I am sitting in a Tokyo conference room with the members of the Japan Urban Tree Diagnosis Association, and showing them how a user can come to this forum for support with i-Tree.
The i-Tree Team will be pleased to know that this is the first time i-Tree has been presented in Japan, so I am told, and that these Tree Doctors are very interested in it.
We would like to use this message board to discuss--with you and among ourselves--how i-Tree Streets could be used in Japan. We understand that we can obtain structural information but that functional and value information depends on research that has not carried out yet in Japan.
We would appreciate hearing your opinion, and hope you will be interested in our discussion. Thank you very much
For the UTDA
Jerry
i-Tree Streets in Japan
Moderators: i-Tree Support, i-Tree Team
i-Tree Streets in Japan
Hello,
Thank you for the post and for letting the i-Tree Team know that you were able to present i-Tree in Japan recently. As always, we will be glad to provide guidance and answer questions regarding international use of the i-Tree applications.
As you mentioned, i-Tree Streets, previously known as STRATUM, has limitations for use outside the United States especially in determining functional tree values. Many of the limitations have been detailed in past forum discussions such as the following post http://forums.itreetools.org/viewtopic.php?t=43
STRATUM/Streets was not intended for use outside of the United States of America because the software uses tree growth, climate and cost data based on reference cities in 19 different climate zones throughout the United States.
In order to calculate tree-related benefits for your city, for instance, STRATUM must know what species are most likely to be found in your region, how big the trees are expected to grow, how quickly they will reach mature size and what leaf area they will have. The application also uses building, energy use, land use, and climate information to calculate trees’ functionality. Unfortunately STRATUM doesn’t have these data for cities outside of the U.S. As a result, any analysis you conducted using STRATUM would lack regional field data to support it. While there is no facility for calculating error associated with trees outside the specified climate zones, a first order approximation of benefits and resource is possible. It’s up to you whether or not the results will be valid for their intended use.
However, the are still several i-Tree users outside of the States who are interested in adapting the Streets model for use in their own countries. Canada has been interested in establishing a Canadian reference city and I have seen posts from folks in Australia also regarding adapting Streets for use down under. We do not anticipate that the USFS will be considering establishing any more reference cities outside the States at this time.
Since i-Tree Eco has already been used successfully outside the U.S., the i-Tree team has always guided those interested in using the i-Tree urban forest assessment tools to consider using that model first. We have been in discussions with other countries who are interested in making Eco more fully functional in their own countries as it is not capable of producing all the outputs that can be generated for U.S. cities. We will be coming out with additional guidelines soon detailing these limitations.
I will pass this post along to members of the i-Tree Executive committee as I’m sure they will be interested. We appreciate the interest in the i-Tree tools and look forward to further discussions.
Best regards,
Al
Thank you for the post and for letting the i-Tree Team know that you were able to present i-Tree in Japan recently. As always, we will be glad to provide guidance and answer questions regarding international use of the i-Tree applications.
As you mentioned, i-Tree Streets, previously known as STRATUM, has limitations for use outside the United States especially in determining functional tree values. Many of the limitations have been detailed in past forum discussions such as the following post http://forums.itreetools.org/viewtopic.php?t=43
STRATUM/Streets was not intended for use outside of the United States of America because the software uses tree growth, climate and cost data based on reference cities in 19 different climate zones throughout the United States.
In order to calculate tree-related benefits for your city, for instance, STRATUM must know what species are most likely to be found in your region, how big the trees are expected to grow, how quickly they will reach mature size and what leaf area they will have. The application also uses building, energy use, land use, and climate information to calculate trees’ functionality. Unfortunately STRATUM doesn’t have these data for cities outside of the U.S. As a result, any analysis you conducted using STRATUM would lack regional field data to support it. While there is no facility for calculating error associated with trees outside the specified climate zones, a first order approximation of benefits and resource is possible. It’s up to you whether or not the results will be valid for their intended use.
However, the are still several i-Tree users outside of the States who are interested in adapting the Streets model for use in their own countries. Canada has been interested in establishing a Canadian reference city and I have seen posts from folks in Australia also regarding adapting Streets for use down under. We do not anticipate that the USFS will be considering establishing any more reference cities outside the States at this time.
Since i-Tree Eco has already been used successfully outside the U.S., the i-Tree team has always guided those interested in using the i-Tree urban forest assessment tools to consider using that model first. We have been in discussions with other countries who are interested in making Eco more fully functional in their own countries as it is not capable of producing all the outputs that can be generated for U.S. cities. We will be coming out with additional guidelines soon detailing these limitations.
I will pass this post along to members of the i-Tree Executive committee as I’m sure they will be interested. We appreciate the interest in the i-Tree tools and look forward to further discussions.
Best regards,
Al
A member of the i-Tree Team