ProPopulus Team
Digitalisation and artificial intelligence continue to advance within the forestry sector, particularly in the field of poplar cultivation.
During the recent workshop held in Granada on the identification and monitoring of damage in poplar plantations, the latest developments of AppPopuli+ were presented — a tool designed to facilitate the detection of pests and diseases through the combined use of citizen science and artificial intelligence.
What is AppPopuli+?
AppPopuli+ is an application developed by the University of León, in collaboration with Garnica and Bosques y Ríos, to improve health monitoring in poplar plantations. The tool allows owners, managers and forestry professionals to send reports of detected damage directly from their mobile phones and consult possible causes related to pests or diseases.
The aim is to strengthen early detection capabilities and facilitate a faster response to health-related problems affecting poplar plantations.
Artificial intelligence applied to poplar
One of the most notable features of AppPopuli+ is the incorporation of artificial intelligence systems based on neural networks for the automatic identification of damage in poplar plantations.
The model has been trained and validated using 1,443 photographs corresponding to different pests and diseases, enabling progress towards automatic recognition systems specifically adapted to the poplar sector.
According to the data presented during the workshop, the artificial intelligence model achieved an accuracy rate of over 82% in damage identification, using a system based on 70% of the data for training and 30% for validation.
Citizen science and data collection
Citizen science is one of the project’s key pillars. Through AppPopuli+, users can contribute photographs and field reports, helping to create a database that both improves the application’s performance and strengthens early warning capabilities against pests and diseases. During the presentation, the importance of continuing to expand the collection of images and reports was also highlighted in order to further improve the artificial intelligence system and increase the accuracy of the automatic identification models.
Towards Forestry 4.0 management
The development of this type of tool responds to the growing need to incorporate 4.0 damage detection and monitoring systems into forest management.
The combination of big data, artificial intelligence and collaborative data collection makes it possible to improve knowledge of the health status of poplar plantations and detect patterns linked to specific areas or issues.
Project leaders also stressed the importance of developing tools adapted to the real needs of companies and forest owners, as well as promoting the transfer of technological solutions to both the forestry sector and society.
Integration into a European forest monitoring system
One of the project’s next objectives is to advance the integration of AppPopuli+ into a European forest damage detection and monitoring system through API connectivity.
This integration will make it possible to share information and connect data from different tools and territories, helping to create a more coordinated forest health monitoring system at European level. The aim is to facilitate the early detection of health-related issues and improve response capacity against pests and diseases affecting different forest stands.
The initiative also reinforces the role of technological innovation and international cooperation in the development of digital solutions for the forestry sector.
A tool currently in testing phase
AppPopuli+ is part of a broader line of work aimed at modernising poplar health management and fostering collaboration between researchers, companies and end users.
The application is currently available in a testing phase and can be accessed through the platform developed for the project.
In addition, during the workshop a field demonstration of AppPopuli+ was carried out, showing in practice how users can report incidents and use the application to identify possible damage in poplar plantations. With initiatives such as AppPopuli+, the poplar sector continues moving towards more digital, collaborative and innovation-driven management models capable of improving health monitoring and supporting decision-making in the field.