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West Nile Project

2004 West Nile Virus Activity in the United States
(reported to CDC as of January 11, 2005*)

FACTS ON WEST NILE

West Nile Virus found it's way into North America in 1999. Mosquitoes are the most common carriers of the disease and have been known to infect birds, horses and humans. People over 55 years of age, children, and persons with weak immune systems are considered to be at highest risk of contracting the virus. Schools, highly populated urban areas, and retirement communities are especially at risk due to the concentrations of people.The map below depicts the West Nile Virus infection count in each county in California for the year 2004. With all the additional waterfall in California this year (2005), the mosquito's breeding grounds are expanding. Earlier this year the California Department of Health determined that WNV had survived the winter and has already surfaced again. The governor's office said that WNV poses a serious threat to Californians for 2005.

Because Monterey County is one of California ’s largest retirement communities with a high percentage of senior residents, the county needed to be especially attentive to this virus. They decided to employ remote sensing (aerial inspection) in order to quickly acquire locations of possible breeding grounds for mosquitoes in urban areas.

"Remote sensing and GIS technology were highly valuable to Monterey County in taking pro-active steps to protect its citizens from the invasion of the West Nile Virus. Other government organizations are taking notice of the effectiveness of remote sensing and are considering using the methodology for their own purposes."

“This project was a key in helping decision-makers understand that remote sensing technology is capable of providing more than nice photos,” said Tyler . “They realized that remote sensing proved to be a highly-effective tool for assessing current and future diseases."

*The remote sensing techniques employed by these teams were able to measure and predict possible problem areas within general geographic regions in Monterey County . While their system provides a general threat risk overview per region, the MIRS system helps by providing tactical information specifically for use on the ground. We provide low-altitude reconnaissance to collect GPS coordinates, and photography with clear visual ground and street references. Our output is generated with the end-user, the person on the ground, specifically in mind. We detect and target stagnant pools, ponds, tire piles, and other places where water accumulates near populated areas."

M.I.R.S. Mapping Unit Output & Correlating Photography

The above pictures represent step one in the phase of our mapping process. The potential threat is first located from the air and then is identified. The picture on the left, an outdoor pond is a potential hazard area. The picture on the right, an outdoor pool is also a potential hazard area. Once the hazards are located from the aerial surveillance that information is then mapped in two different formats. First a street map and then a topographical map (samples below).

STREET MAP

This map above was generated for Thermalito, California in Butte County on May 2005. The map is an actual output from the MIRS systems post aerial recon. Each bubble displays the GPS location of each target. each target represents a stagnant body of water or potential threat.

TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP This map shows the actual flight path of the helicopter throughout the inspection process. The red pins identify each target acquired via laser-rangefinder while the blue dots represent the aircrafts exact flight path. This actual inspection of Thermalito, California inspected 2600 square acres. We found 41 potential threats and took photography for each individual target as depicted above in the correlating photography.