Abstract

Mapping Every Street Tree in NYC: Crowdsourcing the Asset Inventory
Track: Community Planning and Economic Development
Authors: Jacqueline Lu

The 2015 Street Tree Census is NYC Parks’ volunteer-powered effort to map every street tree in the city, partnering with local groups to advance urban forestry management through data. TreesCount! uses an innovative mapping method that is easy and intuitive for volunteers to learn, while yielding high quality spatial data. GIS tools are used to integrate the data into Parks’ forestry management system, closing the loop from crowdsourcing to using the data to improve city operations.