Likely locust infestation areas in western New South Wales, Australia, located by satellite

Abstract

A retrospective investigation was undertaken of the area around Broken Hill in the Western region of New South Wales, where Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera) nymphal band control took place during September ‐ November (spring) of 1987. Processed Landsat‐5 multispectralscanner data for March 1987 (autumn) were used to locate the likely spring/summer locust infestation areas using habitat type, condition and soil type as the delineating parameters. The results show that a vegetation index (indicating the degree of vegetation greeness in an area) is useful for predicting where locusts are most likely to aggregate, a classification of vegetation types is needed for determining likely breeding sites, and that there is an additional relationship between soils/geology and the location of locust infestations. These results are discussed in relation to the future operational use of the techniques in the Australian Plague Locust Commission.