Or: everything you ever wanted to know about Treescape, the project, the team, the product and it's vision.
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Treescape is an AI-driven open-source platform that revolutionizes the way we design, implement, and manage regenerative agroforestry systems. With a mission to support the planting of 1 billion hectares of biodiverse food forests worldwide, Treescape aims to address the urgent challenges posed by climate change, soil degradation, and food insecurity while reconnecting people to nature and creating thriving, resilient ecosystems.
By harnessing the power of state-of-the-art AI techniques, such as multimodal multi-resolution models (e.g., DOFA), and integrating diverse open data sources, Treescape enables users to quickly and accurately assess the potential of any given landscape for agroforestry, generate optimized planting plans, and make informed management decisions. The platform empowers agroforestry practitioners, from smallholder farmers to large-scale restoration projects, to design and implement food-producing forests that regenerate soils, sequester carbon, stabilize hydrology and climate, and foster biodiversity.
At the heart of Treescape's approach is a collaborative ecosystem model that brings together agroforestry tech studios, NGOs, government entities, and individual professionals to co-create and continuously improve the platform's tools and capabilities. This model ensures that Treescape remains responsive to the diverse needs and contexts of its global user community while accelerating innovation and impact.
The Forest Designer Marketplace is a key component of Treescape's ecosystem, connecting users with a global network of skilled agroforestry professionals, including forest designers, consultants, and implementers. By facilitating collaboration, knowledge sharing, and project-based work, the marketplace creates new opportunities for meaningful and rewarding work while driving the widespread adoption and scaling of regenerative practices.
Treescape's commitment to open-source development, accessibility, and knowledge sharing is central to its mission. The platform's tiered subscription model ensures that its tools and resources are accessible to users at all levels, from smallholder farmers to large-scale restoration projects. By fostering a culture of open collaboration and contributing to the development of new tools and capabilities, Treescape is helping to create a more connected and impactful ecosystem of solutions for sustainable agroforestry.
As Treescape grows and evolves, it remains focused on its core vision of catalyzing a regenerative evolution that transforms degraded landscapes into thriving, food-producing ecosystems. Through strategic partnerships, ongoing research and development, and a deep commitment to empowering agroforestry practitioners worldwide, Treescape is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping a future where the health and well-being of people and the planet are inextricably linked, and where regenerative land use practices are the foundation for a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient world.
Treescape's product strategy focuses on catalyzing the widespread adoption of regenerative agroforestry by providing accessible, user-friendly tools for design and management. The strategy involves a phased approach, starting with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) targeted at forest designers, and then expanding to a mass-market product that enables adoption by a broader range of users.
The first phase of Treescape's product strategy is the development of an MVP specifically tailored to the needs of forest designers. These professionals play a crucial role in the planning and implementation of agroforestry projects, but often lack access to advanced tools and data needed to optimize their designs.
Treescape's MVP will address this gap by providing features that streamline existing design processes and integrate AI assistance for greater efficiency and accuracy. Key features will include automated data acquisition, Open Data powered analysis, collaborative design tools, and financial modeling.
The MVP will serve several strategic objectives, including validating core functionality, building a user community, establishing credibility, and generating early revenue through a prepaid daily usage credits model, which is particularly well-suited for the freelance nature of many forest designers.
Building on the foundation established by the MVP, Treescape's next phase of product development will focus on creating a mass-market version of the platform that is accessible to a wide range of users beyond forest designers.
This mass-market product will leverage learnings and user feedback from the MVP phase to create a more streamlined, intuitive interface that requires minimal technical expertise. Key features will include a simple, step-by-step workflow, pre-loaded templates and design options, automated alerts and recommendations, and integration with mobile devices.
By making its tools more user-friendly and accessible, Treescape aims to enable widespread adoption of regenerative agroforestry practices, even among users with limited prior experience or technical knowledge.
Alongside its phased product development strategy, Treescape is committed to continuous improvement and innovation to ensure that its platform remains at the cutting edge of agroforestry technology.
This process will involve ongoing engagement with users to gather feedback and insights, as well as investments in research and development to integrate new data sources, algorithms, and features over time.
To ensure that its product strategy is effective in driving adoption and impact, Treescape will establish clear metrics and targets for success at each phase of development.
For the MVP, key metrics will include the number of forest designers using the platform, the area of land under management, user satisfaction and engagement, and the economic and ecological performance of the agroforestry projects designed with Treescape's tools.
