Assessing the Effect of Breath Pipes on Camphor Tree Development Using Deep Learning

Monitoring and maintaining healthy trees along the roadsides can prevent the falling of trees, protect again road damage, and contribute to carbon neutrality efforts. This study introduces breath pipe (BP), a 10 cm x 30 cm soil conditioner pipe installed vertically in the top 30 cm surface soil, for enhancing camphor tree growth. To evaluate the effects of BPs on camphor tree development, a deep learning-based program was developed for automatically calculating the tree sizes and projected leaf area (PLA). It achieved an intersection over union (IOU) score of 84.7 % for PLA segmentation. BP has significantly enhanced both tree sizes and total PLA after 4 months of BP installation. In the sixth month, the roots mainly adhered to the area around the BP and were more densely distributed in the lower part of the BP. BP considerably guided the root development, which potentially avoids tree roots from damaging the road and the risk of falling trees.