# Trees as Gaussians: Large-Scale Individual Tree Mapping

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21437 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21437/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 30 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Objects as Points](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.07850/) (2019)
- [CornerNet: Detecting Objects as Paired Keypoints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.01244/) (2018)
- [SatCLIP: Global, General-Purpose Location Embeddings with Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17179/) (2023)
- [Foundation Models for Generalist Geospatial Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.18660/) (2023)
- [A high-resolution canopy height model of the Earth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08322/) (2022)
- [MMEarth: Exploring Multi-Modal Pretext Tasks For Geospatial Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02771/) (2024)
- [OmniSat: Self-Supervised Modality Fusion for Earth Observation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08351/) (2024)
- [Very high resolution canopy height maps from RGB imagery using self-supervised vision transformer and convolutional decoder trained on Aerial Lidar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07213/) (2023)
- [Estimating Canopy Height at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01076/) (2024)
- [Individual Tree Detection in Large-Scale Urban Environments using High-Resolution Multispectral Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.10607/) (2022)
- [Assessing the Sharpness of Satellite Images: Study of the PlanetScope Constellation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.09159/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Counting Trees from Satellite Imagery with Noisy Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24786/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Trees are key components of the terrestrial biosphere, playing vital roles in ecosystem function, climate regulation, and the bioeconomy. However, large-scale monitoring of individual trees remains limited by inadequate modelling. Available global products have focused on binary tree cover or canopy height, which do not explicitely identify trees at individual level. In this study, we present a deep learning approach for detecting large individual trees in 3-m resolution PlanetScope imagery at a global scale. We simulate tree crowns with Gaussian kernels of scalable size, allowing the extraction of crown centers and the generation of binary tree cover maps. Training is based on billions of points automatically extracted from airborne lidar data, enabling the model to successfully identify trees both inside and outside forests. We compare against existing tree cover maps and airborne lidar with state-of-the-art performance (fractional cover R2 = 0.81 against aerial lidar), report balanced detection metrics across biomes, and demonstrate how detection can be further improved through fine-tuning with manual labels. Our method offers a scalable framework for global, high-resolution tree monitoring, and is adaptable to future satellite missions offering improved imagery.