Low, Russanne (Rusty): IGES (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2017 - 2018
NRA: 2016 NASA: Citizen Science for Earth Systems Program
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
The global health crisis posed by vector-borne diseases is so great in scope that it is clearly insurmountable without the active help of tens-or hundreds- of thousands of individuals working to eradicate risk in communities around the world (cf. Hotez 2016). Our solution to this global health challenge is rooted in a crowd sourced science and action initiative, leveraging the existing capacity and networks of scientists, teachers, students, and citizen scientists participating in the GLOBE Program and its public citizen science counterpart, GLOBE Observer. This initiative connects health education, environmental awareness, scientific discovery and community-based action in a citizen science effort with direct benefits to NASA science and public health decision making.
The mounting public awareness and concern about vector-borne disease provides a unique opportunity for NASA to provide a compelling demonstration of how both Earth system data and public science engagement via a citizen science program can have dramatic and measurable impacts on real world problems facing human health and society. Changing seasonality resulting from climate change is exacerbating problems with vector-borne disease worldwide, and NASA scientists have been working to understand how satellite data can improve predictions on the timing and location of disease outbreaks. In this project, the data collected by citizen scientist volunteers will be used for ground validation of location and range expansion of the disease vectors responsible for viruses such as Zika, West Nile, yellow fever, dengue, and parasites that cause malaria and filariasis. Through connections to public health departments and mosquito control districts throughout the U.S. and internationally, these data will inform management decisions and provide health benefits to society.

This project, Mosquito Mappers, proposes a citizen science for Earth systems program that engages the general public to collect, report and analyze presence/absence data on mosquito-vector taxa and characteristics of their breeding environment, contributing to our understanding of how changes in the Earth system play a role in the spatial distribution of mosquito-borne disease. The focus of the work supports the key science questions of NASA’s Earth Science Program particularly related to the Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Focus Area (How do ecosystems, land cover, and biogeochemical cycles respond to and affect global environmental change?), with specific emphasis on demonstrating how Earth system science provides societal benefit - ecological forecasting (NASA 2014).
IGES is pleased to work with scientists at the USRA/GESTAR and UCAR/NCAR to implement this project, which builds on significant collaborations and leverages NASA and NSF investments in existing infrastructure and technology including the GLOBE Program and Flyover Country.
Mosquito Mappers aims to answer three key questions:
How can the mobilization of citizens as scientists contribute through the collection of data and analysis to improving the understanding of mosquito vector-borne disease?
How can citizen science collected data be integrated with space data to advance analysis of how changes in the Earth system play a role in spatial distribution of vector-borne disease?
How can this source of new information be used by public health officials in their response to the increasing threat of vector-borne disease at the local level?
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
