Insect Infestation

On 12 June, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), through its UN-SPIDER programme, and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) will be hosting a webinar on “Space-based inputs for Locust early warning and preparedness” as a commitment to promote the use of space technologies in combating a crisis that is mounting on top of the COVID-19 crisis.

The webinar will take place at 10:30-12.30am Vienna, Austria time (UTC+2). Registrations are open until 11.59pm Vienna, Austria time (UTC+2) on 10 June.

During the 90-minute session, experts from UNOOSA, IWMI, India, Pakistan as well as from other international organisations, governments and private agencies will discuss how space applications can strengthen the monitoring and early warning efforts to prevent the locust outbreak in future.

The recording of the webinar is available online.

Background…

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The Space Application Centre for Response in Emergency and Disasters (SACRED) of the Space & Upper …

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The Space Application Centre for Response in Emergency and Disasters (SACRED) of the Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission of Pakistan (SUPARCO), a UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office, is using space-based information to analyze areas as to their suitability as desert locust habitats. The maps resulting form this analysis indicate the suitability of habitat on a scale consisting of five values: least, less, normal, moderate and most. The maps are published online for download, and a related layer is produced and made available through the DisasterWatch Desert Locust Situation Alert geoviewer.

SERVIR, a joint program between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has partnered with relief organizations and the United Nations, including the Desert Locust Information System of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to produce maps that could explain locust behavior. The maps provide useful information on environmental conditions, such as soil moisture and vegetation, that can influence locust life cycles. By identifying the potential conditions under which the locusts hatch and grow, these maps can help governments keep track of the locust swarms, create forecasts of where and how much longer locust outbreaks might occur, as well as prevent other locust infestations from happening.

SERVIR, whose aim is to use satellite images to improve environmental policies in…

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The Pest Risk Information Service (PRISE), developed by the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International development charity (CABI), combines temperature and weather data provided by satellites with computer models to predict when pest outbreaks are most likely to occur, giving farmers time to prepare.

Farmers are currently notified of pest forecasts through an existing network of so-called "Plant Doctors" and receive WhatsApp messages with weekly warnings at county level during the growing season.

How does it work?

Satellites scanning the Earth can provide accurate land temperature information, which is one of…

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ESA's Earth Observation Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP) is a browser for satellite imagery and specific products on an environmental topic. The TEP platforms are divided into 7 categories: Coastal; Forstry; Geohazards; Hydrology; Polar; Urban; and Food Security. Each platform is a collaborative, virtual work environment providing access to EO data and the tools, processors and Information and Communication Technology resources required to work with them. TEP aims to bridge the gap between the users and the data and tools.

Pleidas, TerraSar-X, SPOT and Elevation data available commercially from airbus, certain sample data sets at various locations available for free.

The website: https://www.radiant.earth
Help and Tutorials: https://help.radiant.earth/
Demos & Use Cases: https://demos.radiant.earth/

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a program for archiving and distributing Earth science data from multiple missions to users.