City Trees

What were some life experiences that propelled you in the direction of urban forestry as the focus of your doctoral program? Sophie Nitoslawski: I became interested in forest ecosystem man- agement more broadly during my undergraduate degree at McGill University during a course on biodiversity; we were tasked with measuring some plots of trees in the middle of February—in sig- nificantly sub-zero weather! Using a DBH tape while wearing mittens and snowshoes is no easy task, but I had a blast. That was the moment I knew I wanted to work with trees somehow, and I had always been fascinated by the multi-faceted relation- ships between people and trees, so urban forestry ended up on my radar during my search for a Master's program (Dalhousie University). I ended up doing my Master's research project on urban forest biodiversity, and after measuring thousands of trees over one summer I knew this is where I wanted to be. When did the intersection of urban forestry and technology crystalize as what you wanted to focus on? SN: Between my Master's and my PhD, I worked for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in capacity building and knowledge transla- tion for municipalities across Canada. It was there that I became more familiar with the concept of "smart cities"—lots of cities have become interested in adopting smart technologies in service delivery—yet there seemed to be little connection between smart cities dis- courses and green infrastructure management. That felt like a gap to me, and I became increasingly interested in how technology inno- vation and adoption might shape urban forestry as a discipline. Also recognizing that urban forest management has a huge people component, I became fascinated with the idea of tech- nology acting as a potential mediator between urban nature and the people who care for and benefit from it. It felt like a novel area in urban forestry research, which really excited me, not to mention the potential to inform practice as well. What is the focus of your doctoral research/dissertation? SN: My interests centre on the many ways in which the smart cities and related technologies could impact and shape the man- agement of urban trees and forests. This has involved carrying out literature and synthesis reviews, as well as conducting practi- tioner interviews on perceptions of technology in urban forestry. I've also been working as part of a larger research group on the University of British Columbia campus, in partnership with a telecom- munications company, to pilot multiple smart technologies in urban >> 24 CityTREES

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