e-Plantation Site Assistant

Rana and Vashney (2020) developed ePSA (e-Plantation Site Assistant), a recommender system that “combines physics-based/traditional forestry science knowledge with machine learning” to find the optimal spots to plant trees when reforesting an area. The ML portion is an XGBoost decision tree ensemble to calculate deforestation probabilities based on historical data. After testing the system around northern India, they found that “in 26 out of 30 locations, forest officials found the recommendations of the app very useful for selecting the right site for planting trees.”