Invasive plant management at scale

Tropical weeds can become a serious and expensive management problem for landowners in the UK. One way of controlling these plants is the release of biocontrol organisms.

We worked with CABI, an international bioscience non-profit, to develop a UAV plant monitoring proof-of-concept for Floating Pennywort. The solution allows the assessors to both locate the weed in watercourses and measure the current effectiveness of the biocontrol.

This technology reduces ground visits and allows surveying of sites that would be otherwise impossible to monitor

Read more about the work in this CABI 2024 report

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Tree diseases in UK farmland

Tree diseases such as Ash Dieback, Sudden Oak Decline and Horse-chestnut Leafminer are having a severe negative effect on the UK's woodlands. The client wanted to move their agri-tech expertise towards supplying additional risk monitoring products to their customers.

We supported them through direct consultancy, providing expertise on image analysis techniques used for measuring plant characteristics.

Read more about the work in this industry article

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Measuring tree canopy cover in UK cities

The client needed a method for estimating tree cover in UK cities over a 30 year period. We built a proof-of-concept canopy detection solution designed to work with Worldview satellite data.

The model predicted both the canopy cover and height class of the canopy at 70cm resolution. This helped the client understand the potential benefits and budget needed to carry out their research study.

Tree monetary valuation using remote sensing

A climate emergency has been declared by over 70% of UK local authorities, prompting the government to plant more trees to reduce atmospheric CO₂. However, it's crucial to also consider the broader benefits trees provide, including health, wellbeing, and social value.

As part of the Branching Out project, we developed a system for producing a monetary valuation for every tree in a city, so that the replacement cost of a tree could be considered when making value decisions.

The approach uses the Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (CAVAT) principles combined with state-of-the art image processing of aerial imaging data. The result is an individual tree valuation dataset at city scale.

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Simulating satellite data for a tree-focused mission

The UK Space Agency comissioned a feasibility study for a new, tree-focused mission that would allow monitoring of individual trees around the world.

As part of the study, we produced an open source end-to-end scene emulation framework called Python Earth Observation Simulator (PyEOSim). This was used to test atmospheric correction methods and constrain the minimum performance requirements of the system.

Code repository: PyEOSim

Training Course: PyEOSim PANGEOS Training Course

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Country-level monitoring of an invasive plant

Parthenium hysterophorous is an invasive weed causing severe disruption to agriculture in Pakistan. In this project we developed a satellite data system to predict the locations of the plant at national-scale. More information can be found on the CABI Parthenium project pages.

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Hyperspectral scanning to predict virus risk

Cassava Mosaic Virus is a plant disease transmitted by small insects. A small number of Whitefly species transmit the virus, but others do not, and so identifying these insects is important. We developed a new machine learning approach for identifying the species from hypespectral scans of the insects.

Journal article: A method for real-time classification of insect vectors of mosaic and brown streak disease in cassava plants for future implementation within a low-cost, handheld, in-field multispectral imaging sensor

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Laser scanning for orchard health

Orchard management is labour-intensive and expensive. Condition monitoring allows effort to be targeted towards the trees that are in need of intervention. We developed fast algorithms for predicting orchard tree condition from Terrestrial Lidar Scans.

Journal article: Novel use of proximal photogrammetry and terrestrial LiDAR to quantify the structural complexity of orchard trees

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Insect vision and behaviour

When crops are grown under glass or polythene, agricultural pest insects can be controlled using illumination. We published a comprehensive review of pest responses to coloured light.

Journal article: Direct effects of protective cladding material on insect pests in crops.

We also published work demonstrating how the Green Peach aphid uses vision to find safe feeding sites.

Journal article: New understanding of the direct effects of spectral balance on behaviour in Myzus persicae.

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