The Dynamic Continuous-Area Space-Time (DYCAST) system is a biologically based spatiotemporal model that uses georeferenced case data to identify areas at high risk for the transmission of virusses such as Zika, Dengue and West Nile virus (WNV).
The original version was written by Constandinos Theophilides at the Center for Analysis and Research of Spatial Information (CARSI) at Hunter College, the City University of New York. That version was written in the Magik programming language for GE SmallWorld GIS.
Subsequently the application was ported to Python and PostGIS by Alan McConchie.
The current version is a continuation of that Python application. The aim of this fork is to expand this application so that it supports the generation of prediction models for multiple virusses, including Zika and Dengue.
More information: https://cvast.usf.edu/projects/dycast/
The easiest way to get started is to run Dycast in a Docker container.
Then simply run: docker run cvast/cvast-dycast --help to see what commands are available and what parameters are required.
Start with filling out any empty environment variables in the docker-compose.yml provided in this repo.
To start the database and run dycast, run: docker-compose up.
This will start a cycle of 1. importing data; 2. generating risk predictions; and 3. exporting the risk.
Zika min
spatial: 600 meters
temporal: 38 days
close space: 100 meters
close time: 4 days
Zika max
spatial: 800 meters
temporal: 38 days
close space: 200 meters
close time: 4 days
dengue min
spatial: 600 meters
temporal: 28 days
close space: 100 meters
close time: 4 days
dengue max
spatial: 800 meters
temporal: 28 days
close space: 200 meters
close time: 4 days
Using Docker with the provided docker-compose.yml file will enable you to run Dycast anywhere, on any OS. All dependencies will be installed for you and a compatible Postgis database is set up alongside your Dycast container.
If you do wish to run Dycast outside of Docker, you can use the requirements file to install python package dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt
Please see the Docker entrypoint file for pointers on how to initialize the database.
Dycast is built for Postgres 9.6 and Postgis 2.3.
Please see the tests data folder for examples of input data. Be sure to follow this format in terms of header row and column order/count.
Theophilides, C. N., S. C. Ahearn, S. Grady, and M. Merlino. 2003. Identifying West Nile virus risk areas: the dynamic continuous-area space-time system. American Journal of Epidemiology 157, no. 9: 843–854. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/157/9/843.short.
Theophilides, C. N., S. C. Ahearn, E. S. Binkowski, W. S. Paul, and K. Gibbs. 2006. First evidence of West Nile virus amplification and relationship to human infections. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 20, no. 1: 103–115. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13658810500286968.
Carney, Ryan, Sean C. Ahearn, Alan McConchie, Carol Glaser, Cynthia Jean, Chris Barker, Bborie Park, et al. 2011. Early Warning System for West Nile Virus Risk Areas, California, USA. Emerging Infectious Diseases 17, no. 8 (August): 1445–1454. http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/17/8/100411.htm.
Maintained by Vincent Meijer.