Objective

The overall objective of FORSAID is to incorporate novel digital solutions in the fight against forest pests in Europe.

In this sense, the project is seeking to build up and firmly establish a novel and comprehensive paradigm for identifying, observing and containing pest proliferations across Europe.

Specifically, several EU-regulated pest species that have a particularly substantial negative impact on plant health will be targeted.

FORSAID will

Develop an early detection and surveillance framework for select EU-regulated forest pests via remote sensing technologies
Conduct experimental testing aimed at easing the automatic ground detection of pest species via AI-assisted tools for robotic DNA barcoding
Harness the potential and existing contribution of citizen science as a valuable resource in pest control by helping to introduce new common-use tools and approaches for the management of threat-posing insect species
Integrate all preceding outputs into a proposal for a comprehensive and coherent monitoring and assessment system for regulated pests