CityStudio Gallery Installation; ready to roll.
TreeTopia Final Report
If you’d like to learn more about our project, feel free to download a PDF copy of our Final Report by clicking on the link above.
A preliminary design of Treetopia
TreeTopia CityStudio Gallery Survey
We would like to see Vancouver adopt an open source urban tree map, combining two existing ideas being developed in San Francisco (Urban Forest Map and Neighborhood Fruit). This digital map would provide a rich database of information that not only quantifies the environmental impact of trees (storm water filtration, air pollution diversion, energy conservation, and CO2 sequestration), but also improves access to local food assets through the mapping of fruit trees.
If you’d like, please take a minute to answer a few questions about our idea. The survey is completely anonymous. Thank you.
Acknowledgements
We’d like to thank the following people for their support and advice.
Allen Heinrichs, for building and creating us a tree on an impossible timeline, and with only a sketch to go on.
Kelaine Vargas, co-creator of www.urbanforestmap.org, for kindly taking the time to review our final report.
Bill Stephen, for the many hours that he spent with us, patiently describing in thorough detail the current software being used by the City.
Stuart Mackinnon, for getting the ball rolling in contacting key City Staff.
Tilo Driessen, for giving us a first overview of the tree-mapping situation in Vancouver.
Dulce Ayala, for spending crazy hours creating our first project video.
Ben Crawford, for very kindly giving his opinions on the importance of useful data for urban climatology research.
What is TreeTopia?
What are trees good for? Our TreeTopia project aims to provide the City of Vancouver and its citizens with specific answers to that question. We are aiming to create an open source urban tree map, combining two existing ideas being developed in San Francisco (Urban Forest Map and Neighborhood Fruit). This digital map would provide a rich database of information that not only quantifies the environmental impact of trees (storm water filtration, air pollution diversion, energy conservation, and CO2 sequestration), but also improves access to local food assets.
Utilising now-ubiquitous smartphone technology, we would develop an application that allows the public to take a photo of tree, upload it onto the map and provide some basic data about the tree (trunk diameter, crown radius, height). Our model would also allow for the mapping of fruit trees in an urban environment. The resulting mix of information will help transform the way city planners and urban foresters manage trees, organize urban harvests, and plan for future plantings. Access to this information will also assist scientists in various fields further their research on the positive impacts of our urban forests.
Contribution to Vancouver’s Greenest City Goals
The City of Vanouver’s Greenest City 2020 list of goals includes several topics that can be successfully addressed by our TreeTopia project. One is the creation of a “new curriculum for trees in the City – increase tree numbers in Vancouver.” Having a better understanding of where all of our City’s street and park trees are located will help us to organise future plantings (both City-led and volunteer-led). Being able to quantify the financial advantages of the varied services that trees provide for us would also help to justify the increased planting of trees.
Another target is to increase “neighbourhood food assets by 50% over 2010 levels by 2020.” Building on the local knowledge that already exists in our city about fruit trees (Vancouver Fruit Tree Project), TreeTopia would help organise local harvests, increasing the distribution of fruit within the city and reducing the amount of waste.
TreeTopia would also help to “Create [a] new Curriculum for Trees in the City – K‐12 – why do trees matter?”, as well as supporting local efforts toward “Themed Seasonal Maintenance – opportunity for others to take care of the parks.”