As it scales to a mass-market product, Treescape will expand its metrics to include the total number of users, the diversity of user types and geographies, and the aggregate impact of the agroforestry projects enabled by its platform, measured in terms of key ecological and socio-economic indicators.
Treescape's technical approach combines state-of-the-art remote sensing, machine learning, and ecological modeling to create a powerful, user-friendly platform for regenerative agroforestry design and management. By leveraging advanced technologies and data sources, Treescape delivers cutting-edge tools that enable users to optimize the ecological and economic performance of their agroforestry systems.
Treescape's technical approach harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) by seamlessly integrating standard algorithms and innovative AI techniques. This hybrid approach allows the platform to leverage the strengths of both traditional and emerging methodologies, ensuring robust, reliable, and scalable performance.
At the core of Treescape's AI capabilities are foundational multimodal LLM (Large Language Model) agents, which are AI systems capable of processing and understanding multiple modalities of data, such as text, images, and numerical data. These agents enable Treescape to extract insights and generate recommendations from complex, multidimensional datasets, such as Earth Observation (EO) data, terrain models, and ecological data.
Treescape utilizes state-of-the-art multimodal multi-resolution models, such as Dynamic One-For-All (DOFA), to process and integrate diverse data sources. These models allow Treescape to handle a wide variety of data types and resolutions, adapting to the specific needs and constraints of each agroforestry project. By leveraging existing state-of-the-art models, Treescape can focus on applying these powerful tools to the specific challenges of agroforestry design and management, rather than investing resources in developing and training new AI models from scratch.
One example of how Treescape applies AI techniques is through the use of genetic algorithms for plant placement. Genetic algorithms are a type of optimization algorithm inspired by the process of natural selection, which can be used to find optimal solutions to complex problems. In the context of agroforestry design, genetic algorithms can help determine the most suitable locations for planting different species of trees and crops, taking into account factors such as soil type, water availability, and climate conditions.
Another key AI technique employed by Treescape is the use of instruct models for automated extraction of structured data. Instruct models are a type of natural language processing (NLP) model that can understand and follow instructions in natural language, allowing users to interact with the platform using intuitive, conversational interfaces. By leveraging instruct models, Treescape can automatically extract relevant information from unstructured data sources, such as scientific literature and expert knowledge bases, and convert it into structured, machine-readable formats that can be used to inform agroforestry design and management decisions.
Treescape also incorporates Segment Anything Models (SAMs) to enable precise, automated segmentation of EO data and other geospatial data. SAMs are a type of deep learning model that can accurately identify and delineate objects and regions of interest in images, such as individual trees, water bodies, and soil types. By applying SAMs to high-resolution EO data, Treescape can automatically generate detailed maps of agroforestry sites, which can be used to inform design decisions and monitor the health and growth of trees and crops over time.
In addition to these core AI techniques, Treescape harnesses AI to simplify and automate various aspects of the agroforestry design and management process. This includes the use of natural language processing and automated report generation to create user-friendly, easily understandable outputs, such as design summaries and management recommendations. Treescape also leverages AI to create structured, searchable knowledge bases on agroforestry, which are continuously updated based on the latest research and user feedback. These knowledge bases, along with the platform's multilingual support, help to democratize access to agroforestry expertise and best practices, enabling users around the world to design and manage their systems with confidence.
Treescape's platform leverages a wide range of open data sources to provide users with comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date information for agroforestry design and management. These data sources include Earth Observation (EO) imagery, geospatial datasets, environmental data, and biodiversity information.
One of the core inputs for Treescape's platform is multispectral EO imagery, which provides detailed information about land cover, vegetation health, and other key indicators. Treescape utilizes multispectral satellite temporal foundational models for time-series analysis, enabling dynamic, adaptive monitoring of agroforestry systems over time. By analyzing changes in vegetation indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Treescape can track the growth and health of trees and crops, detect potential issues, and provide timely recommendations for management interventions.
In addition to EO imagery, Treescape incorporates a range of geospatial and environmental datasets to inform agroforestry design and management decisions.
Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and Digital Terrain Models (DTMs): These datasets provide information about the topography and elevation of a given area, which is essential for understanding factors such as water flow, soil erosion, and microclimate variations. Treescape uses DEMs and DTMs to optimize the placement of trees and crops, ensuring that they are planted in locations that maximize their growth potential and minimize the risk of environmental degradation.
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses to measure the distance between a sensor and the Earth's surface, providing high-resolution, three-dimensional data about the structure and composition of vegetation and terrain. Treescape incorporates LIDAR datasets to generate detailed maps of agroforestry sites, enabling users to visualize and analyze the spatial distribution of trees, crops, and other landscape features.
