Spatial scaling of epidemiological processes to landscapes and regions: malaria in Africa

CJ Thomas, J Gamarra & R Lucas (IGES)

This PhD project will adapt well-established theoretical models of malaria transmission into spatial models and then apply these to simulated and explicit landscapes classified by satellite remote sensing. In so doing, we anticipate spatial patterns in epidemiology will emerge which may explain important unresolved questions in the relationship between transmission, infection and clinical disease, and make the link to scales of projections of changed transmission dynamics derived from environment and climate models. The PhD has the potential to make a contribution to a general understanding of these dynamics currently being developed by Thomas and Gamarra in IBERS. The PhD is also set in the context of a fundamental question in modern biology important to the IBERS mission – how do we scale between fine grain measurements and understanding to landscapes and regions?

Coupling mathematical models with the latest advances in Earth Observation and spatial modelling will provide an exciting opportunity for the student to acquire important skills, with the potential to make a significant contribution to this high profile topic. They will join the newly formed IBERS spatial ecology group and collaborate with the Remote Sensing and GIS facility run by Lucas within IGES. The PhD will join Thomas’ US National Institutes of Health funded international research project in Tanzania. International collaboration is an important training element available to this project. Gamarra will help supervise the development of spatial theoretical models and Lucas will support further development and implementation of remote sensing techniques for retrieving spatial and temporal information on key habitats at regional scales.