City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/723399
28 City Trees The Shopping List Outlined below is a short list of questions, considerations, and requirements when shopping for a tree inventory soft- ware in the "age of apps." • Will you have an internet connection in the field? Understand the basics of online vs. offline software apps. • Who will be the primary users of the software, and how many users can you have? Make sure that new users can be created and login levels, permissions, and roles can be established. For example, you may want volunteers to edit certain information but not data that's meant only for managers. • Can the data fields be customized by the vendor and/or by you, the user? • Can any existing tree inventory data be migrated into the new system? Will you lose any informa- tion or be able to make changes? • Can data in your tree map be linked to other web mapping servers and applications? • Do you want the public to be able to submit ser- vice requests? • Can you save (export) your data to perform addi- tional analysis locally? • Can you quickly print custom reports of your information? • Is it easy to use? Will it save you time and improve planning and communications? Will the tree inventory software enable you to answer questions like: • Where do we lack diversity in species or age distribution AND have available spaces to do something about it? • How many trees did we plant, prune, and remove last year, and what was the cost? • Where are we experiencing the highest mortality, and from what species? • What would it cost to treat vs. remove and replant ash trees that are facing EAB? • How are we spending the tree maintenance bud- get in a specific management zone? • Broken down by species, what was our average DBH and cost of tree removals last year? Please see also a similar article about tree planting track- ing tools used by nonprofits that was published in the March/April 2016 issue of City Trees. Aspen's inventory software can be accessed on any smartphone and switches to a simplified menu compared to the view on tablets or desktop computers. cies, size, and location. The Ecosystem Benefits Calculator displays benefits such as carbon stored, air quality, stormwa- ter runoff, property value increase, and energy conservation. It is an effective way to educate the public and communicate the important role trees play as part of the infrastructure. Lastly, the tool was customized to display our existing tree canopy cover and potential planting space GIS data by sim- ply clicking a "Canopy" button to launch a canopy planner software module. The map zooms to the citywide extent and changes from displaying trees or work orders to parcel-level percent canopy cover or plantable area. Slider bars allow users to quickly and easily display areas with the lowest canopy and highest potential to expand it, and then print a map. Have a look at this and the other features we are using at http://pg-cloud.com/Aspen.