Figure 2.

Number of spatial modelling studies published per year by model type. Statistical models were classified as a fixed effect if parameters were treated as fixed, non-random values or mixed effect if they also included random parameters to account for unobserved heterogeneity or clustering (also known as hierarchical or multilevel models). Machine learning models used algorithms to learn patterns from the data. Compartmental models were mechanistic models that simulated the movement of hosts and/or vectors through disease compartments. Models classified as 'other' did not fall into any of these categories, this included mechanistic models that did not explicitly model movement through compartments, or bespoke statistical models.