5 ms·

TreeTalk London – Tree Map

143 points by jamespwilliams 4y ago

plondon514 4y ago
In New York City we also have an impressive Tree Map that not many know about: https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/ https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/
alexfoo 4y ago
Argh. Bloody London Plane trees shitting their stuff into my eyes as I run or cycle beneath them. The goggles, they do nothing!
saikatsg 4y ago
> TreeTalk has been created on Greentalk's Platform. A proprietary technology platform which allows business/customers to promote or generate itineraries and trails based on geo-mapping and data ranging from trees to historic monuments, considering enviromental elements such as air quality, tree canopy, and more. https://www.greentalklabs.com/ https://www.greentalklabs.com/
sandos 4y ago
I assume this is from openstreetmap? Although I've never seen trees with specific info in osm.
- pastage 4y ago
  This is available in the London's datastore under open government license according to the FAQ. And no the data is not imported to OSM at this date. But the doc for natural=tree tag in OSM does have quite a lot of possible extra types, leaf_type and cycle are the most common. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural=tree https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural=tree
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    Each local council will have a database of all street and park trees on their land. At some regular interval they need to inspect each tree to ensure it isn't rotten or otherwise dangerous.
  - pabs3 4y ago
    Any idea why the data doesn't get imported into OSM? Seems like local governments worldwide should be doing this.
    - ygra 4y ago
      Often it's license incompatibilities. Even open geodata is often licensed in a way incompatible with OSM. E.g. a typical attribution requirement would require OSM data consumers to include the full list of data sources in the attribution (which is usually just mentioning the OSM contributors). So often there are individual arrangements with the respective bureaus to give the data to OSM under different conditions. For example, the cadastre data here in a southern German state is available under the condition that the attribution happens in the OSM changeset, which is much easier to fulfill (and is being done automatically in editors as soon as you have that imagery as a background layer). But generally, someone must care enough to ask the data holders to make such an import possible. And I guess for individual trees the interest isn't as high as for roads or building footprints.
    - pastage 4y ago
      Apart from the excellent sibling post, the view is that data imports are hard to handle. The question of updating imported data is tricky. Most organisations who have map data think their data is the best, many times the OSM data is better than gov data in specific cases so should you overwritenthe better data just to get a complete map? It is a tricky subject that OSM handles by not importing as much as Google.
mnd999 4y ago
Amazing, correctly identifies the trees outside my flat.
a_c 4y ago
This is the perfect app I'm looking for. Since moving to London, I fell in love with the trees here. Knowing nothing about trees before, I carry a tiny tree atlas with me. It is challenging to look up a tree from a booklet shall I say. Simply beautiful.
IndigoIncognito 4y ago
They have data for a tree in my garden. I got the tree cut down and there was so much bureaucracy to go through just to cut it, I guess it is a protected piece of nature or something of the sort?
- moremetadata 4y ago
  Its harder to terminate a tree in the UK than a human.
  - samb1729 4y ago
    Which forms do I need to fill out to axe my sibling?
    - moremetadata 4y ago
      Exactly. A bulk supply of dishwashing tablets can make almost anything disappear!
    - IndigoIncognito 4y ago
      If you don't pay your parking fines, eventually they will send their goons to end you, thats one way to axe a sibling
- gpa 4y ago
  I like how they protect their trees in the United Kingdom. This approach to environmental preservation should be adopted globally.
  - _dain_ 4y ago
    it's a scam to inflate property values.
    - IndigoIncognito 4y ago
      How so, tree's provide value so how is it a scam?
dang 4y ago
Related: A Map of the Trees of London - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23078682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23078682 - May 2020 (88 comments) Edit: Related ongoing thread: Fruit trees – SmartView Christchurch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34888906 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34888906 - Feb 2023 (30 comments)
nicwolff 4y ago
Same idea for NYC https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org
- spladug 4y ago
  And for SF: https://bsm.sfdpw.org/urbanforestry/ https://bsm.sfdpw.org/urbanforestry/
  - rcMgD2BwE72F 4y ago
    And Paris: https://opendata.paris.fr/explore/dataset/les-arbres/map/ https://opendata.paris.fr/explore/dataset/les-arbres/map/
