Abstract: Schistosomiasis is a kind of many parasitic diseases which jeopardizes humankind's health and the economic development of the Oncomelania Snails distribution regions. After the foundation of China, a large-scale epidemiological investigation have been launched in the country, which proved that Hubei Province was one of the schistosomiasis prevalence areas and its hazard was very serious. Schistosomiasis japonica is the only schistosomiasis epidemic in our country, and Hubei oncomelania is the only intermediate host of Schistosoma japonicum. So we can block the spread of schistosomiasis by wiping out the snails, in order to achieve the purpose of reducing the number of patients with Schistosomiasis japonica. In the studies on the distribution and succession of Oncomelania snails at present, the overall trend of the growth and decline of the quantity of snails in one region can be shown by numbers or graphs. It needs a more sophisticated method to present temporal and spatial distribution of snail and its growth and circumstances in each administrative village, to replace the description with simple graphs and words which may be not enough to minutely show the long-term changes of snail distribution of growth and decline in the Oncomelania Snails distribution regions. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computer information system with the capabilities of geospatial-related data management, analysis and description. GIS can clearly show the complex analysis results through map. In the field of public health, GIS can be used to analyze the spatial distribution, the spatial and temporal trends of the diseases. Therefore, using GIS to analyze the growth and decline of snail is appropriate. To get the specific information of distribution and succession of Oncomelania snails in the Oncomelania Snails distribution regions of Hubei Province in the past three decades, the statistical yearbook data of Oncomelania snails in Hubei and Hubei administrative division map are combined and analyzed by the logical operation function and statistical function of ArcGIS software to get the detailed map which can clearly reflect the distribution and change of Oncomelania snails acreage in the Oncomelania Snails distribution regions every other five years from 1980 to 2009. We can get the detailed information of Oncomelania snail succession of all the division, then we can draft sophisticated map to find the place where the Oncomelania snails recur or be hard to be wiped out. For example, most places of Oncomelania snails area in Honghu City was decreasing in these years, however, the Oncomelania snail areas of Mashi Village and Shangsheng Village in Gong'an County were increasing. Then, we combined with the type of snails dynamics, the natural geography, human governance approach, etc. to do related analysis to sum up the reasons of the Oncomelania Snails succession in the Oncomelania Snails distribution regions of Hubei Province from 1980 to 2009. Geographic Information System can be used to analyze the distribution and succession of Oncomelania snails in the Oncomelania Snails distribution regions, which is beneficial to review the effect of schistosomiasis control work in the past thirty years and guide the schistosomiasis prevention work in the future.

Key words: distribution of oncomelania snails, succession of oncomelania snails, GIS, Hubei Province