Treescape integrates data from sources such as PlantNet and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to provide users with information about the distribution, ecology, and conservation status of different plant species. This information is essential for selecting appropriate species for agroforestry systems, ensuring that they are well-suited to local environmental conditions and can provide the desired ecological and economic benefits.
Treescape incorporates climate data from sources such as CHELSA (Climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas) to provide users with information about current and projected climate conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, and drought risk. CHELSA is a very high resolution (30 arc sec, ~1km) global downscaled climate data set that provides free access to high-resolution climate data for research and application. It includes climate layers for various time periods and variables, ranging from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present and several future scenarios. This information is critical for designing agroforestry systems that are resilient to climate change and can adapt to shifting environmental conditions over time.
Treescape provides users with intuitive, interactive visualization tools for exploratory analysis and decision-making. These tools allow users to overlay multiple datasets, compare different scenarios and design options, and assess the potential impacts of different management strategies on the ecological and economic performance of their agroforestry systems.
By leveraging these open data sources and providing users with powerful, user-friendly tools for data analysis and visualization, Treescape empowers agroforestry practitioners to make informed, data-driven decisions that optimize the sustainability, resilience, and productivity of their systems.
Treescape is built on a foundation of proven open-source technologies, ensuring the robustness, scalability, and interoperability of its platform. By leveraging these established tools and frameworks, Treescape can focus its development efforts on the unique and innovative aspects of the platform, such as AI models and user experience, while benefiting from the stability, security, and performance of battle-tested software components.
At the core of Treescape's geospatial data processing and analysis capabilities is QGIS, a powerful open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) software. GIS is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data related to spatial or geographic locations. QGIS provides a wide range of tools for visualizing, editing, and analyzing geospatial data, as well as creating maps and other graphical outputs. Treescape leverages QGIS to process and analyze various geospatial datasets, such as satellite imagery, terrain models, and biodiversity data, enabling users to gain valuable insights into the characteristics and potential of their agroforestry sites.
For field data collection and ground-truthing, Treescape integrates with QField, a mobile app that extends the capabilities of QGIS to Android devices. QField allows users to efficiently collect and edit geospatial data directly in the field, using their smartphones or tablets. This integration enables agroforestry practitioners to easily capture and update information about their sites, such as tree locations, species composition, and management activities, which can then be seamlessly incorporated into Treescape's platform for further analysis and decision support.
For the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Treescape's backend and API development is powered by Django, a high-level Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Django follows the model-template-view (MTV) architectural pattern, which separates the application's data model, user interface, and control logic, promoting modularity and reusability. By building on Django, Treescape ensures a scalable, maintainable, and secure backend infrastructure that can efficiently handle large amounts of data and support a growing user base. Django's built-in Admin interface allows Treescape to be extremely agile in data modeling, significantly shortening the path to MVP.
As Treescape grows beyond the MVP stage, the platform will transition to a custom-built stack to better accommodate its evolving needs and scale. The backend will likely be based on SQLModel and FastAPI, which offer high performance, flexibility, and ease of use. The frontend will be developed using either Qt or Vue.js, depending on the specific requirements and trade-offs identified during the development process.
For data storage, Treescape relies on PostgreSQL, a powerful open-source relational database management system known for its reliability, robustness, and performance. PostgreSQL's extensive feature set, including support for geospatial data types and operations (through the PostGIS extension), makes it an ideal choice for storing and managing the diverse datasets used by Treescape's platform.
By embracing Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS), Treescape not only benefits from the collective knowledge and contributions of the open-source community but also actively participates in the creation of a mutually beneficial ecosystem. FOSS allows Treescape to remain agile, innovative, and responsive to the evolving needs of its users, as the platform can quickly integrate new features, fix issues, and adapt to emerging technologies. Moreover, by contributing back to the open-source projects it relies on, Treescape helps to ensure their long-term sustainability and drive the development of new tools and capabilities that can benefit the wider agroforestry and environmental conservation communities.
In the spirit of open collaboration and knowledge sharing, Treescape's commitment to FOSS also enables the platform to establish strong partnerships with other organizations and initiatives working towards similar goals of regenerative land use and ecosystem restoration. By building on open standards and interfaces, Treescape can seamlessly integrate with other tools and platforms, creating a more connected and impactful ecosystem of solutions for sustainable agroforestry.
