THE EXPERIMENTAL REMOTE SENSING MONITORING OF THE ORIENTAL MIGRATORY LOCUST PLAGUE

Abstract

In recent years, the areas suffering from the Oriental Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria manilensis) plague have gradually expanded in China. In some outbreak areas along the east coast of Dagang, the plague resulted in great reduction of reed yields and caused severe threat to local and regional agricultural production. At present, the monitoring system for this species depends on the field observations conducted by sparsely-distributed observation stations established in 1950's. This observation network has been successful in identifying major locust outbreaks. However, in view of the expansion of infestation areas and the increase in quantity of locust heads (up to 1000 heads in 2001) in one square meters, this paper proposes the use of information technology to establish the Oriental Migratory Locust information monitoring system based on satellite observation data. The preliminary testing work in 2001 is described. In this experiment, sampling statistics of biomass, leaf area index (LAI) from areas affected and not affected by locust plague were performed. The field sample spectra of areas infected and not infected by locust plague were tested. Synchronous Landsat ETM multi-spectral data were put in order and processed. The results strongly support the feasibility of establishing a satellite sensor-based habitat monitoring system to detect the locust infestations. 