Researchers have developed a new tool, Tree-D Fusion, that allows the next generation of city planners to line drab city streets with new trees. Published late last year, Tree-D Fusion merges forestry science with artificial intelligence (AI) to produce realistic tree model imagery.
The new tool takes flat, 2D photos of trees (like those provided by Google Street View) to create a complete 3D model of trees. Then, using AI’s computing power, it can predict how that individual tree will grow or how an area planted with trees may look years later once the trees have matured.
“This continuous monitoring creates a living digital forest that mirrors its physical counterpart,” according to Sara Beery, a professor at MIT who was one of the study’s co-authors, told MIT News. “[It offers] cities a powerful lens to observe how environmental stresses shape tree health and growth patterns across their urban landscape.”
According to The Cool Down, the new technology, for the first time, gives city planners a realistic, data-based glimpse into the future of trees in an urban environment: “For example, if a stand of trees threatens to grow into power or communication lines, the software can predict that will happen long before it branches out into a real problem.”
But it’s not just about predicting potential tree maintenance issues. Tree-D Fusion’s technology can also tap into the potential for urban forests to help maintain livability as the climate continues to warm. It can do this in a couple of ways.Â
One is by mapping the impossibly intricate shade patterns created by urban forests. That can help city planners envision how entire cityscapes can be shade-cooled with proper tree planting and cultivation. Another related method is using AI tree modelling to better understand and visualise green spaces in cities. Green spaces are crucial for mitigating the heat island effect, which occurs when concrete areas build up and concentrate heat.
Access to green spaces is also a public and sociological health issue. A 2008 study in The Lancet showed a direct link between having easy access to green spaces in a city and income inequality and life expectancy. Planning for more green spaces in a city and envisioning how those spaces will grow and change over the coming decades could be a powerful tool for making cities more livable, clean, and equitable.
“Together with my collaborators,” said Jae Joong Lee, a Purdue University PhD student who helped build the Tree-D Fusion algorithm, “I envision expanding the platform’s capabilities to a planetary scale. Our goal is to use AI-driven insights in service of natural ecosystems — supporting biodiversity, promoting global sustainability, and ultimately, benefiting the health of our entire planet.”Â
How many trees does it take to cool a city?
In November, Wood Central reported on a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that calculated the number of trees needed to green a city – providing decision-makers with key information to make specific, science-based city-wide greening goals.
The study led by Jia Wang, Weiqi Zhou, and Yuguo Qian at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-authored by Steward Pickett, an urban ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies: “Trees offer many benefits to cities, and cooling is one of them,” Mr Pickett explained. They then analysed satellite imagery and temperature data from four cities with very different climates: Beijing and Shenzhen in China and Baltimore and Sacramento in the United States.
- To learn more about the study, click here for more information.
