Application of gis and remote sensing to regionalise the pinus caterpillar (Dendrolimus punctatus) in Tinh Gia district, Thanh Hoa province

Abstract

Pinus merkusii is one of highly economic value species and its resin is
used in many industries. A large-scale plantation of single pine species
poses a high risk of epidemic outbreak of pest and disease in Tinh Gia,
Thanh Hoa province. Therefore, pest and disease control is essential in the study site. Caterpillars mostly harm pine species, their ability to rapid reproduction and short time growth may lead to extremely destructive consequences of pine forests. Using GIS and remote sensing technologies to regionalize favourable zones of pine caterpillar development is crucial to drive timely prevention measures of widespread epidemics for Tinh Gia district. The results show that a group of factors which directly affect the growth and development of pine caterpillars include temperature, humidity, food, sunlight and elevation. In particular, the temperature factor is one of the most important and influential factors as it changes monthly and yearly, while other remaining factors are less influential and unlikely to change over the time. Moreover, the study has identified the location with a high-density caterpillar in Tinh Gia district by using overlaying approaches in ArcGIS 10.2. More importantly, findings show that the state of pine caterpillar development is at a safe level and is unlikely to be a widespread occurrence of any outbreak in 2015. The highly dense populated areas account for only a small percentage of 2.7% of total of studied areas, while there is largely 70.4% of the area without facing a risk of widespread occurrence of pine epidemic outbreak. This result provides a scientific basis for forecasting the possible occurrence of
epidemic pine caterpillar in coming years under the context of global
warming, which temperature factor is influential to a epidemic breakout of pine caterpillar.