Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing?
The ash dieback pandemic, caused by the invasive fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, represents one of Europe’s biggest threats to preserving natural biodiversity. To ensure the suppression of forest damage caused by fungi, timely recognition of the symptoms of ash dieback and further continuous monitor...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-02-01
|
| Series: | Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/5/1178 |
| _version_ | 1797614487365222400 |
|---|---|
| author | Mateo Gašparović Ivan Pilaš Damir Klobučar Iva Gašparović |
| author_facet | Mateo Gašparović Ivan Pilaš Damir Klobučar Iva Gašparović |
| author_sort | Mateo Gašparović |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ash dieback pandemic, caused by the invasive fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, represents one of Europe’s biggest threats to preserving natural biodiversity. To ensure the suppression of forest damage caused by fungi, timely recognition of the symptoms of ash dieback and further continuous monitoring on an adequate spatial scale are essential. Visual crown damage assessment is currently the most common method used for identifying ash dieback, but it lacks the spatial and temporal coverage required for effective disease suppression. Remote sensing technologies, with the capabilities of fast and repetitive retrieval of information over a large spatial scale, could present efficient supplementary methods for ash damage detection and disease monitoring. In this study, we provided a synthesis of the existing remote sensing methods and applications that considers ash dieback disease, and we described the lifecycle of the disease using the major symptoms that remote sensing technologies can identify. Unfortunately, although effective methods of monitoring biotic damage through remote sensing have been developed, ash dieback has only been addressed in two research studies in the United Kingdom and Germany. These studies were based on single-date hyperspectral and very-high-resolution imagery in combination with machine learning, using previously specified ground-truth information regarding crown damage status. However, no study exists using high-resolution imagery such as Sentinel-2 or radar Sentinel-1, although some preliminary project results show that these coarser sources of information could be applicable for ash dieback detection and monitoring in cases of <i>Fraxinus angustifolia</i>, which forms pure, more homogenous stands in Southern Europe. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T07:12:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-082dfb9f42d147d880c2516acd5bc21a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T07:12:38Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-082dfb9f42d147d880c2516acd5bc21a2023-11-17T08:29:25ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922023-02-01155117810.3390/rs15051178Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing?Mateo Gašparović0Ivan Pilaš1Damir Klobučar2Iva Gašparović3Chair of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb, Kačićeva 26, 10000 Zagreb, CroatiaDivision of Ecology, Croatian Forest Research Institute, Cvjetno Naselje 41, 10450 Jastrebarsko, CroatiaProduction and Development Department, Croatian Forests Ltd., Ivana Meštrovića 28, 48000 Koprivnica, CroatiaSector for Spatial Data Infrastructure, State Geodetic Administration, Gruška 20, 10000 Zagreb, CroatiaThe ash dieback pandemic, caused by the invasive fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, represents one of Europe’s biggest threats to preserving natural biodiversity. To ensure the suppression of forest damage caused by fungi, timely recognition of the symptoms of ash dieback and further continuous monitoring on an adequate spatial scale are essential. Visual crown damage assessment is currently the most common method used for identifying ash dieback, but it lacks the spatial and temporal coverage required for effective disease suppression. Remote sensing technologies, with the capabilities of fast and repetitive retrieval of information over a large spatial scale, could present efficient supplementary methods for ash damage detection and disease monitoring. In this study, we provided a synthesis of the existing remote sensing methods and applications that considers ash dieback disease, and we described the lifecycle of the disease using the major symptoms that remote sensing technologies can identify. Unfortunately, although effective methods of monitoring biotic damage through remote sensing have been developed, ash dieback has only been addressed in two research studies in the United Kingdom and Germany. These studies were based on single-date hyperspectral and very-high-resolution imagery in combination with machine learning, using previously specified ground-truth information regarding crown damage status. However, no study exists using high-resolution imagery such as Sentinel-2 or radar Sentinel-1, although some preliminary project results show that these coarser sources of information could be applicable for ash dieback detection and monitoring in cases of <i>Fraxinus angustifolia</i>, which forms pure, more homogenous stands in Southern Europe.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/5/1178biotic damageash diebackHymenoscyphus fraxineusdisease monitoringremote sensingRS4EST |
| spellingShingle | Mateo Gašparović Ivan Pilaš Damir Klobučar Iva Gašparović Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing? Remote Sensing biotic damage ash dieback Hymenoscyphus fraxineus disease monitoring remote sensing RS4EST |
| title | Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing? |
| title_full | Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing? |
| title_fullStr | Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing? |
| title_short | Monitoring Ash Dieback in Europe—An Unrevealed Perspective for Remote Sensing? |
| title_sort | monitoring ash dieback in europe an unrevealed perspective for remote sensing |
| topic | biotic damage ash dieback Hymenoscyphus fraxineus disease monitoring remote sensing RS4EST |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/5/1178 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mateogasparovic monitoringashdiebackineuropeanunrevealedperspectiveforremotesensing AT ivanpilas monitoringashdiebackineuropeanunrevealedperspectiveforremotesensing AT damirklobucar monitoringashdiebackineuropeanunrevealedperspectiveforremotesensing AT ivagasparovic monitoringashdiebackineuropeanunrevealedperspectiveforremotesensing |