Developing a Methodology for conducting the Soma ecodistrict Urban tree inventory
ECA: SoMa Tree Inventory Project
Portfolio
Underlying social context
• Importance of trees in urban environments
• Social equity – everyone deserves access to trees that provide shade, natural environment, remove toxins from air and water, removes CO2 from the air.
History of ISS and Ecodistricts (SoMa)
• Institute for Sustainable Solutions
• Portland Ecodistricts (SoMa: South-of-Market)
Project Duties & Responsibilities
• Developing a tree data collection methodology
• Areas of concern
• Tree Identification accuracy
• Expediency and efficiency
• Minimal budget (for planning purposes)
• Compatibility with iTree® tree inventory management software
Statement of specific unmet needs of the organization/community partner
• SoMa needs an urban tree inventory
Plan of Action: Goals set forth to fulfill one or many of the unmet needs
• SoMa tree inventory to be conducted fall term by Meg Merrick’s Ecodistrict Asset Mapping Capstone class.
• Possibility of undertaking a t.a. position to assist Meg and the class conduct the tree inventory data collection.
Specific Plans to achieve these Goals
• Who: Meg Merrick (& Mark Armstrong), Jacob Sherman (project organizer, representing I.S.S.), Jennifer McNamara (Campus Sustainability Manager, representing SoMa Ecodistrict), Baofeng Dong (GIS and Planning Analyst),
• What: Conduct SoMa urban tree inventory data collection
• Where: SoMa Ecodistrict (Downtown, South of Market St.)
• Why: Quantifying and qualifying SoMa Ecodistrict assets (much of SoMa is in fact PSU)
• When: Fall term, 2015
Goals put into action
• (specific details about how your plan to achieve these goals played out)
Sample Work:
In the beginning...
The origin of this project goes back a couple of years to 2013. From what I've gathered, a tree inventory of the SoMa Ecodistrict was attempted. This initial data collection trial was cut short after significant problems arose. Accuracy of tree identification was probably the most significant problem but hindsight shows that an untested data collection system didn't help the situation nor did a lack of investment on the part of the students. Two years later an attempt to offer a capstone that would have tried to conduct the SoMa tree inventory is canceled due to low enrollment. Fortunately, before the capstone was canceled a very enthusiastic Geography major met with the capstone instructor and and great things begin to take root. The two discuss cartography versus GIS, emerging data collection methods as well as a mutual fondness for and appreciation of trees.
From the ashes of a capstone that passed before its time arose a single student eager to swim in the waters of GIS, data collection and participatory mapping. This student saw a future that was actually the present, a future where GIS data collection would not be performed with pen and paper later to be entered into a database by some poor schlub of an intern. In this present future humans would employ an appendage that evolution had granted their species in a veritable blink of an eye... smartphones! Yes, that essential instrument of modern life slices, dices and collects data! With very little training nearly anyone with a smartphone could easily collect mappable data. The future is now.
Originally the canceled capstone was very general in its scope, asset mapping of the SoMa Ecodistrict. SoMa is the area of downtown south of Market Street to I-405, Portland State University occupies much of SoMa. The original assets considered were bicycle routes to PSU, SoMa ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) routes and hazards, and the eventual winner... the tree inventory. In terms of assets, urban trees have some interesting qualities. First of all trees provide a multitude of benefits that most urbanites take for granted; things like shade, habitat, visual appeal, stormwater filtration, carbon dioxide sequestration, and sound attenuation to name a few. Nearly all of these benefits can be quantified in monetary terms. Also remember that trees grow and as they grow their benefits increase. An urban tree inventory provides a tool to track the benefits and increasing value of the urban forest as well as track maintenance and condition of the trees over time allowing an urban entity to plan and budget for said maintenance. Caring for trees costs money and if those trees are not providing a return on investment it would stand to reason that selling an urban forest to taxpayers might be difficult.
The key to any urban tree inventory is the quality of the data, key to the quality of the data is the quality of the data collection. Tree data collection can be accomplished in a myriad of ways; pencil and paper in the field, photographic analysis, GPS receivers, smartphone applications and others. Some methods require more volunteer or paid work hours than others while often the most efficient methods in terms of number of tree data points collected in a given time period. The nice thing about both pencil and paper as well as smartphone applications is that many people have them. The other nice thing about smartphone applications is that data entry is performed in the field. Smartphone applications win.
The core of my project was sorting through several popular smartphone and/or tablet based data collection products. Ultimately it came down to two ESRI Collector and Fulcrum. People familiar with GIS will recognize ESRI as the industry giant while Fulcrum is a much smaller company specifically aimed at non-profit and government applications with small budgets.
The origin of this project goes back a couple of years to 2013. From what I've gathered, a tree inventory of the SoMa Ecodistrict was attempted. This initial data collection trial was cut short after significant problems arose. Accuracy of tree identification was probably the most significant problem but hindsight shows that an untested data collection system didn't help the situation nor did a lack of investment on the part of the students. Two years later an attempt to offer a capstone that would have tried to conduct the SoMa tree inventory is canceled due to low enrollment. Fortunately, before the capstone was canceled a very enthusiastic Geography major met with the capstone instructor and and great things begin to take root. The two discuss cartography versus GIS, emerging data collection methods as well as a mutual fondness for and appreciation of trees.
From the ashes of a capstone that passed before its time arose a single student eager to swim in the waters of GIS, data collection and participatory mapping. This student saw a future that was actually the present, a future where GIS data collection would not be performed with pen and paper later to be entered into a database by some poor schlub of an intern. In this present future humans would employ an appendage that evolution had granted their species in a veritable blink of an eye... smartphones! Yes, that essential instrument of modern life slices, dices and collects data! With very little training nearly anyone with a smartphone could easily collect mappable data. The future is now.
Originally the canceled capstone was very general in its scope, asset mapping of the SoMa Ecodistrict. SoMa is the area of downtown south of Market Street to I-405, Portland State University occupies much of SoMa. The original assets considered were bicycle routes to PSU, SoMa ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) routes and hazards, and the eventual winner... the tree inventory. In terms of assets, urban trees have some interesting qualities. First of all trees provide a multitude of benefits that most urbanites take for granted; things like shade, habitat, visual appeal, stormwater filtration, carbon dioxide sequestration, and sound attenuation to name a few. Nearly all of these benefits can be quantified in monetary terms. Also remember that trees grow and as they grow their benefits increase. An urban tree inventory provides a tool to track the benefits and increasing value of the urban forest as well as track maintenance and condition of the trees over time allowing an urban entity to plan and budget for said maintenance. Caring for trees costs money and if those trees are not providing a return on investment it would stand to reason that selling an urban forest to taxpayers might be difficult.
The key to any urban tree inventory is the quality of the data, key to the quality of the data is the quality of the data collection. Tree data collection can be accomplished in a myriad of ways; pencil and paper in the field, photographic analysis, GPS receivers, smartphone applications and others. Some methods require more volunteer or paid work hours than others while often the most efficient methods in terms of number of tree data points collected in a given time period. The nice thing about both pencil and paper as well as smartphone applications is that many people have them. The other nice thing about smartphone applications is that data entry is performed in the field. Smartphone applications win.
The core of my project was sorting through several popular smartphone and/or tablet based data collection products. Ultimately it came down to two ESRI Collector and Fulcrum. People familiar with GIS will recognize ESRI as the industry giant while Fulcrum is a much smaller company specifically aimed at non-profit and government applications with small budgets.