Landscape Ecology and Epidemiology of Malaria Associated with Rubber Plantations in Thailand: Integrated Approaches to Malaria Ecotoping

Figure 1

Transmission control areas (TCAs) establishing MRP ecotopes illustrated with contour lines. As the result of the expansion of rubber plantations, three different malaria-endemic provinces of Thailand, Phang-nga (a), Trat (b), and Kanchanaburi (c), are demonstrated by the affected TCAs at the subdistrict level. (a1) TCAs of Phang-nga virtually established MRP ecotopes. (a2) Thung Kha Ngok TCA shows forest and forest fringe landscape shaped by traditional rubber plantation practices on different altitudes, and two diverse MRP ecotopes with different land use types are shown. (b1) Similar to that occurred in Phang-nga, TCAs of Trat established diverse MRP ecotopes. (b2) Bo Ploi TCA influenced by diverse MRP ecotopes is shown. (c1) Kanchanaburi recently established MRP ecotopes with nontraditional rubber plantation practices, confined within some affected TCAs. (c2) Huay Khayeng TCA influenced by diverse MRP ecotopes is also shown for the potential of malaria transmission risks. All the land use maps that were also validated by the ground surveys between 2013 and 2014 were constructed using the ArcGIS ver. 10.1 software applications. The spatial data were initially obtained from the geospatial imagery by the Landsat 5 satellite.

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