The spruce bark beetles have been damaging over 10 million cubic meters of the swedish forest over the past two years. Hopefully, a new project based in Växjö will be the solution to stop this spread.

The goal of this project is to develop a digital tool to predict future attacks of spruce bark beetles through machine learning. The basis is to measure data through land and climate conditions at the plant site, to measure rainfall and temperature, and also the nature of the trees in the areas that have been attacked.

Björn Lundsten explains that we will train the system to provide prognostics for the future. If one follows the patterns on how spruce bark beetles have been moving the past years and registers under what conditions they prevail, we can predict in which locations the risk is higher.

So far, Softwerk is in a pre-project phase together with scientists from several institutions within Linnaeus University and the Skogsstyrelse (Forest Board). From Softwerk’s point of view, we can tell you that the interesting part has just begun and there is more to come.

Read more about the article through this link, http://www.smp.se/vaxjo/vaxjoinitiativ-kan-stoppa-granbarkborren/