Bangkok is undertaking a high-tech transformation of its urban greenery, deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and LiDAR mapping to manage its uncounted urban forest. This data-driven strategy aims to enhance public safety, reduce maintenance costs, and strengthen the city’s natural defense against critical PM2.5 air pollution.
Traditionally, monitoring the city’s millions of trees was time-consuming and costly, often resulting in reactive, district-wide over-treatment. The city is now shifting to the Smart Tree Inventory (STI) system.
Peter Sassi, Vice President of Greehill Asia-Pacific Pte, a Singapore-based tech company specializing in green asset management, explained the technology. The STI uses a car-mounted mobile laser scanner (3D scanner and panoramic camera) to capture tree data quickly.
“This information is prepared for the experts so that they can focus their attention on the trees that actually need help and focus the limited maintenance efforts on the trees that actually need help,” Sassi said. He likened the process to a high-tech diagnostic tool: “You can imagine that this is like a whole city MRI machine, and then we go to the tree doctors who decide what should be the treatment.”
Measurable Impact: 80% Safety Boost and Cost Savings
The adoption of AI-powered technology immediately translates into significant operational benefits for the city:
- Increased Public Safety: Globally, STI has been proven to flag dangerous trees before they cause harm. The technology’s predictive analysis minimizes the risk of falling branches and property damage, leading to an over 80% increase in safety in deployed communities.
- Cost Efficiency: By shifting from costly, reactive maintenance to targeted care, cities can achieve up to 30% savings on maintenance costs. The AI pinpoints issues like significant lean angles, diebacks, or structural defects, allowing crews to focus limited resources only where needed.
Sassi stressed the long-term economic benefit: “If the bad things already happened, it’s a lot of cost to clean up afterwards. But if you just have to do some pruning before, it’s much easier.”
Addressing a Critical Air Pollution Crisis
Bangkok’s transition to a data-driven system is critical due to severe environmental pressures, especially the deadly PM2.5 particulate matter. Trees are a vital defense against this pollution, but the city has struggled to manage what it cannot measure.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chairat Treesubsuntorn, Head of the Remediation Laboratory at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, highlighted the urgency of the data gap. Local experts estimate that out of the city’s approximately 3 million trees, fewer than 1% have been electronically documented.
“The current manual method—where arborists must check tree height, diameter, and leaf count one by one—is impossible at a city scale,” Dr. Chairat stressed. The new technology is essential for applying local research findings, as local tree species diversity requires localized data for effective management.
Bridging the Gap Through Collaboration
Successful implementation requires strong collaboration. Santi Opaspakornkij of the Big Trees Foundation noted that while the city has successfully planted over a million new trees, the main challenge remains the long-term, specialized care of the existing urban forest, which is often “big, it’s old, but it’s also not very strong” due to historical construction that compromised root systems.
The new technology serves as the unifying tool, providing the objective data needed to transform the urban forest into a measurable and actively managed municipal asset. This shift ensures that Bangkok’s efforts are not just about planting more trees, but about strategically positioning and maintaining them to thrive and deliver maximum benefit for public safety and air quality for future generations.
True CyberSafe wins 2025 National Innovation Award
From rooftops to recycling: How Thai homes are powering sustainability
