Dam mosquitoes: Interferometric synthetic aperture RADAR to target site-specific mosquito control efforts

Dams and their reservoirs provide important benefits including water storage, flood control, hydroelectric production, and recreation.  In addition, dams create environmentally important wetlands that provide habitat for wildlife, fish and many invertebrates, act as catch basins for upstream erosion, purify water, increase oxygen production, and serve as public recreation areas.  However, wetlands can also be ideal habitat for mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae).  Integrated mosquito control programs advocate minimal impact on non-target species and the environment.  They rely on routine ground-based sampling and surveillance to provide important information on which control strategies and evaluations of effectiveness are based.  When breeding sites are extensive or are in difficult or dangerous terrain, ground-based data collection methods become physically and/or financially impractical.  Remotely sensed aerial photography and satellite imagery have been used as decision-support tools for entomological research and mosquito control programs.  Their use is limited by their spatial and temporal resolutions and by weather conditions.  This study was carried out to determine if high-resolution Interferometric Synthetic Aperture RADAR (IfSAR) Digital Terrain Model (DTM) elevation data could be integrated with daily river elevation data for predicting specific areas of river inundation (potential Culicidae larval habitat) in difficult terrain wetlands.  A second objective was to assess whether this data integration could be used as a decision-support tool by public mosquito control officials.