Using High-Resolution Imagery and Artificial Intelligence to Support Climate Change Resilience in Agroforestry Across the Pacific

On remote Pacific islands and outer atolls, agroforestry (i.e., the cultivation and conservation of trees for agriculture) provides food security and income to local communities. Growing instability from climate change and invasive species like the coconut rhinoceros beetle threaten these resources. Actively managing and sustaining agroforestry resources requires detailed and up-to-date knowledge of forest inventories and conditions. Project researchers will build capacity for conducting detailed agroforestry assessment and monitoring in Pacific Island nations, by using imagery collected from small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS or “drones”) and custom computer algorithms to automatically detect and monitor the health of coconut trees [...]