i-Tree Functional Research and Improvement

Below are proposed areas of scientific research that the i-Tree Team will ultimately integrate into the i-Tree Tools.

For a list of specific i-Tree Tools improvements, please scroll down this page.

Proposed Improvements - Scientific Research

Climate Change and Environmental Justice

  • Auto-calculate AF’s Tree Equity score for any location used in i-Tree.
  • Create additional i-Tree Scorecard metrics for tool outputs.
  • Elevate all tool outputs to include a focus on climate change forecasting and associated species risks.
  • Better integrate climate change risk data to clearly show tree and forest risk along with better planting/replacement options to reduce heat island effects. Provide forest forecasting and management recommendations to address administrative priorities such as Climate Change and the National Reforestation Strategy.
  • Continued development of building energy calculation procedures (i-Tree Energy, to be incorporated within i-Tree Eco).

Reforestation/Revegetation

  • Expand tree planting forecasting and planting accountability functions and associated outreach.
  • Focus on Assessment of Reforestation Opportunity Through Federal Programs and Partnerships
  • Incorporate cross agency priorities such as the Natural Capital Accounting Strategy.
  • Add support for national carbon accounting in urban areas and USDA GHG Entity-Scale guidelines.
  • Set up i-Tree as the go-to tool for assessing Carbon Accounting needs.
  • Research shrub and turf benefits to include in i-Tree outputs.

Forest Management

  • Derive and embed management prescription function(s) across all tools to answer the “Now what?” question that often occurs after users learn about tree benefits. To be based on local composition and risks.
  • Include additional human & forest population risks: insects/diseases, fire, floods, air quality, & temperature. Allow targeting of locations & species to reduce risks and to create sustainable future forest canopy.
  • New outputs to convey how forests and human health are linked across local to national scales.
  • Focus on Wildland-Urban Interface: fire plus watersheds for drinking water & stormwater mitigation.

FIA

  • Provide ecosystem services reported on Urban Forest Inventory & Analysis plots.
  • Provide ecosystem services for Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) nationwide.

i-Tree Eco

i-Tree’s flagship: science repository driving all other tools.

  • Externality valuation (enhances valuation of ecosystem services)
  • Statistical calculations of forest change
  • Timber estimates (consistent to FIA methods)
  • Management guidelines on suggested species and locations to maximize ecosystem services and human health plus reduce risk.
  • Leaf biomass and nutrients distributed through leaf drop (nutrient cycling)
  • Pollen allergenicity index based on forest composition (forest allergy index)
  • Future weather inputs to aid in understanding impacts of climate change on ecosystem services.
  • Additional ecosystem services outputs added to Forecast.
  • Forecast estimates of tree planting rates needed to sustain tree cover.
  • New wildlife habitat assessments with an initial focus on several bird species
  • Natural regeneration forecasts

i-Tree Landscape

i-Tree’s most powerful online tool with terabytes of ready-to-go forest and human population data.

  • Tree effects on human comfort (create maps of tree impacts on human comfort)
  • Trees effects on air temperature
  • Change in anthropogenic emissions (due to changes in air temperature)
  • Temperature links to human health (estimates health impacts associated with lower air temperatures due to trees)
  • Trees effects on stream flow and water quality
  • Index of forest fragmentation (improve understanding of forest fragmentation)
  • Potential hurricane risk
  • Protected area analysis.
  • Pollution externalities values (enhances valuation of ecosystem services)
  • Estimates of avoided emissions due to building energy use
  • Work with National Forests and CFLR projects to aid management goals.

i-Tree Species

  • Species specific relative transpiration estimates (species water use and temperature differences)
  • Integrate i-Tree Species information into primary i-Tree (Eco) locspp database to aid in selecting best species to improve ecosystem services and human health.
  • Update species and ecosystem service estimates
  • Develop carbon offset metrics per species – high, medium, low. Fast/slow.
  • Add individual species characteristics and planting site requirements; right-tree-right-place tool in terms of location, risks, and benefits.

Hydro+

In conjunction with SUNY ESF research and development.

  • Preload SSURGO soil parameters (aids in water cycle calculations)
  • Land cover pollutant coefficients (improves estimates of water quality impacts of forests)
  • Spatially distributed model with nutrient hotspot identification (aids in targeting management activities to reduce nutrient loads into streams)
  • Preload 30-year past and future weather (aids in forward and backward time assessments)
  • Flooding metrics – visualize how tree and land cover changes affect flood event frequency, duration, and magnitude/extent.
  • ‘Design Rain’ tool to simulate specific storm events (aids in landscape designs to address specific “design” storm events)
  • Green infrastructure calculations (aids in understanding the impact of green infrastructure design on stream flow and water quality)
  • Determine the best locations to mitigate nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into local water bodies (i-Tree Buffer).


Below are proposed areas of improvement that the i-Tree Team will build into the i-Tree Tools.

For a list of i-Tree Scientific Research for these tools, please scroll to the top of this page.


Proposed Improvements - Existing Tools

Listed in order of need based on user requests.

