Monitoring plant diseases and insects with remote sensing technology: A review

Authors: ZHANG, JINGEHENG - Hangzhou Dianzi University; Huang, Yanbo; PU, RUILIANG - University Of South Florida; GONZALEZ-MORENO, PABLO - Centre For Agriculture & Biosciences International (CABI); WU, KAIHUA - Hangzhou Dianzi University; HUANG, WENJIANG - Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Submitted to: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/10/2019
Publication Date: 8/25/2019
Citation: Zhang, J., Huang, Y., Pu, R., Gonzalez-Moreno, P., Wu, K., Huang, W. 2019. Monitoring plant diseases and insects with remote sensing technology: A review. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2019.104943.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2019.104943

Interpretive Summary: Agricultural disasters of diseases and insects is the primary concern of government, researchers and producers. Remote sensing is a technology to establish non-contact, high-efficient, and affordable methods for detecting and monitoring plant diseases and insects over vast areas for plant protection and crop production. Scientists of Hangzhou Dianzi University, USDA-ARS Crop Production Systems Research Unit at Stoneville, Mississippi, University of South Florida, Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International, UK, and Chinese Academy of Sciences work together to review different forms of remote sensing methods for detecting and monitoring plant diseases and insects. With this review readers can obtain the recent insights of the state-of-art research achievements from various aspects in feature extraction from remotely sensed data to link with the occurrence of plant diseases and insects. Overall, a general framework is formulated to facilitate the remote sensing monitoring of any disease or insect. The challenges and trends in remote sensing detection and monitoring of plant diseases and insects are discussed.

Technical Abstract: As severe biological threats to plants, diseases and insects endanger agriculture and forestry significantly around the world. To establish non-contact, high-efficient, and affordable methods for detecting and monitoring plant diseases and insects over vast areas could greatly facilitate plant protection. In this respect, different forms of remote sensing methods have been introduced for detecting and monitoring plant diseases and insects in many ways. This review outline the recent insights of the state-of-art research achievements with respect to sensing technologies, features extraction, monitoring algorithms that were conducted at multiple scales. Based on the characteristics and maturity in detecting and monitoring plant diseases and insects, the sensing systems are sorted as: visible & near-infrared spectral sensors; fluorescence and thermal sensors; and synthetic aperture radar and light detection and ranging systems. Based on data acquired from these remote sensing systems and sensitivity analysis, various forms of remote sensing features were proposed and identified as surrogates in the detecting and monitoring processes, including spectral, fluorescence, thermal parameters; image-based and landscape features; and features associated with habitat suitability. To link the remote sensing features with the occurrence of plant diseases and insects, algorithms and models for identifying, differentiating and determining severity of diseases and insects were reviewed with them for mapping the diseases and insects over large areas. These algorithms included the statistical discriminant analysis, machine learning algorithms, regression-based models and spectral unmixing algorithms that could be performed on single-phase or multi-phases. Finally, a general framework was provided to facilitate the monitoring of an unknown disease or insect. The challenges and trends in detection and monitoring of plant diseases and insects were also discussed.