From Bratislava to Oviedo: Advancing the INTUF 3D Urban Tree Dataset

Following the Bratislava 3D Urban Tree Intelligence Hackathon, members of COST Action INTUF met at the University of Oviedo (INDUROT) in Spain for a focused follow-up meeting dedicated to transforming the collected 3D data into reusable scientific outputs.
The Bratislava campaign brought together multiple terrestrial and mobile laser scanning systems and other sensing technologies to capture urban trees from different perspectives. In Oviedo, the team moved from data acquisition towards harmonisation, validation and publication. The discussions focused on standardising point-cloud processing and quality reporting, verifying tree segmentation and reference measurements, harmonising file naming and repository structures, and linking scanned trees with the existing Bratislava municipal tree database.
A major outcome was a common publication strategy. The team agreed to prepare an open multi-sensor 3D urban tree dataset, with Scientific Data identified as the preferred journal for the accompanying data paper. A complementary scientific publication will compare acquisition systems, processing workflows and derived tree metrics, while exploring their relevance for practical urban-forestry applications.
The meeting also looked beyond the immediate publications. The group discussed how 3D data can support urban-tree inventories, canopy and vegetation-volume assessment, interactions between trees and urban infrastructure, and the development of indicators for evidence-based urban-forest management. Future directions include transferring the methodology to other European cities and integrating ground-based observations with airborne and spaceborne data such as GEDI.
The Oviedo meeting therefore marked an important step from a collaborative data-collection experiment towards a harmonised, open and reusable European framework for 3D urban-tree monitoring, supporting INTUF’s wider goal of science-driven urban-forest assessment and management.