About
The Southern Pine Beetle is wreaking havoc on northeastern states. Trees are dying in the masses as these harmful creatures move further north year after year. As they begin to threaten the very land we call home, we can’t help but question: how can we prevent them?
Solution
Using statistical methods and predictive insights, Project Pine Beetle seeks to aggregate and visualize data from US Forest Service cooperators across twenty states in a way that allows forest rangers to easily understand trends in beetle movements. A predictive model written by our partners visualizes existing data and makes predictions about the probability of future outbreaks. Users can adjust selections to view different metrics and predictions for various regions. We’ve currently put together the underlying architecture to achieve these goals. Data has been imported to a database, pipelines have been built to aggregate survey data from cooperators across the nation, and data is flowing to the front-end website. We are now focused on building robust data visualizations that allow users to easily comprehend and understand predictive insights.
Product
https://www.spbpredict.com
Press/Recognition
Professor Matt Ayres, a partner on the project, was featured in the following article: https://www.benningtonbanner.com/stories/the-outside-story-southern-pine-beetles-march-north,555336
Partners: The US Forest Service and Dartmouth College
Team Members: Thomas Monfre ‘21, Isabel Hurley ‘19, Madeline Hess ‘19
