Notes on GIS Assisted Risk Mapping for Fruit and Melon Flies in Mekong Region Countries

Notes on GIS assisted risk mapping for fruit and melon flies in Mekong region countries

Geographical Information System is powerful tool to understand the spatial distribution of pest outbreaks and risks involved in an area through geospatial analysis and risk assessment techniques by combining the influential factors. In this study, datasets are collected for Mekong region and a geodatabase is developed for carrying out extensive analysis by considering the end product of toaid decision makers in the field of Integrated Pest Management for planning and implementing new programs and projects. For this purpose, five major criteria’s are considered, which are as follows.

Fruit fly/Melon fly status
Fruit/Vegetable growing areas
Purpose of production – fruits/vegetables
IPM program status
Percentage of fruit/vegetable loss due to fruit/melon fly

The above mentioned five factors are brought into a GIS platform and scoring has been done as shown in the table below in order to get the final severity score.

Risk factors / Conditions / Score / Sample scoring for a province / Remarks
Fruit fly /Melon fly Status / Present / 10 / 10 / Assign numerical values 10 for fruit/melon fly present areas and 0 for absent areas
Absent / 0
Fruits / Vegetables growing area / Low / 2 / Classify % of loss into three categories using Quantile classification.
Medium / 3
High / 5 / 5
Fruits/ Vegetables Purpose of production / Household consumption (HC) and Local Market (LM) / 4 / Assign numerical values 4 for HC+LM and 6 for Export Market
Export Market / 6 / 6
IPM Program status / Present / 0 / Assign numerical values 10 for fruit/melon fly present areas and 0 for absent areas
Absent / 10 / 10
Percentage of Fruit/ Vegetable loss due to Fruit fly/Melon fly / Low / 2 / Classify % of loss into three categories using Quantile classification.
Medium / 3
High / 5 / 5
TOTAL SCORE / 36

The total score is individually calculated for all provinces in a country and further the total score is classified into three categories LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH.