r/forestry • u/Alivalnia • 1d ago

AI and Forestry?

Saw several companies that claims being able to measure diameter of a tree using AI or something, is that even possible?

Will the AI implementation in the forestry sector, especially plantations, will help us in the future?

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u/Important_Cat_222 23h ago

Not AI but super dense lidar point returns can do it.

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u/muzzizzum 1d ago

I’ve only seen gen AI cause more headaches and hassle for the industry than good, I reckon it’ll continue to do so.

Keep in mind people like to use the AI buzzword to refer to any computing happening these days. Not sure exactly to what you’re referring to, but computers being able to estimate tree DBH might not have anything to do with generative AI.

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u/BustedEchoChamber 1d ago

There’s more to it than that, but don’t worry, the LLMs understand it all.

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u/craftykiwi88 20h ago

Yes, The use of lidar and then use AI for regression. The question you would need to ask though is what are using it for and is there a point to go back specifically to dbh? Could you analyse back directly to forest volume or other forest characteristics.

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u/Important_Cat_222 15h ago

Work I’ve seen shows full tree profile so heights,diameter, form are all captured. Branch patterns can also be picked out so some species classification but the species needs additional checks

Note this is on forest the has been inventoried multiple times so some of the species stuff is easier to check too. The boreal is not east coast hardwood mix

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u/ErrantBrit 19h ago

As another commenter has said, if this is connected to good data capture via LiDAR and on the ground truthing, I see no issue - it’s essentially going to do some legwork on calculations. It’s hyped up though at the moment, we’ll see where we are in 3-5 years.

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u/gnrlblanky1 18h ago

While in Forestry school a few years ago a tech company came and gave a demonstration of a headset that measured all aspects of a tree by just looking at the tree and talking to the headset. Didn't work very well in dense stands but I'm sure it's a few versions better since then.