AIR-CAS research serves global prevention and control of major pests and diseases

Recently, the series of reports and data on monitoring and evaluating locust plagues in Asia and Africa, released by a research team led by researcher Wenjiang Huang and associate researcher Yingying Dong at the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIR-CAS), have been adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). They provide technical support for joint pest control and ecosystem safety and biodiversity protection in multiple countries, contributing scientific and technological strength to safeguard global food security and human well-being. This data set is also the first publicly released data set submitted by China to the FAO.

Since February 2020, the team has used China Gaofen (GF) series satellite data, US Landsat and MODIS data, and European Space Agency Sentinel series satellite data, combined with global meteorological and survey data, and integrated with pest prediction and forecast models. By using digital earth science platform for big data analysis and processing, the team has achieved dynamic monitoring and warning of the reproduction, migration, and damage of the desert locusts over a large area, based on the independently developed vegetation pest remote sensing monitoring and prediction system. The team has now released 12 issues of reports on monitoring and evaluating locust plagues in Asia and Africa and 53 sets of pest temporal dynamic monitoring data. They will continue to monitor the progress of locust plagues and produce and publish pest service data products and scientific reports to continue to support the global pest control and biodiversity protection actions of FAO and GBIF.

The AIR-CAS will continue to strengthen its cooperation with FAO and GBIF, further promote the application of satellite remote sensing technology in global pest and disease monitoring and early warning, and work together to make due contributions to the comprehensive and timely monitoring of major biological disasters, maintaining global food security and regional stability.

Achievements

FAO visiting link:

https://data.apps.fao.org/map/catalog/srv/eng/catalog.search#/search?resultType=details&sortBy=relevance&any=desert%20locust&fast=index&_content_type=json&from=1&to=50

GBIF visiting link:

https://www.gbif.org/dataset/dfa36691-529b-43b6-9e61-b76275d94ffc