Objectives

ELIMINAR Malaria is motivated by the need to understand how climate and environmental change shape human mobility, and how human mobility shapes malaria diffusion. For example, temporary labor migration in the Amazon is driven by people’s lack of economic opportunities or access to the formal financial sector. To mitigate financial risk, individuals will travel between communities where they have socioeconomic, occupational, or relational ties to work in a variety of environmentally-linked trades, such as logging, mining, or fishing. However, individuals working in these settings are at increased risk of malaria, and, when infected, they often bring infections home with them, causing local outbreaks. As a result, the relationship between the environment and transmission is inextricably linked to human movement. Therefore, to prevent outbreaks, it is necessary to understand 1) when, where, and how environmental changes influences human mobility; 2) the social and community network ties that connect individuals to the settings in which these environmental changes occur, and 3) how human mobility leads to malaria parasite mobility. This project will develop novel survey instruments and statistical tools to begin answering these questions by linking hydrometeorological, land use/land use change, community mobility, and malaria genomic data to understand how environmental change influences mobility, and how mobility influences parasite diffusion.