Visual Tree Analysis of Rain Trees (Samanea saman) in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Main Campus

Abstract

Samanea saman is an urban tree usually planted in an urban landscape for its important role providing numerous environmental, social and economic benefits to the people. These trees provide excellent protective shading tree and its wood were widely used as commercial timber. Although these trees had numerous potentials in agroforestry, there were limited specific research on Samanea saman recently. Given all the above benefits, a study with an objective to evaluate tree risk assessment of Samanea saman health in three different sites within USM main campus was conducted. In this study, health assessment of Samanea saman were inspected based on crown class, tree shape, leaf density and tree health including root system, trunk and branch structure. Each assessed trees were categorised in tree health ranking namely excellent, good, fair and poor based on their physical condition. Results shown that trees planted in wider lawn area and less polluted area exhibited the highest number in excellent condition compared to trees planted along sloped and paved area. Overall, Samanea saman were in good condition. This type of analysis approach will aid USM management to monitor the trees time to time to help the trees to grow well and serve sustainable environment in USM campus.