Abiotic determinants to the spatial dynamics of dengue fever in Guangzhou

Dengue fever (DF) is a mosquito-borne disease that significantly endangers the well-being of people in most tropical Asia-Pacific areas. The transmission of DF is inherently a spatial process, requiring susceptible humans encountering infectious mosquito. The relationships between humans, mosquito and environment underpin the dynamics and patterns of the epidemic. In this article, the objective is to find out the key abiotic factors in the spatial dynamics of DF. An interdisciplinary study has been carried out by taking advantage of statistics, geographical information science, and remote sensing technologies. The case study is the DF outbreak in the Chinese city of Guangzhou throughout the year of 2002--the most serious DF outbreak in the recent decade. This study shows that the presence and abundance of DF cases can be associated with (a) socioeconomic factors relating to urbanization and (b) meteorological factors favoring mosquito survival.