A group of non-profits and government agencies have come together to create an urban forest map of San Francisco. From the Urban Forest Map site: "The Urban Forest Map is a collaboration of government, nonprofits, businesses and you to map every tree in San Francisco. Along the way we'll calculate the environmental benefits the trees are providing -- how many gallons of stormwater they are helping to filter, how many pounds of air pollutants they are capturing, how many kilowatt-hours of energy they are conserving, and how many tons of carbon dioxide they are removing from the atmosphere. The information we gather will help urban foresters and city planners to better manage trees in specific areas, track and combat tree pests and diseases, and plan future tree plantings. Climatologists can use it to better understand the effects of urban forests on climates, and students and citizen scientists can use it to learn about the role trees play in the urban ecosystem."
The map is open to anyone to create and edit tree locations in San Francisco. Users can also download information about tree locations, types, and other data in KML (for Google Earth), CSV, and Shapefile (for ArcGIS) formats. Users can search by tree name (either common or botanical) and/or location in San Francisco. Advanced filters are available to display very specific urban forest information as well.
Thanks to Phil Hoehn and the WAML Listserv for the information.
Original post blogged on b2evolution.
