Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey one of few Laggard London Boroughs Failing to Provide Street Tree Data
Haringey Council have left a black hole in London's street tree data
On his blog about London Street Trees, Paul Wood recently pointed up a map published by the GLA that shows all of London's street trees - well most of them. As Paul explains:
There are some black holes (in the data) – for instance, Hackney and Haringey are two of seven boroughs that have yet to provide their data, but 25 of the 32 boroughs, plus the City of London and TfL have done and even with gaps, the potential of this map is becoming clear. Knowing what is planted on our streets is not only of interest to those who manage the tree inventory, this information can start to inform planning decisions, provide environmental insights and help shape policy to improve air quality. If there’s a correlation between levels of pollution and mature Plane Trees for instance, then this map could be a tool in that investigation right across the city. For me though, the most exciting possibility is the potential for public engagement.
Given the passions evidenced by the recent threat to a tree in Cavendish Road, it's clear that there is a strong local desire for openness about our street trees. So it seems a pity that Haringey have so far failed to provide the data.
Read more on Paul's blog here.
Learn about his soon to be published book on London's street trees here.
Tags for Forum Posts: trees
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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" One issue the Forestry Commission battles with is the progress of disease - various threats such as Oak Processionary Moth are recorded approaching us and we need to know how far and how fast they travel if we are to take preventative action. It's not only trees they harm:
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I wondered that too Konrad. Since I can more easily see the link for the picture, I can now suggest that looking at this article may yield the answer to our question.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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The effect on humans of the Oak Processionary Moth
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Permalink Reply by j jones on
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I found this a very interesting topic ... some points to consider.
1.) Re the information on the 'tree map' site, data was provided in 2014-15 and some of that data was several years old already.
2.) Much of the data was patchy at best, not covering certain areas, minimal information.
3.) Data formats used varied and in some cases the data could not be used.
So my suggestion is this ... forget all of those issues sign up to Treezilla and crowd source all the info. If the councils catch up ... the data can be merged, problem solved :)
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Most local authorities use a geo-mapping database called MapInfo. When I used it it not only showed me the location of a specific tree but also things like where underground services ran, if parking was allowed near the tree and so on. The tree data is held as a map layer and thousands of other layers showing everything from population densities to traffic flows can be pulled up to complement the information you are after. As Chris says, the collection and the updating of tree data is a monumental task as it has to be robust enough to be able to ultimately stand up in court if someone carries out work to a tree in contravention of the conditions of a tree protection order. I doubt any local authority has the resources to do this inhouse so they tend to employ specialist companies or students studying in a related discipline to do the work.
MapInfo data is readable in other formats so that's how I imagine the author of the map that Hugh has posted pulled it all together.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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Actually although Mapinfo is popular among Councils, so is ARCGIS (which is what the London Tree Map uses) - equally if not more established. A range of other packages are in use too across the London boroughs I was able to find out about though, EasyTreev for instance.
I reckon that almost all packages are using a database that is compatible with SQL and nowadays it's possible to work with the underlying SQL data - this is how I hoped that Councils could provide what for me is a holy grail - API access for all comers via an open source (i.e free of charge) data portal package like CKAN (already in widespread use for this purpose, notably by the London Datastore) that allow access control.
We've already seen TfL do this with transport info and the result has been that many of us have a range of free traffic apps to choose from that use their data. Same would happen if tree data was accessible, albeit on a smaller scale. I've done a few Tree Trails and having live access to Council tree data would be a real plus. Don't get me started on the possibilities.
I got Haringey Tree Wardens adopted as associate members of the London Tree Officers Association in order partly that I could lobby the professionals whose job is to administer the data and then make decisions locally in Councils based on it. Great group of people to whom I tried to make the point that they are investing their intellectual property in each package they use, learning basically a slightly different way of doing things from colleagues in other Councils.
Furthermore, they are all limited to the functionality that the software package companies deem profitable. In other words, any input about a needed feature to, say, ARCGIS gets taken up by ARCGIS if it can be made into a feature unique to their package so they can sell more. This is no way to run a railroad. The opportunity is to develop routines to satisfy tasks all Councils need doing, but further, to extend the uses of the data and grow their own profession's expertise.
There's been a huge boost across the board to this approach Code for America - a suite of local government software that is all open-source and actively maintained - nirvana!
Databases have always been at the very core of computing and the open source movement has really mature, reliable and scalable ways of storing and manipulating data, with great interface to maps etc. One look at most Council's mapping facilities (I'm looking at you, Haringey map) shows how dreadful most are- severe cuts to Council's GIS departments have taken their toll.
My view is that if Tree Officers all use the same open source software database, then they can make an investment in the data routines that lasts and is exchangeable between them. I think this sort of thing is very appropriate for professional bodies - setting standards. Although open source software is free, it still costs a lot to train people on it but that training budget is already there and being spent (on different commercial packages), so the net cost is a significant saving over the longer term - an end to licence fees paid to software companies.
I've also had a go at the GLA and the Forestry Commission, who at the very least should bang heads and may be influential in the longer term. They 'get' what I'm saying, but these large organisations (I've spent decades as a consultant to large orgs) are very difficult to steer. They don't react well to external visions and need to 'own' solutions. Still, nil desperandum :)
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Having said that I will be putting data into Trezilla about what's in my back garden!
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>>crowd source all the info
Great idea! I did ask Treezilla to aggregate all availabe data from Councils in batches but got blank stares - they told me they were focussed on getting ordinary people to type in tree data themselves.
They're hard to reach out to (their 'user forum' only has a few posts, all three years old) and took ages to assure me that any data contributed to would be made accessible to others. This promise they have failed to honour.
If only everyone would wake up and smell the coffee! Treezilla is a port of OpenTreeMap - the leading and most sophisticated open source tree mapping solution. The people behind it have morphed into a services company selling expertise to open source users, but it's still a great product which they assure me will remain open source forever.
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