Remote sensing and artificial intelligence can assist in forest biosecurity preparedness and emergency response.

There are many threats to Australian native forests, plantations and urban forests from exotic and endemic insects and pathogens. Biosecurity surveillance programs focus on mitigating the risks posed by these biotic agents. Understanding pests pathways and hosts is essential for preparedness and post-border surveillance. Urban forests around high-risk entry pathways like ports can be used as sentinels for early detection, but assessing large numbers of trees can be time-consuming. In Melbourne, Australia, many local governments maintain accurate tree databases that allow for precise host mapping within public land. However, this is not the case for other major cities in Australia, and remains a challenge within private land. Host mapping during an emergency response following the detection of an exotic pest is time-consuming and resource intensive; generally conducted in vehicles and foot patrols. Recent work in Australia has shown that using the ArborCamTM remote sensing camera system mounted to a fixed-wing aircraft and the use of artificial intelligence allowed semi-automation of the detection of Pinus and Platanus with an overall accuracy of 92.1% and 95.2%, respectively. The 11-band multi-spectral system developed by ArborCarbon also provides data on tree health, size, and shape, detailed information on vertical and horizontal structure, and spectral and thermal information for object identification and measurement. The benefit of the system is that it is focused on detecting spatial and temporal changes in vegetation and particularly tree health across all land tenures enabling early response to factors impacting tree health or evaluation of control activities. Linking this data with local government pest host lists and tree databases can assist with risk profiling, aid in identifying areas for targeted surveillance, speed up emergency response and reduce the costs of boots-on-the-ground surveillance.