Publications

He, K; Huang, JF (2016). Remote sensing of locust and grasshopper plague in China: A review. 2016 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AGRO-GEOINFORMATICS (AGRO-GEOINFORMATICS), 103-108.

Abstract
Locust and grasshopper plague has caused problems for man since the beginning of recorded history. In China 1.47 million ha of farmlands in 160 counties of 14 provinces suffered from oriental migratory locust L. m. manilensis attacks in summer of 2002. Among the 800 kinds of known grasshopper species habituating in China, there are 60 kinds of them are throwing a big threat to ecological environment and sustainable development of grassland and husbandry. To prevent agricultural and economical losses, locust and grasshopper habitats and vegetation damage should be monitored and assessed for assisting pest managers with precaution and practical acts in various damage stages. Given the vast geographic extent of the study area and demand of high temporal frequency of data, traditional ground survey methods are inadequate for locust management in our modern era. With advantage of detecting remotely area in large scale dynamically and uninterruptedly, remote sensing (RS) integrated with other information technologies (e.g. GIS (Geographical Information System)) can be applied in locust monitoring. According to biology of locust and grasshopper, there are several certain ecological indicators (e.g. soil, vegetation, geographical condition, temperature) are required for locust and grasshopper growth during their different life stages. With increasing availability of spatio-temporal resolution and continues coverage, remote sensing can be applied in ecological change monitoring for locust management. Various satellite images are increasingly used in locust risk assessment, plague monitoring and damage assessment with analysis and retrieval of several essential ecological factors (e.g. soil moisture, land surface temperature, vegetation condition) and mapping high risk locust habitats and greenness distribution. Locust and grasshopper plague can be monitored through detecting vegetation with LAI (Leaf Area Index) and suitability of habitats. Assessing damage of vegetation and crops can be conducted through satellite images for VI extraction and LAI retrieval. This paper provides a review of past and recent study in RS and GIS related to risk assessment, plague monitoring and damage assessment for summarizing progress on remote sensing of locust and grasshopper plague in China. The potential and availability of satellite data with certain spatiotemporal resolution in retrieval of ecological factor are explored with study focus on relationship between locust growth and environmental variation especially oriental migratory locust L. m. manilensis. Integration of multi-sensor, multi-source, multi-spatiotemporal observation system should be established in future locust management which can optimize resources available.

DOI:

ISSN:
2334-3168