Mosquitoes in Zambia
After performing many modeling studies of groundwater and surface water projects, a colleague (Ken Black) proposed using the same software to identify the most likely mosquito breeding spots in Zambia, a country staggering under the scourge of malaria. We first obtained very high resolution topography for the entire country.
Then using the software I developed to model drainage from surface mining, calculated topographic gradients:
Surface slope vectors are shown in this next figure:
Then using Build3D, my model builder (for more details see Build3D), to create approximately 2 million finite elements representing the surface features (rivers, streams, ditches, etc.) and flows, incorporating historical rainfall data. Then using Seed3D, my contaminant plume approximating software, to "sprinkle" 23 million simulated mosquito larvae. Finally, using PTRAX, my particle tracker (for more details see PTRAX), to distribute these potential sources of malaria.
The chemical and radioactive particle characteristics were used to approximate spawning, gestation, and moisture requirements.
The end result was most likely mosquito breeding locations, which would help focus the efforts with pesticides and drainage. The particle tracking ran in 12 hours on a Dell laptop using a single i7 processor. A brief summary is shown in this animation:
