Detection of Larch Caterpillar Infestation in Typical Forest Areas of Changbai Mountain, China, Based on Integrated Satellite Hyperspectral and Multispectral Data

Forests, as one of the most vital ecosystems on Earth, play essential roles in climate regulation, water conservation, and resource provision. However, forest health is threatened by pests, among which the larch caterpillar (Dendrolimus superans) is one of the most destructive defoliators of coniferous forests in northern China. Previous studies have mostly relied on single data sources for pest detection, which are limited by insufficient spectral information or inappropriate selection of sensitive bands, making it difficult to achieve high detection accuracy. Therefore, this study integrates hyperspectral imagery from Zhuhai-1 and multispectral imagery from Sentinel-2, leveraging their high spectral resolution and broad spectral range, thus enhancing discrimination capability. Genetic algorithm (GA) was employed to select optimal features from spectral indices, texture features, and fractional-order derivatives (FOD). Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) were compared, and model interpretability was further analyzed using Shapley additive explanations (SHAP). The results showed that XGBoost achieved the highest performance, with an overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of 93.47% and 89.81%, demonstrating superior adaptability. Moreover, the integration of hyperspectral and multispectral data significantly improved detection accuracy compared to using either data source alone. Among the GA-selected features, Band 15 of Zhuhai-1 hyperspectral imagery exhibited strong sensitivity to pest infestation. This study provides a novel and practical approach for forest pest monitoring based on the synergistic use of hyperspectral and multispectral remote sensing data.