Yonezawa Mixed Forest

This forest site is located in the southern area of Yamagata Prefecture (37˚ 48' 11" N; 140˚ 06' 31" E) and it is formed of several typical tree species such as oak, larch, cedar and red pine. Unlike the west side of Yamagata Prefecture, where heavy snow and strong winds are common, beech trees are not found in the mixed forest of Yonezawa. In this forest, we have collected RGB and Thermal images of the different tree species.  Both images are used to automatically identify each of them using Deep Learning Models. As expected, cedar trees are the easiest trees to count and identify, followed by larch trees. The most difficult ones to separate one from each other are oak and red pine trees. However, when oak leaves shed in late autumn, it is possible to count them since no canopy obstruct the forest ground. This is not the case for red pine trees, which keep their needles in winter.  For this last tree species, it is necessary to conduct field surveys to confirm the number of trees that are observed from the compiled images (orthomosaic).