Ultimately, by leveraging proven open-source foundations, Treescape can stay at the bleeding edge of technology while remaining focused on its core mission of empowering agroforestry practitioners and driving positive environmental change. This approach ensures that Treescape remains a flexible, adaptable, and future-proof platform, capable of delivering cutting-edge tools and insights to its users while contributing to the collective advancement of open, regenerative solutions for a more sustainable world.
Treescape's user experience flow guides users seamlessly through the process of designing, implementing, and managing regenerative agroforestry systems. By combining intuitive interfaces, automated data analysis, AI-powered recommendations, and a deeply integrated marketplace and network of professional agroforestry designers, the platform empowers users to make informed, data-driven decisions at every stage of their agroforestry journey.
One of the key principles of Treescape's user experience is to minimize the amount of manual input required from users. The platform leverages its automated data resources and AI capabilities to extract as much information as possible about a user's land and project goals, reducing the need for time-consuming data entry and setup processes.
Using the data gathered from the user's input and its automated data resources, Treescape's AI models generate a detailed assessment of the land's suitability for various agroforestry practices and generate personalized recommendations for the most suitable tree and crop species to include in the agroforestry system.
With the land assessment and species recommendations in hand, Treescape's AI algorithms generate an initial draft design for the agroforestry system, taking into account the automated zoning of the site into distinct niches and proposing an optimized layout of trees, crops, and other elements within each zone.
Treescape's user experience flow is designed to be highly collaborative, enabling users to work closely with both the platform's AI models and a network of professional agroforestry designers to refine and optimize their designs. The platform includes a deeply integrated marketplace where users can easily connect with experienced designers for expert advice, design reviews, or full project management support.
For professional agroforestry designers, Treescape represents a powerful new tool for streamlining their work and expanding their reach. The platform's marketplace provides a new source of leads and revenue for professional designers, while its built-in billing and payment tools make it easy for designers to manage their projects and finances.
The collaborative refinement process is an ongoing feedback loop that continues throughout the life of the agroforestry project. As users implement their designs on the ground, they can continue to provide data and observations back to Treescape's platform, which uses this information to further refine its models and recommendations.
In addition to its powerful business modeling tools for end users, Treescape also includes features specifically designed to support the economic success of professional agroforestry designers. The platform provides designers with market insights, trend analyses, and pricing recommendations, helping them to optimize their services and offerings for maximum profitability and impact.
At the core of Treescape's platform is a sophisticated digital twin of the user's agroforestry system, which serves as a dynamic, living model for design, simulation, and decision support. This digital twin integrates a wide range of data inputs and modeling techniques to provide an unprecedented level of insight and predictive power, enabling users to optimize the ecological and economic performance of their systems over time.
Treescape's digital twin is powered by a comprehensive suite of automated data resources, which continuously feed the model with up-to-date information on the state and performance of the agroforestry system. These data resources include multispectral satellite data, DEM data, publicly available datasets, and smartphone and drone data.
The insights and predictions generated by Treescape's digital twin are translated into a range of powerful outputs and solutions for users, including customized blueprints, dynamic cost/yield projections, and updated management plans.
Treescape's digital twin includes a range of key features and functionalities that enable users to design, analyze, and manage their agroforestry systems with unprecedented ease and accuracy. These include general features, creating base maps, and assisted survey.
Looking ahead, there are many exciting opportunities for further developing and expanding the capabilities of Treescape's digital twin, such as assisted implementation, supply chain integration, educational resources, and community and knowledge sharing.
Treescape's financial model is designed to support its mission of driving the widespread adoption and scaling of regenerative agroforestry practices, with the ultimate goal of contributing to the planting of 1 billion hectares of food forests worldwide. The model is built on a foundation of open source development, collaborative innovation, and fair value distribution, ensuring that the platform remains accessible, inclusive, and impactful for all stakeholders.
At the heart of Treescape's financial model is a collaborative ecosystem approach that brings together a diverse network of agroforestry tech studios, NGOs, government entities, and individual professionals to co-create and continuously improve the platform's tooling and capabilities.
While prioritizing open source development and collaboration, Treescape incorporates a commercial aspect to ensure the project's financial sustainability and scalability. This involves a range of revenue streams, including:
Treescape's ultimate goal is to contribute to the planting of 1 billion hectares of food forests worldwide. To achieve this ambitious target, Treescape prioritizes scalability and accessibility, leverages the power of open source, fosters knowledge sharing and capacity building, engages in strategic partnerships and outreach, empowers agroforestry professionals, and monitors and communicates impact.
