[Oncomelania snail habitat characteristics and orientation analysis in hilly areas of Jurong City].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To master the breeding and distribution of Oncomelania snails in hilly regions of Jurong City so as to provide the evidence for establishing the program of snail elimination. METHODS: The historical snail habitat environments and existing snail habitat environments in hilly areas of Jurong City were investigated according to the river systems. The geographic coordinate data of the acquisition historical and existing snail habitat environments were collected by GPS tools in the field, and the characteristics and distribution of snail habitats were analyzed by Google Earth position technology. RESULTS: A total of 399 historical snail habitat environments were investigated, and the total area was 2904.39 hm2, including 33 Class I environments with the area of 415.04 hm2, 33 Class II environments with the area of 323.19 hm2, 11 Class III environments with the area of 96.40 hm2, and 318 Class IV environments with the area of 1989.46 hm2. The environmental reformation rate was 14.29%. The Google Earth marked maps showed the aggregation relation between the distribution of existing and historical snail habitats and the water systems. CONCLUSION: The investigation has established the data-base of historical snail habitat environments and the space is marked on the Google Earth map, which could help the snail monitoring and to establish the program of snail elimination better.