fewer houses, with small yards and more
commercial and industrial buildings or relatively good sanitation. Thus, although
such areas may be densely built up, industrial and commercial areas may have low
human population density and few mosquitoes. Troyos (2007) analysis using
QuickBird imagery indicated that moderately built-up residential areas with moderate tree cover were likely to contain relatively high numbers of habitats positive for
Ae. aegypti larvae, which was evidenced through multiple regression models developed for the total number of larval habitats as well as for the proportion of habitats
positive for Ae. aegypti. This is also supported by studies that suggest that tree crowns

ASTER imagery and Dengue vector distribution

are likely to provide some benefit to Ae. aegypti larvae by reducing evaporation from
containers (Vezzani et al. 2005, Barrera et al. 2006, Bisset-Lazcano et al. 2006). Other
studies have shown that large amounts of tree cover were inversely related to dengue
incidence, which suggests that such areas lack sufficient containers for breeding sites
and may be isolated from human hosts, as the Ae. aegypti mosquito typically does not
travel far (,200 m) in search of blood meals (Muir and Kay 1998, Harrington et al.
2005, Russell et al. 2005). Further analysis of site microclimatic factors may reveal
more complex relationships between urban mosquito habitats and tree cover. In
addition, analyses of container profiles in Greater Puntarenas have shown that
some locations are more likely to harbour larval habitats (Troyo et al. 2008b).
Including different types of location in this model may reveal further effects on
habitat abundance, although insufficient sample size of 36 cells in our study precluded
the use of more independent variables in the analysis.
Several limitations of our study are worth noting. Even though sample cells were
spatially bounded and independence was assumed, their boundaries cannot be considered barriers to mosquito or human dispersal, as they have no discernable influence
on the movement of individuals. Classification errors may also have introduced
unexplained variation in the regression models and therefore improvements in classification accuracy are warranted, possibly through the use of image-segmentation
algorithms. Nonetheless, these results should be of interest to public health officials
seeking to improve dengue prevention and control in sites where tree cover, impervious surfaces and open areas are mixed within the urban environment. In addition,
medium-resolution imagery, which typically covers at least 60 km  60 km, may
include large urban areas or multiple municipalities that are at risk of dengue.
Urban land-cover maps derived from such imagery may provide a foundation for
the development of dengue risk maps that support the prediction and identification of
priority zones for vector control activities, such as insecticide spraying, education, and
source reduction campaigns, especially in areas where prompt action is required and
limited or no detailed epidemiological and entomological data are available.
Acknowledgements
We thank Mayra Solano, Adrian Avendano, students and personnel of the University
of Costa Rica, Victoria Sanchez and Rosana Velit, and the Ministry of Health, for
facilitating the acquisition of data for Puntarenas and other local information. This
research was supported by Grant Number P20 RR020770 from the National Center
for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), and its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not
necessarily represent the official view of NCRR or NIH.
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