Remote sensing bio-control damage on aquatic invasive alien plant species

Aquatic Invasive Alien Plant (AIAP) species are a major threat to freshwater ecosystems, placing great strain on South Africa’s limited water resources. Bio-control programmes have been initiated in an effort to mitigate the negative environmental impacts associated with their presence in non-native areas. Remote sensing can be used as an effective tool to detect, map and monitor bio-control damage on AIAP species. This paper reconciles previous and current research concerning the application of remote sensing to detect and map bio-control damage on AIAP species. Initially, the spectral characteristics of bio-control damage are described. Thereafter, the potential of remote sensing chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence as pre-visual indicators of bio-control damage are reviewed and synthesised. The utility of multispectral and hyperspectral sensors for mapping different severities of bio-control damage are also discussed. Popular machine learning algorithms that offer operational potential to classify bio-control damage are proposed. This paper concludes with the challenges of remote sensing bio-control damage as well as proposes recommendations to guide future research to successfully detect and map bio-control damage on AIAP species.