Mapping the Landscape-Dengue Nexus in Mandaue City, Philippines

Climate change induced extreme rainfall events have become more frequent in urban cities in the Philippines. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that it will continue and become more regular. Vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever can become more common due to these events as it can provide an ideal breeding ground for mosquitos. In this paper, we study the association of a dengue outbreak in Mandaue city, Philippines with independent variables including climatic variables, the area’s impoundments, flood hazards, urbanization levels in terms of building and road density, and vegetation. The study’s denominator is the barangay-level population data, and a rudimentary map of dengue incidence at the barangay-level was calculated and mapped. For the spatial association analysis, the Global Moran’s I index was used to measure autocorrelation between the locations of dengue cases. The results of this work suggest that inadequate flood control and water disposal facilities can increase the risk of a dengue outbreak, and there is a need to implement centralized dengue control strategies, including large-scale water drainage and sanitation drives, as well as public health awareness campaigns, to combat vector-borne disease epidemics. © 2024 SPIE.