Cost–benefit analysis of remote sensing data types for mapping mosquito breeding sites

Environmentally friendly biological mosquito control by Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis formulations needs appropriate breeding maps. The mapping accuracy depends on the quality of the used remote sensing data. Further, the mapping is expected to be cost-effective. Our aim was to study the effect of the quality of various remote sensing data on the applicability of the maps. We depicted larval habitats by manual interpretation in Quantum GIS 3.16.1 software using remote sensing data of SENTINEL, Google Earth, commercial geoTIFF RGB orthophoto, individual unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) RGB, and multispectral mosaics. Based on our results, after classification of the target area by sorting, mixed-use of remote sensing data is required to achieve a highly cost-efficient mapping: RGB aerial photographs with 0.5 m per pixel resolution can be used efficiently in areas dominated by grassland habitats, while forest areas need customised footage taken by UAS or drones during the foliage-free period (15 cm per pixel resolution, multispectral technique). Our cost–benefit analysis showed that the aim-optimised method could reduce investment to 6–8% and the cost of data collection to 20–50% of the highest budget. This result is significant for all participants of biological mosquito control.