    - postingawayonhn 4y ago
      And Melbourne: http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/#mapexplore http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/#mapexplore
      - jerrysievert 4y ago
        and Portland https://pdx.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3f9c3e9018bb4ee890b4a66595d75027 https://pdx.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=...
        halfvoxel 4y ago
        And for Sweden https://stadstrad.se/?lng=18.0977&lat=59.3364&zoom=13.6 https://stadstrad.se/?lng=18.0977&lat=59.3364&zoom=13.6 It even tries to show a Google street view picture of the tree, if possible.
      - bradrn 4y ago
        And central Sydney: https://data.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/datasets/15c4713a688a48fcb604fc343118af05_0/explore?location=-33.884242%2C151.222465%2C14.00 https://data.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/datasets/15c4713a688a48... https://trees.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/map/ https://trees.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/map/ https://cityofsydney.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/minimalist/index.html?appid=d33a3376158a4135a9028619420857a6 https://cityofsydney.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/minimalist...
josters 4y ago
In Berlin there is "Gieß den Kiez"[1] (water your block). It not only shows you the species and age for every tree on public property, you can also adopt trees and be responsible for watering them. > Gieß den Kiez is a participatory platform where you can inform yourself about the trees in your neighbourhood and their water needs. You can explore individual trees in Berlin and find out about the proper watering of trees. If you want to water the same trees regularly, you should create an account, adopt the trees and show that they are taken care of. This way, coordination takes place in the neighbourhood. [1] https://www.giessdenkiez.de https://www.giessdenkiez.de
- polaco 4y ago
  There's also the Berlin Tree Register[1] mapping which looks like every public tree in the city. And while we're at it, the city's official Geoportal Berlin[2] is a treasure trove of open geo data. [1] https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=05c3f9d7dea6422b86e30967811bddd7 https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=05c3f9d7dea6422b86e... [2] https://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb/index.jsp https://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb/index.jsp
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
  I have checked out my local area on that London tree map, and it appears to be accurate in details. True story: Summer 2022 in London was unprecedented and brutal. After weeks of heat without rain, it got worse: there was a day that the temperature reached 41C in July, and only a bit cooler on days on either side. 3 young trees on that map are possibly only alive because I noticed how badly they were doing (leaves all shrivelling up and falling off), and applied water daily until the heatwave was over and they started to grow new leaves. I wonder what would have happened if those trees had died? How and when is the map updated? These treed are cared for (in as much as they are cared for at all) by the borough council. So the tree data is also collected by them? 1) https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/jul/19/uk-weather-extreme-heatwave-forecast-temperature-today-latest-live https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/jul/19/uk-weathe...
world2vec 4y ago
Had no idea there are cork oak trees near my house and they're considered rare in London. Very neat app, love it.
calcifer 4y ago
Very interesting! It says the one right in front of my building is a Locust tree and is very rare in London: > Rare species. This is one of TreeTalk's Bronze trees. There are no more than 200 of them in streets around London.
dom96 4y ago
Wow, this is amazing. I never knew the park around where I live has such a variety of trees. Another excuse to go for a walk.
_joel 4y ago
Yay, a map of trees in London. Ok I'm being facecious but it'd be better if it was more widely covered. Surely we have lidar now that can delinieate different trees from the canopy data, using some ML or something... I watched the 5th episode of LIDAR heroes from NASA today and they're talking about 1m+ points on the new devices, surely we could actually count how many trees using that data.. yea, might be a bit off, but it'd work in urban areas where mass density canopy calcs or whatever is impossible. Lonesome trees need love too
- dtgriscom 4y ago
  > LIDAR heroes from NASA Found it: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14261 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14261
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dreen 4y ago
Missing the Noel park friendship tree. I did my driving lessons around there and always wondered why is there a tree in the MIDDLE of a narrow residential street.
stevage 4y ago
A similar map with world wide coverage: opentrees.org

