The "Growing Your Urban Forest: Using the OpenTreeMap Bulk Uploader" webinar was held on April 16, 2015. These slides provide an overview of that webinar.

1. Growing the Urban Forest: Using the OpenTreeMap Bulk Uploader
April 16, 2015

2. About Us
Deborah Boyer
OpenTreeMap Project Manager
dboyer@azavea.com
215.701.7506
Karissa Justice
OpenTreeMap Business Development
kjustice@azavea.com
215.558.6184

3. Agenda
• Intro to OpenTreeMap
• Using the OpenTreeMap Bulk Uploader Tools
– Tree Importer
– Species Importer
• Increasing Community Engagement through Existing
Data
• Future Updates to OpenTreeMap
• Questions

4. A collaborative platform for crowdsourced tree inventory,
ecosystem services calculations, urban forestry analysis, and
community engagement

5. OpenTreeMap History
• Urban Forest Map
• USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant Phase 1
• PhillyTreeMap, GreenprintMaps, Treezilla, and more
• Released as open source project
• USDA Phase 2 Grant
• Launch of OpenTreeMap Cloud
• Launch of TreeMapLA, yegTreeMap, and others

6. About Azavea
• Founded in 2000
• 40+ people
• Based in Philadelphia
• B Corporation
• Geospatial + web + mobile
– Software development
– Spatial analysis services
– User experience

7. Partners and Funders

8. Key Features of OpenTreeMap
• Map and explore tree data
• Add and edit trees online
• Track stewardship activities
• Add photos and leave
comments
• View eco benefits calculated
using i-Tree Streets
• Mobile apps for iPhone and
Android devices
• Export data as csv
• Customize data fields and
other options
• Upload existing inventories and
update species list

9. Bulk Uploaders

10. Goals
• Enable organizations to easily upload and display
existing inventories
• Expand the species list on a tree map to better fit the
geography of the tree map
• Encourage community members to update existing
inventories
• Explore how groups can collaborate with users and
other organizations to fill in the gaps on their tree map

11. Uploading Trees and Species Lists
• Separate uploaders for tree inventories and species lists
• Available at all subscription levels
• OpenTreeMap upload templates for easy data
organization
• Support ecosystem services calculations for new species
• Support adding tree data to match your custom fields or
update existing trees

12. Adding New Trees and Species

13. How does it work?
• Format data to match the
OpenTreeMap templates
• Upload to your tree map via
the bulk uploader
management page
• May want to focus on
species first
• View imported data and
address any errors
• Add data to your tree map!

14. Tree Uploader

15. What data to upload?
• Only X, Y coordinates are required
• Planting site vs. tree data
• Strong encouragement to add species and diameter
• Options for tree present, date planted, external ID
number, tree height, and more

16. Trees and Custom Fields
• Support for adding
custom field data
• Match the data in your
existing inventory
• Add custom fields as new
columns in template
document
• Set up custom fields in
your tree map first

17. Review and Add Data
• Ready to Add – Data is organized and ready to go
• Errors – Review and edit species, date, or other fields
• Warnings – Trees may be too near an existing tree
• Successfully Added – Woohoo!!!

18. Updating Existing Data
• Warnings if tree located
near or at the same point
as another tree
• Use the OpenTreeMap
Plot ID to update existing
planting sites
• Supports regularly mass
updating tree map data
with info from a variety of
sources

19. From 0 to 12,000 in 2 Months

20. Species Uploader

21. How did those species get there?
• Tree map assigned to one or more i-Tree climate regions
based on geographic location
• Species list
automatically
added based on
that climate region
• Each species linked
to an i-Tree code to
calculate
ecosystem benefits

22. What data to upload?
• Only Genus and common name are required
• Strong encouragement to add i-Tree Code
• Options for species characteristics, URLs, and more
• Species must be on master species list before users can add a
tree with that species

23. i-Tree and Species
• Must include an i-Tree code
to calculate ecosystem
benefits for new species
• Code is based on climate
zone and an i-Tree Streets
Species Codes spreadsheet
• Customize species based on
knowledge of your climate
region
• Please, please, please
review the documentation

24. Review and Add Data
• Ready to Add – Data is organized and ready to go
• Merge Required – Species already in the system and
data needs to be merged
• Errors – Review and edit fields
• Successfully Added – Woohoo!!!

25. Updating Existing Data
• Update existing species on your tree map
• Keep some existing values and update others
• Create a new species if necessary

26. A Master Custom Species List

27. Demo

28. Documentation
• Templates and help guides available at
https://www.opentreemap.org/resources/
• Help videos and explanatory posts available on the
OpenTreeMap blog -
https://www.opentreemap.org/blog/
• Email and phone support available at various
subscription levels

29. Community Engagement

30. Why Bulk Upload Trees?
• Make your tree map the central repository for data collected
from a variety of surveys on and offline
• Add data from different organizations, cities, partners, and
more to grow your map
• Capture information on tree planting events, adopt a tree
programs, and more
• Encourage citizen scientists to update your existing inventories
• Identify the holes in your inventory and prioritize additional
data collection

31. Why Update Species?
• Adjust the default species to fit your climate region
• Ensure that both common and unusual species are available
for users to add as a tree’s species
• Encourage citizen scientists to focus on identifying trees of a
particular species
• Create tree ID guides and other educational materials related
to your species list
• Support ecosystem benefit calculations for all species on your
tree map

32. How Do I Get People Involved?
• Tree mapping parties!
• Upload data for other
groups
• Combine stewardship
activities with data
updates
• Hold educational
campaigns to fill in the
gaps on the map Image from TreePeople Blog –
http://blog.treepeople.org/volunteer/2014/12/2014-
volunteer-thank-you

33. Upcoming Features

34. Regular Updates
• Social media sharing on
Facebook, Twitter, and Google
Plus
• Add trees to favorites
• Green infrastructure tracking
• Species export
• New advanced search filters
• Performance optimization

35. Future Features
• Additional social media sharing
• Custom fields on mobile apps
• More advanced search filters
• Custom cartography
• Custom species characteristics

36. Summary
• Adding existing inventories can encourage users to
update information and fill in the gaps.
• Expanding the species list can assist users in creating an
inventory that more accurately reflects your urban
forest.
• There’s a fine line between too much and too little
information.
• The bulk uploaders enable you to customize
OpenTreeMap to meet the needs of your organization.

37. Grow Your Urban Forest

38. Questions?

39. Contact Us
Deborah Boyer
OpenTreeMap Project Manager
dboyer@azavea.com
215.701.7506
Karissa Justice
OpenTreeMap Business Development
kjustice@azavea.com
215.558.6184

40. Exploring Collaborative Tree Inventory with OpenTreeMap
Growing the Urban Forest: Using the OpenTreeMap Bulk Uploader
April 16, 2015