All Tools

  1. Add administration staff to manage website CMS, servers, code repositories, and databases.
  2. Cross Platform enhancement: Incorporate R&D above to all appropriate tools.
  3. Geographically tie the location entered in all i-Tree tools to underserved boundary areas such as Justice 40 regions.
  4. Create and add outputs showing tree equity and potential reforestation opportunities in areas of greatest need.
  5. Cross-tool Functions and Reporting: Expand design standards for all tools and reporting – consistent, complete, and attractive. Users should come to know the tools and reports as an i-Tree “brand".
  6. Build out new international versions if funded separately from core funding discussed in this document. (i-Tree funded Project Work)

Individual Tree Assessment Tools

MyTree

  1. Create a new output: a “Story” or equivalency tab to relate benefits results to real world examples (e.g., avoided run off to number of bathtubs).
  2. Develop social media posting options for the reports.
  3. Add a “Group Name” custom web addresses input/function (example: https://mytree.itreetools.org/AkronTreePlanters) to allow for community tree planting inventory coordination among members.
  4. Add species ID and mobile device tree measuring; enhance reports.

i-Tree Design

  1. Connect to MyTreeMap
  2. Link Landscape results to Design (improves local scale designs with trees)
  3. Link Design more fully with Eco (improves ecosystem service estimates)
  4. Extend report outputs to include air pollution table and canopy amounts.

i-Tree Eco

i-Tree’s flagship: science repository driving all other tools.

  1. Allow users to pick pollution monitors as they do weather stations.
  2. Improve the benefits pricing and currency exchanges.
  3. Automatic report generation from Urban FIA data
  4. Incorporate i-Tree Street’s segment sampling method.
  5. Link Eco results to Landscape (improve Landscape estimates using local field data)
  6. Continue work to streamline the interface -and thus user project flow - even more.
  7. Add interactive tree & forest benefits dashboard that hosted for public viewing via i-Tree servers.

Canopy Area Assessment Tools

OurTrees

  1. Develop a new tab to show automatically generated planting priority maps.
  2. Add i-Tree scorecard.
  3. Develop social media posting options for the reports.

i-Tree Landscape

i-Tree’s most powerful online tool with terabytes of ready-to-go forest and human population data.

  1. NLCD processing updates 2016 and 2021 data.
  2. New Prioritization Schemes for Human Health (aids in prioritizing managements actions)
  3. Simplify the user experience/user interface.
  4. Add tabular canopy change scenarios to show effects on benefits with gain or loss.
  5. Improve reporting functions: strengthen the report builder but also add “canned” outputs.
  6. Develop a more granular method for users to select smaller areas like “neighborhoods” within Census block group areas.
  7. Include additional high resolution urban tree cover data from partners.
  8. Import FIA Forest data (aid in assessing ecosystem services from forests)]
  9. Include Urban FIA data.
  10. Export map attribute data compatible with common data used in GIS (aids local managers)
  11. Allow users to customize dollar values.

i-Tree Canopy

  1. Enhance outputs per user feedback and i-Tree Support suggestions.
  2. Add export function for outputs.
  3. Allow people to take Canopy points “out” and back “in” to Canopy so they can use in a GIS on their own air photos.
  4. Build out historical comparison feature for canopy change assessment within the current user interface.
  5. Build out project comparison reporting.

Tree Planting Tools

i-Tree Species

  1. Modernization and backend expansion for new functionality per scientific research above.
  2. Add new science; target carbon offsets; right-tree-right-place; mobile.

MyTreeMap

  1. Move out of prototype state - increase capacity of backend infrastructure to increase responsiveness and display all trees on the map.
  2. Expand query and download functions.
  3. Create post-planting reporting outputs.
  4. Feed all trees from all of i-Tree’s individual tree assessment tools to it.
  5. Develop protocol that uses tree locations to monitor tree survival using online aerial images as they become available.

i-Tree Planting

  • Overhaul backend to reduce ongoing maintenance needs.
  • Incorporate full i-Tree species list to replace limited, regional list.
  • Improve User Interface to allow quicker entry and also import of data.
  • Enhance outputs. Ex: include projected tree canopy cover.
  • Make it mobile-friendly.
  • Expand into a full "web-based forecast tool” for tree planting projects and corporate sustainability efforts.


Proposed Improvements - New Tools

These are ideas whose functions have been requested by users and would not fit well – too big. Too complicated - within existing tools (or existing tools are too outdated to support such).

i-Tree Community

  • a quick & simple assessment of community canopy current state with risks listed and provide an action plan on where to plant, what to plant, and who to talk to next (state coordinators, etc.) Include i-Tree Scorecard from above.
  • A one page, i-Tree state of the union to engage people currently not thinking about their community forests.

i-Tree Tag

  • “Tree Tag Generator” users can access from i-Tree’s individual tree assessment tools.
  • Creates template PDFs at various sizes for easy user print out at home or print shops.

i-Tree Home & Business

  • A comprehensive homeowner-oriented tool for tree benefits and ecosystem services.
  • Right-tree-right-place with optimal planting zones, species selection, climate change, and pest risks.
  • Include detailed surface assessment of hydrology plus turf benefits. Include shrub benefits.
  • Glossy outputs shareable with other homeowners; social media posting.
  • Mobile friendly.
  • Build with capacity in mind for classroom and training use (many users all at once from single locations).

i-Tree Accounting

  • Use i-Tree Planting as a model and extend to grant coordinator use with grantee requirements, grantee volunteer field data collection, and periodic random sampling, both in office and field updates, to ensure viability of tree plantings.
  • This is to support grant program agreements in terms of data benchmarking, benefits forecasting, and tree planting accountability over time.
  • An “evidence based” tool.