Modeling the Spread of Tree Pests after Aerial Pest Control with the Means of a Geo-Information System

. As part of a student project for the module Environmental and Geoinformation Systems, this article takes up the discussion about aerial pest control in forests. A model based solely on publicly available data is created to identify the area in which the aerial application of insecticides is permitted. It further estimates the renewed spread of forest pests after the control measure using a simple dynamic model. The back-ground of this model is the fact that the insecticide is applied in compliance with protective zones around populated areas, as well as surface waters and forest edges. In those untreated areas of the forest, the pests survive and will spread anew. Assuming a certain duration for the propagation cycle of the pests as well as an average radius, the dynamic spread of the pest population over several propagation cycles can be simulated and displayed using simple onboard methods of a geoinformation system. The difficulty in determining these zones is the fact that the geodata of German forests is frequently intersected by small roads that are irrelevant to the aerial application of the insecticide. As a feasibility study, this paper proves that such a model can provide useful information. For the case of an actual aerial application of an insecticide, it provides a list of essential parameters for a practically oriented simulation.