A technique for estimating flood heights on small streams in the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

1980 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Small Streams ◽  
Mecklenburg County ◽  
The City

scholarly journals A Novel Sampling Method to Measure Socioeconomic Drivers of Aedes Albopictus Distribution in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 2179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari Whiteman ◽  
Eric Delmelle ◽  
Tyler Rapp ◽  
Shi Chen ◽  
Gang Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Spatial Optimization ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Aedes Mosquitoes ◽  
Socioeconomic Drivers ◽  
Mecklenburg County ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
The City

Climate change, urbanization, and globalization have facilitated the spread of Aedes mosquitoes into regions that were previously unsuitable, causing an increased threat of arbovirus transmission on a global scale. While numerous studies have addressed the urban ecology of Ae. albopictus, few have accounted for socioeconomic factors that affect their range in urban regions. Here we introduce an original sampling design for Ae. albopictus, that uses a spatial optimization process to identify urban collection sites based on both geographic parameters as well as the gradient of socioeconomic variables present in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, encompassing the city of Charlotte, a rapidly growing urban environment. We collected 3,645 specimens of Ae. albopictus (87% of total samples) across 12 weeks at the 90 optimized site locations and modelled the relationships between the abundance of gravid Ae. albopictus and a variety of neighborhood socioeconomic attributes as well as land cover characteristics. Our results demonstrate that the abundance of gravid Ae. albopictus is inversely related to the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood and directly related to both landscape heterogeneity as well as proportions of particular resident races/ethnicities. We present our results alongside a description of our novel sampling scheme and its usefulness as an approach to urban vector epidemiology. Additionally, we supply recommendations for future investigations into the socioeconomic determinants of vector-borne disease risk.

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