arXiv Computer Vision

From Articles to Canopies: Knowledge-Driven Pseudo-Labelling for Tree Species Classification using LLM Experts

The paper introduces a biologically informed, semi‑supervised deep learning approach for hyperspectral tree species classification that fuses hyperspectral imaging and airborne laser scanning data with ecological knowledge. It uses a canopy graph and biologically inspired pseudo‑labelling, enhanced by expert priors derived from a large language model‑assisted, citation‑constrained workflow, to improve classification accuracy. Experiments on two real‑world forest datasets demonstrate macro‑F1 gains of 6.01 and 4.85 percentage points over leading classical HSI–ALS pipelines.

arXiv Computer Vision
Sep 3

Multispectral airborne laser scanning dataset for tree species classification: MS-ALS-SPECIES

The paper introduces MS-ALS-SPECIES, an open multispectral airborne laser scanning dataset designed for tree species classification. It contains 6,326 segment-level point clouds of individual trees from nine species in southern Finland, collected with two multispectral laser systems—HeliALS and Optech Titan—providing high point densities. The authors also present a crowdsourcing application for efficient field reference data collection and demonstrate the dataset’s utility through new species‑classification analyses building on prior work.

By Matti Hyypp\"a, Klaara Salolahti, Eric Hyypp\"a, Xiaowei Yu, Josef Taher, Leena Matikainen, Matti Lehtom\"aki, Paula Litkey, Teemu Hakala, Harri Kaartinen, Juha Hyypp\"a, Antero Kukko
arXiv AI
Jul 7

SilvaScenes: Tree Detection and Species Classification from Under-Canopy Images in Natural Forests

arXiv:2510. 09458v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Interest in forestry automation is growing alongside rapid advances in deep learning.

By David-Alexandre Duclos, William Guimont-Martin, Gabriel Jeanson, Arthur Larochelle-Tremblay, Martine Lapointe, Th\'eo Defosse, Fr\'ed\'eric Moore, Philippe Nolet, Fran\c{c}ois Pomerleau, Philippe Gigu\`ere
arXiv Computer Vision
Sep 30

HyperSAM: A Promptable Foundation Model for Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

HyperSAM is a promptable foundation model for hyperspectral remote sensing that integrates a data‑centric synthesis pipeline with a spectral adaptation architecture based on Segment Anything Model 3 (SAM3). The model generates full‑spectrum hyperspectral cubes from high‑resolution multispectral imagery using a physics‑informed abundance‑transfer generator, and employs SAM3‑derived pseudo‑masks for object‑centric supervision. With a frozen SAM3 RGB branch, a trainable hyperspectral encoder, ControlNet‑style feature injection, and a mixture‑of‑experts mask refiner, HyperSAM demonstrates strong generalization across diverse hyperspectral tasks such as classification, anomaly detection, change detection, target detection, and airborne oil‑spill mapping.

By Li Pang, Xinqiao Wu, Jing Yao, Pedram Ghamisi, Jun Zhou, Zhengchao Chen, Deyu Meng, Xiangyong Cao
arXiv Computer Vision
Aug 28

Mapping Woody Vegetation from Multi-Source Imagery and Prediction Fusion for Enhanced Data Efficiency and Accuracy

The paper presents a framework that enhances deep‑learning tree‑cover mapping in New South Wales by fusing multiple imagery sources and normalizing image quality. It introduces an image‑composition technique that removes defects and a prediction‑fusion method that reduces reliance on any single image, together cutting errors by 38.2 % and 53.6 % respectively. Label transfer across diverse imagery further boosts data efficiency, yielding error reductions of 28.1 %–76.2 % and a 13‑fold decrease in performance variability across dates.

By Kal Backman, Jared Wood, Adam Roff
arXiv Computer Vision
Aug 28

Detection of Christmas tree plantations from high-resolution aerial imagery. A case study in the French Morvan

The study presents a new approach to detect Christmas tree plantations in high‑resolution aerial imagery, treating the task as a rare‑target semantic segmentation problem. It introduces a Hard Negative Mining strategy that significantly improves precision‑recall performance, achieving an IoU of 0.733 and an F1‑score of 0.846 on a 2020 test set. Temporal transfer experiments demonstrate the model’s ability to generalize across years, while large‑scale validation highlights the challenge posed by the plantations’ small spatial footprint.

By Francesca Razzano, Emanuele Dalsasso, Adrien Baysse-Lain\'e, Silvia Liberata Ullo, Gilda Schirinzi, Jocelyn Chanussot
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 15

Exploring Interpretability in Deep Learning-Based Forest Classification - Separating Similar Forest Classes using Sentinel-2 Time Series

The study evaluates recurrent neural networks (RNNs) for classifying tree species from Sentinel‑2 time‑series data, focusing on distinguishing pure from mixed Norway spruce pixels. RNNs outperform Random Forest and XGBoost, achieving a Macro‑F1 of 0.851. Integrated Gradients analysis identifies key spectral‑temporal patterns—especially after day of year 125 and in band B11—that drive class separation, offering insights into phenological periods useful for mapping mixed forest structures.

By Maximilian Kirsch, Christine Preisach
arXiv AI
Sep 4

Tree species mapping in Denmark: A comparison of spectral-temporal features with geospatial foundation model embeddings

The study maps tree species across Denmark using National Forest Inventory plots and Earth Observation data, comparing manually engineered spectral‑temporal features (STF) from Sentinel‑1 and Sentinel‑2 with embeddings from the foundation models TESSERA and AlphaEarth. Random forest, XGBoost, and MLP classifiers were evaluated, with the STF‑based MLP achieving the highest macro F1 scores for pure and mixed stands. The best model was applied nationally to produce a 10 m resolution tree species map, achieving 79.9% area‑adjusted accuracy and released as an open‑access product.

By Alkiviadis Koukos, Spyros Kondylatos, Thomas Nord-Larsen, Lotte Nyborg, Christian T{\o}ttrup, Kenneth Grogan
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Sep 3

Tree species mapping in Denmark: A comparison of spectral-temporal features with geospatial foundation model embeddings

The study maps tree species across Denmark using National Forest Inventory plots and Earth Observation data, comparing manually engineered spectral‑temporal features (STF) with embeddings from foundation models TESSERA and AlphaEarth. Random forest, XGBoost, and MLP classifiers were evaluated, with the STF‑based MLP achieving the highest macro F1 scores (0.843 for pure stands, 0.653 for mixed stands). The best model was applied nationally to produce a 10 m resolution tree species map, achieving 79.9% area‑adjusted accuracy and released as an open‑access resource.

arXiv Computer Vision
Sep 22

Toward a foundation model for forest point clouds

arXiv:2609.24787v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Forest inventories increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) models to derive forest attributes from large-scale 3D point clouds. Current model...

By Yuanwen Yue, Stefano Puliti, Damien Robert, Atakan Topalo\u{g}lu, Binbin Xiang, Maciej Wielgosz, Jan Dirk Wegner, Rasmus Astrup, Christian Rupprecht, Konrad Schindler