Locust Habitat Monitoring and Risk Assessment Using Remote Sensing and Gis Technologies

Locust outbreaks occur on all continents except Antarctica and can affect the livelihoods of one in 10 people on Earth. To prevent economic and environmental losses, locust breeding areas should be periodically monitored, and an early detection-early response strategy should be in place. Traditional, ground survey methods are inefficient to adequately address the large spatial scale of the locust problem. Remote Sensing and the associated geospatial technologies can provide timely data to assess the risk of impending locust outbreaks. This information could be used for targeted preventive management actions in the locust breeding areas. Remotely sensed data are used for monitoring habitats of certain species such as the Desert, Migratory and Australian Plague locusts. However, the vast potential of this technology remains untapped for other locusts. This chapter provides a review of remote sensing and GIS concepts, types of data collected by various remote sensing satellites, and applications of geospatial tools for locust habitat monitoring and risk assessment.