1. Scope
These Terms of Use govern the use of the website treeai.earth and its subpages (the "website"), operated by the Forest Resources Management group of ETH Zurich for the TreeAI Global Initiative (the "operator"; see Imprint). By accessing or using the website, you accept these Terms of Use.
2. Description of services
The website is a non-commercial research service. It provides maps and products on trees and forests, a tool for submitting tree annotation data, and datasets for download. It is intended for research institutions and the interested public. Use of the website is free of charge.
The website is under continuous development. The operator may modify, restrict or discontinue the services, in whole or in part, at any time.
3. Registration and user accounts
Downloads and certain map layers require a user account. Users must provide a valid email address and choose a secure password. Access credentials must be kept confidential and must not be shared with third parties. Users are responsible for all activities carried out under their account.
The operator may suspend or delete user accounts at any time, in particular in the event of a breach of these Terms of Use or misuse of the website. Data already published under an open licence may continue to be used under that licence after an account has been deleted.
4. Submission of data
By submitting data, the contributor confirms that:
- they hold all rights necessary to make the data available and to license it under the chosen licence;
- the data does not infringe any rights of third parties, in particular copyrights and personality rights;
- the data contains no personal data of third parties without their consent, and coordinates of private or sensitive locations have been removed or generalised where necessary.
Contributors retain ownership of their data. They grant ETH Zurich the right to store, review and process the data for the purposes of the TreeAI Global Initiative, including the training of models. For data not designated as "Private", they also grant ETH Zurich the right to harmonize it and to publish the harmonized version under the chosen licence, whichever licence that is; the raw contribution is not published. Data designated as "Private" is used internally for model training only and is not published. Use of published data by others under its licence remains valid after the data has been withdrawn.
5. Rules of conduct
Users shall use the website in accordance with applicable law and these Terms of Use. In particular, it is prohibited to:
- upload content that infringes copyrights, personality rights or other rights of third parties;
- provide false or misleading information;
- distribute malware, spam or unlawful content;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to the website or its backend systems, or to manipulate the website or its data.
The operator may remove content or suspend user accounts in the event of a breach of these rules.
6. Automated access and fair use
Datasets may be downloaded only through the download functions of the website, using a personal user account. Each account is subject to technical limits, currently 60 files per minute and 2,000 files per day. The operator may adjust these limits at any time.
Without the prior written consent of the operator, it is prohibited to:
- access, crawl, scrape or index the website, its map layers or its interfaces (including its server endpoints and map tile services) by automated means such as bots, crawlers, scrapers, scripts or AI agents; this also applies to AI agents acting on behalf of a user; indexing of public pages by general search engines is permitted;
- systematically extract map layers, map tiles, statistics, model outputs or other content of the website that is not offered as a downloadable dataset;
- create several accounts, share an account, or use any other means to exceed or circumvent access restrictions and download limits;
- place an unreasonable load on the website or on the services it relies on.
Users who require large-scale or automated access to the data are asked to contact the operator at admin@treeai.earth; such access may be arranged separately.
To the extent permitted by law, the operator reserves the use of the content of the website for text and data mining, including the training of artificial intelligence models. This reservation does not restrict the rights granted under the licence of a dataset.
7. Responsibility for contributions
Contributors are solely responsible for the data they submit and bear the legal responsibility for any infringement of copyright, data protection law or other legal provisions arising from it. The operator accepts no responsibility for the correctness or quality of data submitted by third parties.
8. Google Maps and Google Earth Engine
The website uses Google Maps and Google Earth Engine. By using the maps, you agree to be bound by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service, which include the Google Terms of Service, and acknowledge the Google Privacy Policy.
9. Intellectual property and licences
Each dataset may be used under the licence indicated for it (see Disclaimer & Copyright). Users must comply with the licence terms and cite the data as indicated on the website. All other content of the website is subject to the copyright terms set out in the Disclaimer & Copyright.
10. Disclaimer of warranty and liability
The website and its content are provided "as is" and "as available", without any warranty as to correctness, completeness, availability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use is at your own risk. Liability is excluded to the extent permitted by law. The Disclaimer applies in addition.
11. Notice of infringements
If you believe that content on the website infringes the law or the rights of others (for example copyright or personal data), please notify the operator at admin@treeai.earth. The operator will review the matter promptly and, where an infringement is established, remove or block the content concerned. Further measures, including the suspension of the responsible user account, remain reserved.
12. Data protection
Information on the processing of personal data is provided in the Privacy Policy.
13. Amendments
The operator may amend these Terms of Use at any time. The current version is published on this website, and registered users may be informed of material changes by email. Continued use of the website after the amendments take effect constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms of Use.
14. Applicable law and place of jurisdiction
These Terms of Use are governed by Swiss law. The place of jurisdiction, to the extent permitted by law, is Zurich, Switzerland.
15. Contact
Questions regarding these Terms of Use may be addressed to admin@treeai.earth.