The sustainability of European forests is critical to ensure climate goals are met, the conservation of important ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as protecting the wellbeing of communities across the continent. However, climate change, disease, and lack of information are compromising the future of forests across wide swaths of land in many member states. Modern forestry and conservation are a precision science, based on advanced resources and tools, capable of detecting threats with pinpoint accuracy.
The global movement of goods and people creates important challenges to protecting European ecosystems from the harmful introduction of invasive species. These species range from exotic plants to diseases for which native trees are unprepared.
In 1999, it was reported, for the first time in Europe, the presence of the Pinewood Nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus) in Portugal. This is a small organism that is transported by a beetle (Monochamus galloprovincialis) and affects mostly coniferous trees. The detection was followed by a rapid expansion in Portugal, calling for the implementation of rigorous control actions. The nematode causes a deadly disease (Pine Wilt Disease) that can compromise the stability of forests and the sustainability of economic activities that depend upon it.
The biggest challenge to the containment and eradication efforts is the timely detection of the trees infected by the nematode. Without this information, many infected trees will remain undetected and serve as a reservoir for the next seasonal cycle of infection.
Project FOCUS (Forest Operational monitoring using Copernicus and UAV hyperSpectral data) was a project funded by the European Commission that developed remote ways to detect infected trees. This gives forest managers enough information and time to plan the actions required to cut and remove infected trees from the field. Without these actions, stopping Pine Wilt Disease from spreading across Europe will be challenging.
The University of Coimbra (Portugal), VITO (Belgium), S[&]T received 1.7 million euros to develop an innovative solution that combines European satellite imagery from the Copernicus program, with the high-resolution data captured by Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (also known as ‘drones’). For the first time, forest managers will have access to a data platform where they can rapidly check which trees are infected and how to best act to prevent spread.
The project leverages impressive state-of-the-art technology to extract information from the complex images acquired by satellites and drones using artificial intelligence and a large series of field campaigns (on the ground and in the air) to develop a solution that is efficient, scalable, and affordable.
After three and half years of development and intensive consultation with stakeholders, a series of products are ready to enter the market, enhancing existing solutions and enabling entirely new ones. Project FOCUS advanced remote detection of Pine Wilt Disease in an unprecedented way and now, organizations around the world will be able to integrate the solutions into their activities.
The outputs of FOCUS include regional maps created from the analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery and very high-resolution tree infection maps based on drone imagery. Other products, designed to support the activities of FOCUS include land cover maps and particularly coniferous cover maps. Taken together, the information sources, and the analytics enabled by the programs designed to accompany them, enable an informed decision-making process that was previously impossible. In the process, important advances to science were made as well. The legacy of FOCUS will continue to produce breakthroughs in the coming years, as the data continues to be analyzed and the maps are employed to identify patterns.
Learn more about the project and connect with the team at
http://focus.uc.pt(opens in new window).
