GIS and Remote Sensing Unit at FEM-CRI

Research

We deal with physical, ecological and geographical data of remote sensing and physical survey sources in order to assess ecological processes, eco-epidemiological risk, biodiversity and landscape genetics.

Ecology and Eco-health research

Europe is increasingly at risk for new or re-emerging vector-borne diseases. A recent ECDC list includes Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, dengue, Chikungunya, tick-borne encephalitis, leishmaniasis, and hantavirus infections which are among the top ten vector-borne diseases with greatest potential to affect European citizens. The combination of socioeconomic factors together with agricultural reforms, increase in wildlife populations and changing weather conditions lead to changing disease patterns in Europe and elsewhere. The necessary assessment of health risks and the impact of diseases is greatly supported by spatial analysis. New sophisticated tools in Geographical Information Systems greatly support this highly specialized kind of analysis. The FEM platform explores high-resolution environmental and health data to produce health related risk maps. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) combine, in a structured way, health indicators (human cases, pathogen and vector observations, etc.) with ecological indicators (biotic and abiotic factors, etc.) for a better understanding of spatio-temporal patterns in disease transmission and diffusion. The use of remote sensing is the key to generate related indicators in complex terrain as found in the southern Alpine region.

European project EDEN

EDEN (Emerging Diseases in a changing European eNvironment) is an Integrated Project of the European Commission that aims to identify and catalogue those European ecosystems and environmental conditions which can influence the spatial and temporal distribution and dynamics of human pathogenic agents. The project develops and co-coordinates a set of generic methods, tools and skills such as predictive models, early warning and monitoring tools which can be used by decision makers for risk assessment, decision support for intervention and public health policies.

EDEN integrates research in 48 leading institutes from 24 countries. The eco-geographical diversity of the project area covers all relevant European eco-systems from the polar circle in the North to the Mediterranean basin and its link with West Africa in the South, and from Portugal in the West to the Danube delta in the East. EDEN is organised into a series of vertical Sub-Projects linked together by a series of Integrative Activities that include biodiversity monitoring, environmental change detection, disease modelling, remote sensing and image interpretation, information and communication.

The EDEN IP/FP6 project: GIS analysis and remote sensing for tick-borne (TBD) and rodent-borne diseases (Robo) - EDEN leaflet PDF

RISKTIGER project

Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) is an invasive species vector of at least 24 arboviroses (ARtropod-BOrne-Viruses - ARBO-viruses) and dirofilariasis, some of them of medical importance, as Dengue, Yellow fever, West Nile Virus, Chikungunya and other meningoencephalitis. From its native area in Southeast Asia, this species has spread worldwide, colonizing the Americas, Africa, Europe and Oceania in the last decades. Detected in Italy in 1990, Ae. albopictus has colonized more than ¾ of Italy in 15 years, producing annual expenses of around 15 million euros. This species has been reported to occur especially in the southern area of the Autonomous Province of Trento since 1997. In this project we assess the current spatial distribution, spreading and seasonal dynamics of Ae. albopictus in Trentino, evaluating the influence of climatic and ecological variables, and developing predictive models that optimized control strategies. Based in this data and in data from other populations, we currently determine the high risk areas for the potential establishment of this invasive species. With this data, we are producing predictive models on the possible future spread of this species and the risk of emergence of several human and veterinary diseases in Trentino.

The RISKTIGER (2007-2010) PAT project: Risk assesment of the emergence of new arboviruses diseases transmitted by the tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in the Autonomous Province of Trento.

Biodiversity research

Biodiversity is of vital importance for the ecosystems productivity and capacity to provide services to the human populations inhabiting them. This proposal is intended to address major aspects of biodiversity research in relation to the provincial territory: (1) the study and conservation of endangered/endemic taxa (2) the direct consequences to the human population inhabiting this region consequent to biodiversity changes or loss may (3) the study of ecological and genetic mechanisms of adaptation to environmental stress (4) the measurement of the current levels of biodiversity to monitor, preserve, manage and exploit it in a sustainable way.

• Participation in the ACE-SAP biodiversity (2008-2011) PAT project with focus on landscape genetics.

GIS Development

Our unit actively partecipates in the development of Open Source GIS software in the OSGeo framework. We consider this approach to be perfectly in line with academic research due to the peer-review model applied to source code development. Open Source in general refers to software development method where the source code is maintained in a public repository with a group of developers, often volunteers, working on it. After peer-review of code style, functionality and quality, software packages are regularly released under commonly accepted software license which regulates the distribution terms ensuring free redistribution, permission of modifications and derived works. The aim is to receive quality software at lower costs which is flexible, interoperable and free of any vendor lock-in. Open Source GIS software packages which are used for the scientific work of the unit are developed following this philosophy. Interoperability and the use of industrial standards for data exchange is granted which facilitates data exchange with project partners.

• Open Source GIS development with focus on GRASS GIS in the OSGeo.org framework
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