Mountain Pine Beetle Analysis

The pine beetle infestation has become quite a threat to the forests of the western parts of the US and Canada over the last decades. Swinging into action, the Canadian province of Alberta has called on geospatial companies to provide information on the location of infested trees assisting the government in cutting down those trees to prevent the beetle from spreading further.

Prevention strategy using geodata

• Infested trees turn bright red in the fall and can be identified in aerial photography using classification and segmentation techniques
• Additional LiDAR data assists in segregating tree canopy, making the identification process more robust
• Procedure adheres to tight schedule as the tree identification and removal must be completed before the beetle population moves on to the next tree

ORTHOSHOP has successfully completed the pine beetle analysis while exceeding the scope of the project and staying within very strict time lines.

Automatic algorithms and methodologies to classify and segment aerial photography were developed in-house. Further data processing within a GIS package included attributing and grouping the identified trees according to our client's specifications.