ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY IN SCHOOLS IN CAMBODIA

Environmental survey in Cambodia

In Cambodia, the ECOMORE project objective is to measure whether the implementation of an integrated vector control strategy focusing schools and can mitigate peak of dengue by comparing 12 intervention schools with 12 non-intervention schools. See Video 

From December 19th to 21st 2018, Vincent Herbreteau (IRD), from the Ecomore WP Climate component, took opportunity of servicing the In2care system in the 12 schools in the intervention area, to join the IPC Entomological Team and so to conduct an environmental survey of the study area in Kampong Cham and Tboung Khmoun provinces.

One of the objectives of the Climate component of ECOMORE project is to populate a database to assess the environmental and climate factors on leptospirosis and dengue outbreaks dynamics; it was important for Vincent Herbreteau to visit the site of the study to better link satellite data and reality of the field.

The main objective was to examine the environmental diversity around the 24 schools studied and to conduct surveys for mapping of the zones. The presence of wetlands, but also artificial water reservoirs, is of great interest for the spatial analyses planned on the diversity of mosquitoes present and the effectiveness of control actions.

A preliminary mapping has already been performed by the WP Climate team on these 24 schools and villages. These geographical data were captured via the open and participatory OpenStreetMap database, so that this project data can be freely reused by anyone.

Additionally medium spatial resolution Sentinel-2 satellite images were also acquired to measure environmental dynamics during the study (especially vegetation and water dynamics). The radiometric pre-processing necessary for the analysis of such time series has just been carried out. These data will be analyzed in 2019 to document entomological and epidemiological observations.