Research on the correlation between land use/ land cover changes and Lyme disease in Maryland

The purpose of this paper is to study the correlation between land use/land cover changes and the disease. To explore which kinds of land type variation can influence the disease transmission. We used ENVI and ArcGIS technology and combined with the data correlation and the method of geospatial overlay analysis to do data processing and results analysis that are the three period remote sensing images which about 2001, 2011, 2006 in Maryland. Results showed that: time scale, the relationship between Lyme disease and forest wetland and pasture land was negative correlation, but it positively correlated with bare land, grassland and waters. Spatial scale, Lyme disease mainly distributes in the western and southern areas in Maryland. There is spatial correlation between the farmland, wetland and the waters. We concluded that through the spatial-temporal distribution: waters and wet grasslands provide are so good habitat for ticks that the probability of Lyme disease spreading is becoming large. By increasing the contact frequency between human beings and animals makes ticks are more likely to spread disease, thus increasing the incidence of Lyme disease.