Studying vegetation patterns and ground moisture has helped scientists understand the spread of Rift Valley Fever by mosquitoes in Africa. Changing vegetation patterns in Guadeloupe have led to the spread of tick habitats. Scientists have studied how flooding increases malaria in Mexico . The smoke from major biomass burnings, such as in the Amazon, is believed responsible for respiratory diseases in communities downwind, and the regional reduction in photosynthesis may increase the incidence of infections and mosquito-transmitted disease. Schistosomiasis in relation to the drainage network surrounding a village in southwestern Sichuan Province, China.
Cholera occurs regularly in Bangladesh and India.
Scientsts have used radar data to delineate pools of standing water in Bangladesh and to investigate how that relates to disease. The V. cholerae attaches to plankton in water, providing the vehicle for dispersal. Space-based imaging provides an early warning system for cholera in coastal areas and enables more effective deployment of resources to counteract, if not prevent, massive epidemics of cholera. Areas with greater proportions of broad-leaved canopy trees are more likely to be host habitats for ticks. Lyme disease can be better controlled by targeting educational efforts to residences, located in high exposure areas, to peridomestic tick bites.