Objective To survey the recent developments and summarize the urgent research problems on remote sensing monitoring for pine wilt disease (PWD) induced tree mortality, then to put forward a research idea of monitoring the attacked pine trees via scheme of satellite-airborne-ground collaboration which can meet the complex terrain conditions of south China.

Method The characteristics of physio-ecology and canopy spectra of affected pine trees were analyzed. The acquisition of remote sensing images, the location and counting of affected pine trees in the past decades were investigated. In addition, some research problems on remote sensing monitoring for PWD induced tree mortality were discussed, and the prospects of future studies were expected.

Result Each monitoring platform of remote sensing for attacked pine trees has its own advantage. For example, high reliability for ground survey, multi-temporal for remote sensing satellite platform, high spatial resolution and flexibility for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing platform. Of which, the technologies of UAV and high resolution satellite have made a great progress, as well as the interpretation algorithm of remote sensing images. Those two aspects provide a new idea to the quick monitoring of PWD induced pine trees. However, when monitoring the PWD induced tree mortality using the new technologies, there exist some problems, such as the single monitoring means, large position deviation, and low recognition precision and efficiency.

Conclusion In the future, with the ever-increasing satellites platform and ever-lower cost of UAV, the quick locating of individual affected pine trees and evaluate the damage levels based on multi-source remote sensing data will become a new perspective.