Chantal Hendriks

Before I joined the Malaria Atlas Project as postdoctoral researcher, I did my PhD in collaboration with Wageningen University & Research and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). My PhD aimed to improve the soil data for regional land use analysis by developing different soil modelling and mapping techniques.  For the Malaria Atlas Project I work in Catherine Moyes’ group as landscape modeller. I contribute to investigating the relationship between patterns of resistance in time and space and the coverage of potential drivers of selection for resistance. One of the likely drivers of selection is the use of agricultural insecticides. Therefore, understanding spatial and temporal variation in this variable has the potential to improve estimates of insecticide resistance. My role within the project is to provide covariates on agricultural insecticides that fit the insecticide resistance model.

Covariates on agricultural insecticides cannot directly be constructed for the whole of Africa, because data on these are too limited. I construct covariates that relate to the use of insecticides and the environmental fate of insecticides. For these covariates, spatially exhaustive environmental data are used. The resulting maps indicate potential hotspots of agricultural insecticide, without quantifying the insecticide concentrations. The covariates I construct are not only relevant for insecticide resistance modelling, but can be relevant for studies on human and environmental health as well and will be made freely available to other groups.