Smart Urban Tree

Description

Urban trees are exposed to essential anthropogenic pressures which directly and indirectly affect tree health and vitality. Tree health parameters are highly variable in space and time. Smart Urban Tree technology aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of tree physiological functioning and vertical stability remotely and in real time. The technology is based on the Tree Talker (TT) – a new device capable of measuring sap flow, spectral characteristics, diametral growth, microclimatic characteristics and oscillation. The TT is equipped with a LoRa chipset for wireless data transmission to a TT-Cloud router, serving up to 20 devices in one cluster with an hourly frequency. Data from TT-Cloud is transmitted to a remote computer server via GPRS connection and is further available via web-software. Both TT and TT-Cloud are equipped with 4 Li-Ion batteries and a solar panel each, which allows for an autonomous performance for 2-8 weeks depending on the climatic condition

Implementation sphere

  • Monitoring tree ecology and physiology under changing environmental condition (e.g., urbanization, pollution, climate change)
  • Vitality control of the new planted trees, trees of high aesthetic or cultural value
  • Collecting data to assess risks of tree failure
  • Monitoring the effectiveness of tree maintenance and treatment (e.g. irrigation, fertilization, plant nutrition and health care)
  • Assessing ecosystem services of urban green infrastructure at the tree level (e.g., microclimate formation, PM absorption and water balance control)

Implementation cases

  • Monitoring physiological functioning and vertical stability of urban trees in Moscow megapolis
  • Estimating the cooling potential of street trees in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg

To read about

IoT Monitoring of Urban Tree Ecosystem Services: Possibilities and Challenges

Forests 2020, 11(7), 775
Matasov, V.; Belelli Marchesini, L.; Yaroslavtsev, A.; Sala, G.; Fareeva, O.; Seregin, I.; Castaldi, S.; Vasenev, V.; Valentini, R.

New tree monitoring systems: from Industry 4.0 to Nature 4.0

Annals of Silvicultural Research 43 (2), 2019: 84-88
Riccardo Valentini, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Damiano Gianelle, Giovanna Sala, Alexey Yarovslavtsev, Viacheslav Vasenev, Simona Castaldi