In New York City we also have an impressive Tree Map that not many know about: https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/ https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/

alexfoo 4y ago

Argh. Bloody London Plane trees shitting their stuff into my eyes as I run or cycle beneath them. The goggles, they do nothing!

saikatsg 4y ago

> TreeTalk has been created on Greentalk's Platform. A proprietary technology platform which allows business/customers to promote or generate itineraries and trails based on geo-mapping and data ranging from trees to historic monuments, considering enviromental elements such as air quality, tree canopy, and more. https://www.greentalklabs.com/ https://www.greentalklabs.com/

sandos 4y ago

I assume this is from openstreetmap? Although I've never seen trees with specific info in osm.

pastage 4y ago
This is available in the London's datastore under open government license according to the FAQ. And no the data is not imported to OSM at this date. But the doc for natural=tree tag in OSM does have quite a lot of possible extra types, leaf_type and cycle are the most common. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural=tree https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural=tree
- Symbiote 4y ago
  Each local council will have a database of all street and park trees on their land. At some regular interval they need to inspect each tree to ensure it isn't rotten or otherwise dangerous.
- pabs3 4y ago
  Any idea why the data doesn't get imported into OSM? Seems like local governments worldwide should be doing this.
  - ygra 4y ago
    Often it's license incompatibilities. Even open geodata is often licensed in a way incompatible with OSM. E.g. a typical attribution requirement would require OSM data consumers to include the full list of data sources in the attribution (which is usually just mentioning the OSM contributors). So often there are individual arrangements with the respective bureaus to give the data to OSM under different conditions. For example, the cadastre data here in a southern German state is available under the condition that the attribution happens in the OSM changeset, which is much easier to fulfill (and is being done automatically in editors as soon as you have that imagery as a background layer). But generally, someone must care enough to ask the data holders to make such an import possible. And I guess for individual trees the interest isn't as high as for roads or building footprints.
  - pastage 4y ago
    Apart from the excellent sibling post, the view is that data imports are hard to handle. The question of updating imported data is tricky. Most organisations who have map data think their data is the best, many times the OSM data is better than gov data in specific cases so should you overwritenthe better data just to get a complete map? It is a tricky subject that OSM handles by not importing as much as Google.

mnd999 4y ago

Amazing, correctly identifies the trees outside my flat.

a_c 4y ago

This is the perfect app I'm looking for. Since moving to London, I fell in love with the trees here. Knowing nothing about trees before, I carry a tiny tree atlas with me. It is challenging to look up a tree from a booklet shall I say. Simply beautiful.

IndigoIncognito 4y ago

They have data for a tree in my garden. I got the tree cut down and there was so much bureaucracy to go through just to cut it, I guess it is a protected piece of nature or something of the sort?

moremetadata 4y ago
Its harder to terminate a tree in the UK than a human.
- samb1729 4y ago
  Which forms do I need to fill out to axe my sibling?
  - moremetadata 4y ago
    Exactly. A bulk supply of dishwashing tablets can make almost anything disappear!
  - IndigoIncognito 4y ago
    If you don't pay your parking fines, eventually they will send their goons to end you, thats one way to axe a sibling
gpa 4y ago
I like how they protect their trees in the United Kingdom. This approach to environmental preservation should be adopted globally.
- _dain_ 4y ago
  it's a scam to inflate property values.
  - IndigoIncognito 4y ago
    How so, tree's provide value so how is it a scam?

