Developing Novel Approaches to Humanitarian Aid and Pest Eradication Using ArcGIS Web AppBuilder and ArcGIS API for JavaScript

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While humanitarian aid and pest eradication may seem unrelated, the particular case of the Chigoe Flea (Tunga penetrans) in sub-Saharan Africa demands new approaches to managing parasitic superinfection across developing nations. The Chigoe Flea (called the Jigger in Kenya) negatively impact the quality of life of millions of the extreme poor in developing tropical or sub-tropical countries worldwide. Approximately 4% of Kenya's total population suffer from jigger infestation—1.4 million Kenyans. The total population at risk—10 million—are the very young, elderly, or physically and/or developmentally disabled. Like the Carter Center’s success in applying GIS to the successful eradication of the Guinea Worm, this project hopes to reveal new and innovative ways that GIS, and specifically mobile apps, can be utilized to strategically manage the eradication of a human parasite. What follows is a series of three Web Apps leveraging the power of spatial data for the purpose of parasitic flea eradication. Prototypes will be modeled on the country of Kenya, with eventual expansion to Uganda, and then other sub-Saharan countries.

Using ArcGIS Web AppBuilder and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript, three tools have been developed as prototypes for applying geographic information science to the issue of T. penetrans eradication. The first app, “Exploring Contributing Factors,” allows researchers to overlay various environmental and social factors that are known to contribute to Tungiasis (superinfestation of T. penetrans). Research has shown that extreme poverty, lack of education, lack of access to fresh water, dirt floors, presence of livestock, and lack of shoes are main contributing factors. ArcGIS Web AppBuilder provides an avenue for specialized geoprocessing tools (widgets) to be available to the general public, removing the technical obstacles of programming and GIS training for citizen scientists.

The second tool is a database of volunteer and non-governmental organizations that provide relief to those afflicted by the Jigger in Kenya. Organizations can enter their contact information and draw polygons or points on the map of Kenya indicating their coverage areas. This informs contributors of localized areas that may be aid-deficient, or reveal areas that are being over-serviced. The intent of this tool is to determine over time which geographic areas may be at higher risk or have greater aid needs. This tool requires the use of Esri ArcGIS Server and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. 

The third tool is a digital, stand-alone form to be filled out in the field that allows aid workers to document pertinent social and economic data of individual Jigger victims, along with a spatial component. Dates of treatment, severity of infestation, housing conditions, distribution of shoes and insecticide are also documented, so that time and treatment frequency become other attributes that can be explored. Using Esri ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS API for JavaScript, this web map supports feature services and live web editing. (At the time of this writing, this tool is not yet active as privacy concerns are high with this type of medical data.)

Future uses for applications of these types are widespread: the expanding range of Africanized honeybees, Red Imported Fire Ant, Formosan termite, Dutch Elm Disease, brown marmorated stink bug, and the Pine Bark Beetle are of particular concern for North America, while overseas (mosquito-borne) malaria, mangoworms, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and other Neglected Tropical Diseases can be predicted, monitored, and managed using a similar strategy.