The Treescape team is lean and agile, composed of passionate individuals with complementary skills and a shared commitment to driving positive change through regenerative agroforestry. The core team for the MVP development consists of the following key roles:
Treescape is more than just a software platform; it's a bold mission to transform the world's degraded landscapes into thriving, regenerative agroforestry systems. By harnessing the power of foundational AI, algorithms and earth observation (EO) data, Treescape aims to catalyze a future where economic growth and ecological regeneration are inextricably linked. At the heart of this vision is the belief that the well-being of people and the planet are interdependent, and that by restoring the health and productivity of our land, we can create a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient world for all.
Treescape's approach to scaling regenerative agroforestry is grounded in rigorous science, drawing on decades of research into the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of this land use system. The platform's AI models and design tools are based on a deep understanding of the complex interactions between trees, crops, soil, water, and climate, enabling users to make informed decisions and optimize the performance of their agroforestry systems. By automating the analysis of satellite data, terrain models, and ecological datasets, Treescape removes the barriers to designing and implementing agroforestry at a massive scale, making it possible to restore degraded landscapes and create thriving ecosystems worldwide.
Treescape has set an ambitious goal: to contribute to the restoration of 1 billion hectares of degraded land through agroforestry. This transformative vision calls for a massive mobilization of resources and commitment from stakeholders at every level, from individual farmers to international institutions. By providing a powerful, accessible, and science-backed platform for agroforestry design and management, Treescape is helping to unlock the vast potential of this land use system to transform landscapes and lives around the world. Through collaboration, innovation, and a shared commitment to regeneration, we can achieve this bold target and create a more resilient, sustainable, and prosperous future for all.
One of the most powerful aspects of Treescape's approach is its ability to align economic incentives with ecological and social imperatives. By demonstrating that regenerative practices like agroforestry can be highly profitable, the platform creates a compelling business case for restoration, one that can motivate action on a global scale. Treescape's automated design tools and financial modeling capabilities show that agroforestry can generate returns that rival or exceed those of monoculture systems, while also providing a wide range of environmental and social benefits. This alignment of profitability with ecological and societal well-being is key to driving the widespread adoption of regenerative practices and creating a more sustainable and equitable economic system.
Treescape is committed to making its tools accessible and inclusive, ensuring that the benefits of regenerative agroforestry can be realized by users from diverse backgrounds and contexts. The platform's tiered subscription model offers a range of options, from a free, open-source core to paid services for users who require additional support, customization, and training. This approach ensures that smallholder farmers, large-scale restoration projects, and everyone in between can leverage Treescape's capabilities to design and manage thriving agroforestry systems. By empowering users at all levels, Treescape is helping to democratize access to the knowledge, tools, and resources needed to drive the regenerative revolution forward.
For the development of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Treescape is aiming for a budget of €300,000, which will enable the team to build the core features and functionalities within a timeframe of approximately one year.
Looking ahead to the development of the full product, Treescape estimates a budget of €2 million, which will allow for the expansion and refinement of the platform's capabilities over a period of about three years. This budget will cover the costs of the expanded team, infrastructure, research and development, and marketing and outreach efforts needed to bring the full vision of Treescape to life.
Treescape represents a paradigm shift in the way we approach land restoration and sustainable agroforestry. By harnessing the power of open source development, collaborative innovation, and AI-driven decision support, Treescape is creating a platform that democratizes access to the tools and knowledge needed for successful agroforestry projects and catalyzes a global movement towards regenerative land use practices.
At its core, Treescape is more than just a technology platform; it is a vision for a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient future. By setting the ambitious goal of contributing to the planting of 1 billion hectares of food forests worldwide, Treescape is challenging the status quo and demonstrating that large-scale ecosystem restoration is not only possible but also essential for the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants.
As the world faces unprecedented challenges, from climate change and biodiversity loss to social inequality and economic instability, platforms like Treescape offer a beacon of hope and a pathway towards a more regenerative and resilient future. By empowering individuals and communities to take action, share knowledge, and work together towards a common goal, Treescape is helping to create a world where the health and well-being of people and the planet are inextricably linked.
In conclusion, Treescape is not just a platform, but a movement – a global call to action for anyone who believes in the potential of agroforestry, the importance of collaboration, and the potential for technology to drive positive change. As Treescape continues to grow and evolve, it invites all those who share its vision to join in this transformative journey, planting the seeds of hope, resilience, and regeneration, one tree at a time.