ZanzaMapp: a scalable citizen science tool to monitor perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy and beyond
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Mosquitoes represent a considerable nuisance and are actual/potential vectors of human diseases in Europe. Costly and labour-intensive entomological monitoring is needed to correct planning of interventions aimed at reducing nuisance and the risk of pathogen transmission. The widespread availability of mobile phones and of massive Internet connections opens the way to the contribution of citizen in complementing entomological monitoring. ZanzaMapp is the first mobile “mosquito” application for smartphones specifically designed to assess citizens’ perception of mosquito abundance and nuisance in Italy. Differently from other applications targeting mosquitoes, ZanzaMapp prioritizes the number of records over their scientific authentication by requesting users to answer four simple questions on perceived mosquito presence/abundance/nuisance and geo-localizing the records. The paper analyses 36,867 ZanzaMapp records sent by 13,669 devices from 2016 to 2018 and discusses the results with reference to either citizens’ exploitation and appreciation of the app and to the consistency of the results obtained with the known biology of main mosquito species in Italy. In addition, we provide a first small-scale validation of ZanzaMapp data as predictors of Aedes albopictus biting females and examples of spatial analyses and maps which could be exploited by public institutions and administrations involved in mosquito and mosquito-borne pathogen monitoring and control.
Date Issued
2020-10-27
Date Acceptance
2020-10-22
Citation
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020, 17 (21)
ISSN
1660-4601
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume
17
Issue
21
Copyright Statement
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Environmental Sciences
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
citizen science
mosquito
nuisance
biting activity
tiger mosquito
Aedes albopictus
AEDES-ALBOPICTUS
CHIKUNGUNYA
OUTBREAK
MODEL
Aedes albopictus
biting activity
citizen science
mosquito
nuisance
tiger mosquito
Toxicology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 7872