THE PROJECT
treesure
Smart tools for risk-informed management of Europe’s urban forests
The role of urban forests in local ecosystems has been widely acknowledged with their benefits ranging from leisure to climate change mitigation. However, with the growing intensity of windstorms affecting Europe and the increasing risk of tree fall, afforestation might become a part of the problem it attempts to solve: damage caused by meteorological events.
Parallel to this, tree cutting might elicit a mixed response from the public, further exacerbated by misinformation. Hence, the aim of the TREESURE project is to provide decision support system for tree health monitoring, co-created and co designed by the array of local stakeholders (risk managers, practitioners, local authorities and associations) representing different pedoclimatic zones across Europe for improved coordination and more tailored responses at the local level increasing resilience to natural disasters.
To tackle this challenge, the TREESURE project offers the decision-support system, which will combine the satellite data coming from ESA with the data collected by the IoT sensors. Nature based solutions as root-anchoring systems will be its key feature.
Deployment of this system in 3 different geographies will be preceded by in-depth case study requirement analysis, involving social, environmental and technical aspects. Key stakeholders will be engaged from the very outset of the project, starting with tabletop games. Their ownership of the TREESURE solutions will be increased by them taking part in assessment of the dashboard and app prototype and co creating the user guidelines and policy toolbox.
Ultimately, the key stakeholders will take part in the scenario testing, highlighting the importance of early warning, damage control and misinformation. This is expected to increase their engagement on par with targeted dissemination activities.
The sustainability and economic viability of the TREESURE solution will be ensured by implementing environmental and economic indicators with a LCA approach.