BarkBeeDet: Drone-based early detection of trees with bark beetle infestation

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Across the northern hemisphere, bark beetle damage is a massive economic problem. Until an infestation becomes visible, the new generation of beetles is already flying out, which entails a high risk of mass multiplication. The consequences of mass multiplication are clearly comprehensible in the high altitudes of the Bavarian Forest and Sumava National Parks. An early detection of the infestation is currently only possible with a difficult terrestrial inspection. Numerous investigations confirm the urgent need for an effective procedure for bark beetle guidance detection. Most previous studies with remote sensing methods fail: — insufficient terrestrial reference data. — a lack of time availability of spectrally high-resolution data and. — on too small scales with the problem of mixing pixels. This project develops a method for detecting bark beetle at an early stage using unmanned aeronautical systems (UAS = drones). Current remote sensing sensors are to be used. Upscaling tests analyse the scale at which early bark beetle detection is possible. This is the basis for using the procedure for a practical application on a flying platform with the greatest possible area performance. For the development of the method, different examination areas are selected in both national parks in order to be able to take into account the greatest possible variability of the occurring characteristics. By studying in the national parks, it is possible to consider a complete infestation development throughout and without human intervention. The course of the bark beetle infestation is recorded with large-scale data (high geometric resolution), over a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum (with high spectral resolution) and very often (with high temporal resolution). The data is intensively investigated using remote sensing methods. As a result, a workflow for a drone-based bark beetle detection is shown. This includes information on the required flight times and scales, the spectral ranges (sensors) to be taken into account and their spectral resolution, as well as the type of data analysis. With this project, suitable datasets about different stages of bark beetle infestation in the national parks are collected. The datasets essentially serve to develop methods for the early detection of bark beetles and are made freely available to the public. They can be used for further research and development work. The method developed will be made known through publication and a workshop.

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