Land use/land over changes and its relationship with Malaria prevalence in Luwero District

Abstract

Malaria is among the top deadliest diseases in the world. Despite recent attempts in reducing malaria morbidity and mortality, it remains one of Uganda's deadliest diseases. Uganda has the third highest deaths from malaria in Africa and is ranked 5th amongst countries in the world with the highest malaria prevalence and Luwero district is among the hotspots for malaria in Uganda with 24% rates. This paper associates the dynamics of high malaria prevalence in Luwero district with five land use land cover; water, agriculture, vegetation, wetlands and built-up. Furthermore, the elevation and slope are key factors explaining malaria diffusion throughout the region. In this study, Landsat8 datasets of 2015 and 2020 were used to assess the spatial change in Luwero’s land use land cover and the elevation and slope are key factors explaining malaria diffusion throughout the region. This was achieved by mapping land use/ cover categories in the study area using unsupervised ISODATA classification, performing post classification change detection overlying the change map with the elevation and slope factor maps and malaria spatial distribution and assessing the their relationship with malaria prevalence using GIS and Remote sensing techniques. Results from this study showed that, 29.4% of agriculture in Luwero district increased from 2015 to 2020. The prevalence showed that it was high and moderate which contributes to (85%) of the total area in Luwero due to the increase in agriculture. The paper identifies the effects of land use land cover types on malaria diffusion, providing policymakers with information for regional and local policies to control malaria and minimize its effects on Luwero district.