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ABSTRACT
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease. It is a life-threatening disease primarily found in tropical countries, like Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to assess the spatial distributions of malaria risk using geospatial techniques in Wabi Shebele River Sub-basin, Southeastern Ethiopia. Eleven factors, land use and land cover, topographic wetness index, slope, elevation, soil types, proximity to rivers, rainfall, population density, proximity to main roads, proximity to health services, and surface temperature were considered to produce a malaria risk map. GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) technique was applied using weighted overlay analysis and produced three map layer factors—hazard, vulnerability, and element at risk maps. Malaria risk map results show that an area of 1867.8 km2 (33.4%), 2112.7 km2 (37.7%), and 1181.6 km2 (21.1%) were categorized under high, moderate, and low malaria risk levels, respectively. Results reveal that a large portion of the study area is classified under high and moderate spatial malaria risk levels. This indicates that communities living in the study area are prone to the malaria disease. Therefore, there is a critical need to progressively reduce malaria disease distribution through healthcare implementation in prioritized areas. This study is helpful for further study in combating malaria disease distribution and increases the efficiency of expectation efforts by skillfully targeting high and moderate-risk areas.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Oda Bultum University, Wollega University; and Jimma University for providing facilities to conduct this research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Consent for publication
The authors agreed to publish on journal of environment, development and sustainability.
Author contribution
BBM was involved in all stages of this study including field work, analysis and writing the manuscript. MBM and DOG were engaged in methodology development and data analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.