Evaluating the Risk for Dengue Fever

Challenge

Mosquitoes exploit a wide range of containers as sites for laying their eggs and development, yet approaches for modeling container water dynamics have been limited making it difficult to predict when mosquitos will mature and become a threat.

Solution

WHATCH'EM - Water Height And Temperature in Container Habitats Energy Model WHATCH’EM is a state-of-the-science, physically based energy balance model of water environment in containers that may serve as development sites for dengue vector mosquitos or other container-inhabiting arthropods. WHATCH’EM simulates the highly non-linear manner in which air temperature, humidity, rainfall, and clouds interact with container characteristics (shape, size, and color) to determine water temperature and height, leading to results that are not always intuitive and likely not simulated by standard empirical models. 

Benefits

WHATCH’EM is now being leveraged for use in other model-based studies funded by NASA, NIH, and DTRA to develop an early warning system for dengue risk.

Contact

Please direct questions/comments about this page to:

Scott Swerdlin

Director, National Security Applications Program

email