AI · Civic Tech · Product Design · Gamification
Orange Tree Inventory
AI Canopy Detection, Verified by the Public
- Role
- Creative Director · Product Designer · AI Workflow Designer
- Year
- 2025
- Categories
- Product + AI · Civic · Innovation · Experience
- Tools
- Next.js · TypeScript · Leaflet / GIS · Computer Vision · AI · Gamification
Overview
Orange Tree Inventory maps every tree in the city from aerial imagery using AI canopy detection — then CanopyQuest, a gamified mobile app, sends residents into the field to verify each one. Two databases, machine-detected and human-verified, reconcile into a single trusted source of truth for the municipal urban forest.
The Challenge
AI can find thousands of tree canopies from imagery in minutes, but it can't confirm species, condition, or exact location — and a city can't afford to field-survey them all. The challenge was to close that gap at community scale.
Creative Direction
Direction split the system in two and made the seam the point: a calm municipal dashboard for the AI-detected inventory, and CanopyQuest — an XP-driven, quest-based field app — that turns verification into a game residents actually want to play. Every confirmed scan promotes a canopy from “needs review” to “verified,” merging two databases into one source of truth.
Process
- 01
Detect
AI finds tree canopies from aerial imagery, city-wide.
- 02
Map
Every canopy lands on a live municipal dashboard.
- 03
Quest
CanopyQuest sends residents to verify trees for XP.
- 04
Reconcile
Verified scans merge detection and field data into one truth.