dang 4y ago

Related: A Map of the Trees of London - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23078682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23078682 - May 2020 (88 comments) Edit: Related ongoing thread: Fruit trees – SmartView Christchurch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34888906 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34888906 - Feb 2023 (30 comments)

nicwolff 4y ago

Same idea for NYC https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org

spladug 4y ago
And for SF: https://bsm.sfdpw.org/urbanforestry/ https://bsm.sfdpw.org/urbanforestry/
- rcMgD2BwE72F 4y ago
  And Paris: https://opendata.paris.fr/explore/dataset/les-arbres/map/ https://opendata.paris.fr/explore/dataset/les-arbres/map/
  - postingawayonhn 4y ago
    And Melbourne: http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/#mapexplore http://melbourneurbanforestvisual.com.au/#mapexplore
    - jerrysievert 4y ago
      and Portland https://pdx.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3f9c3e9018bb4ee890b4a66595d75027 https://pdx.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=...
      - halfvoxel 4y ago
        And for Sweden https://stadstrad.se/?lng=18.0977&lat=59.3364&zoom=13.6 https://stadstrad.se/?lng=18.0977&lat=59.3364&zoom=13.6 It even tries to show a Google street view picture of the tree, if possible.
    - bradrn 4y ago
      And central Sydney: https://data.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/datasets/15c4713a688a48fcb604fc343118af05_0/explore?location=-33.884242%2C151.222465%2C14.00 https://data.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/datasets/15c4713a688a48... https://trees.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/map/ https://trees.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/map/ https://cityofsydney.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/minimalist/index.html?appid=d33a3376158a4135a9028619420857a6 https://cityofsydney.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/minimalist...

josters 4y ago

In Berlin there is "Gieß den Kiez"[1] (water your block). It not only shows you the species and age for every tree on public property, you can also adopt trees and be responsible for watering them. > Gieß den Kiez is a participatory platform where you can inform yourself about the trees in your neighbourhood and their water needs. You can explore individual trees in Berlin and find out about the proper watering of trees. If you want to water the same trees regularly, you should create an account, adopt the trees and show that they are taken care of. This way, coordination takes place in the neighbourhood. [1] https://www.giessdenkiez.de https://www.giessdenkiez.de

polaco 4y ago
There's also the Berlin Tree Register[1] mapping which looks like every public tree in the city. And while we're at it, the city's official Geoportal Berlin[2] is a treasure trove of open geo data. [1] https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=05c3f9d7dea6422b86e30967811bddd7 https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=05c3f9d7dea6422b86e... [2] https://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb/index.jsp https://fbinter.stadt-berlin.de/fb/index.jsp
SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
I have checked out my local area on that London tree map, and it appears to be accurate in details. True story: Summer 2022 in London was unprecedented and brutal. After weeks of heat without rain, it got worse: there was a day that the temperature reached 41C in July, and only a bit cooler on days on either side. 3 young trees on that map are possibly only alive because I noticed how badly they were doing (leaves all shrivelling up and falling off), and applied water daily until the heatwave was over and they started to grow new leaves. I wonder what would have happened if those trees had died? How and when is the map updated? These treed are cared for (in as much as they are cared for at all) by the borough council. So the tree data is also collected by them? 1) https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/jul/19/uk-weather-extreme-heatwave-forecast-temperature-today-latest-live https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/jul/19/uk-weathe...

world2vec 4y ago

Had no idea there are cork oak trees near my house and they're considered rare in London. Very neat app, love it.

calcifer 4y ago

Very interesting! It says the one right in front of my building is a Locust tree and is very rare in London: > Rare species. This is one of TreeTalk's Bronze trees. There are no more than 200 of them in streets around London.

dom96 4y ago

Wow, this is amazing. I never knew the park around where I live has such a variety of trees. Another excuse to go for a walk.

_joel 4y ago

Yay, a map of trees in London. Ok I'm being facecious but it'd be better if it was more widely covered. Surely we have lidar now that can delinieate different trees from the canopy data, using some ML or something... I watched the 5th episode of LIDAR heroes from NASA today and they're talking about 1m+ points on the new devices, surely we could actually count how many trees using that data.. yea, might be a bit off, but it'd work in urban areas where mass density canopy calcs or whatever is impossible. Lonesome trees need love too

dtgriscom 4y ago
> LIDAR heroes from NASA Found it: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14261 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14261

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dreen 4y ago

Missing the Noel park friendship tree. I did my driving lessons around there and always wondered why is there a tree in the MIDDLE of a narrow residential street.

stevage 4y ago

A similar map with world wide coverage: opentrees.org