About

MosquitoAlertBCN places Barcelona at the forefront of disease vector control, bringing together citizen science, artificial intelligence, the internet-of-things and traditional entomological trapping methods to create a novel and sophisticated tool for mosquito surveillance and public health decision-making. The project is funded by the Barcelona City Council and “la Caixa” Foundation, and it is implemented by CREAF, UPF, IRIDEON SL, and the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB).

One of the core indicators developed by MosquitoAlertBCN is the Vector Risk Index (VRI), a relative measure of the variation in the risk of human contact with disease vectors across a particular geographic area and over time. MosquitoAlertBCN uses VRI to measure the risk of human contact with tiger mosquitoes (Ae. albopictus) in Barcelona daily from 2018 to present, including a 7-day-ahead forecast. We estimate VRI using three independent sources of information about tiger mosquitoes: (1) traditional adult mosquito traps, (2) AI-driven IoT "smart" traps developed by Irideon, and (3) and the expert-validated citizen science system Mosquito Alert.