This week the LIFE adapt-aleppo project has participated, with the help of Agresta S. Coop., in the V Scientific Meeting on Forest Health, held at the Higher Technical School of Agronomic and Forestry Engineering and Biotechnology of the University of Castilla. La Mancha, in Albacete.
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At the meeting, numerous presentations related to science, research and new technologies applied to Forest Health Management were presented and debated, with sessions focused on improvement programs against forest pests and diseases, forest declines, emerging forest pests and diseases. , monitoring and evaluation of forest pests and diseases, innovative strategies for the diagnosis and control of forest pests and diseases, and many other topics of great interest. The works presented have covered a wide variety of target species and forest formations (species of the genera Pinus , Quercus, Fagus , Ulmus , Castanea , etc.).
The presentation given by Agresta in session II, on forest declines, was titled: “Detection of decline processes in Pinus pine forests halepensis in the Valencian Community through the use of time series of satellite images. It has presented the methodology developed within the framework of LIFE actions C1 and D1, for the detection and evaluation of decay processes, also presenting a preliminary analysis of the results obtained contrasting with field data from the Valencian Community, captured during the months of February to May 2024.
The methodology presented consists of the analysis of time series of Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite images, performing a trend analysis based on spectral indices to identify negative trends in the vigor of the vegetation, and evaluating the severity of the events by comparison of the vigor at a given time with the historical average. This methodology provides a dynamic view of changes over time, which is essential for understanding and monitoring the health of our ecosystems.
By contrasting these results with the data observed in the field during several campaigns, the potential of this methodology to identify the most vulnerable and/or weakened masses and, therefore, most in need of the implementation of adaptive management measures aimed at promoting the resilience of the system.
In the presentation, in addition, some preliminary results of the application of the methodology to areas that currently suffer severe droughts in the Valencian Community were presented, work that has been carried out thanks to the collaboration of the Generalitat Valenciana with LIFE adapt-aleppo, financing and carrying out damage prospecting work in the field during this first half of 2024. Our results clearly show the location of the masses subjected to greater water stress, they even indicate very precisely the occurrence of mortality phenomena due to drought .
The developed methodology is considered fully transferable to the monitoring of other species or forest formations, with slight adaptations in aspects such as the date interval of the images used to generate the annual mosaics (adapting to the phenology of the species), or the thresholds that delimit the severity levels of the events, which could require readjustment. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the presentation is the transfer to experts/managers in the field of other forest formations other than the Pinus pine forest . halepensis .
All these results will be available in a tool/web viewer that LIFE adapt-aleppo will launch in the coming months… we will continue to report!