Christchurch-based scientists are now working with NZ’s largest councils and are using LiDAR satellites to calculate the monetary value of the tree stock using new software developed by the US Forest Service.
In August, Wood Central reported that through the Ōtautahi Urban Forest Plan, the Christchurch City Council wants to triple its tree canopy and sustain a thriving urban forest of healthy, diverse and resilient trees.
Now, the University of Canterbury is using i-Tree Eco, a new tech-based platform that puts a dollar figure on what trees do for humans and the environment.
Justin Moregenroth, an associate professor from the School of Forestry behind the project, believes the surge in interest in ecosystem services could fundamentally change how trees are valued in urban environments.
Associate Professor Moregenroth has been working with the US Forest Service “for a couple of years” and has collaborated with NZ’s three largest city councils—Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland—ensuring the software accounts for tree species, meteorological, and pollution data.
He said the new platform will be converted to an app called “MyTree,” which will allow private landowners to calculate the value of individual trees on their property if all goes to plan.
Already, a dozen researchers are working with Moregenroth to plot 100 parks and reserves across Christchurch and then enter the data into i-Tree, which models tree functions. Under pollution, for example, the software calculates ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide absorbed by the trees.
“It even calculates runoff from waters – when trees intercept and absorb rainwater,” he said, adding that the effects of trees on nearby building energy can also be calculated, including shading and other functions.
And whilst the i-Trees outputs were only estimates, they provide “the best guess that we could possibly make,” according to Associate Professor Moregenroth, who told the Christchurch-based “The Press” that the council was looking to integrate its tree data into the new platform.
The push to embrace ecosystem services comes as the Biden Administration recognised, for the first time, environmental impacts in all cost-benefit decisions.
According to James Goodwin, a senior policy analyst for the US Center for Progressive Reform, the guideline could make ecosystem accounting central to more than US $10 trillion of governmental decision-making.
Already, PEFC and FSC – the world’s two leading forest certification schemes, recognise ecosystems as part of their new forest certification standards.
Last year, Wood Central spoke to Responsible Wood – which manages the PEFC scheme in New Zealand – which became the first PEFC-aligned standard to embrace ecosystem certification, claiming that certificate holders now can claim “the full range of values and benefits which forests provide to society, not just responsibly sourced forest products.”
The push by the Biden administration to embrace ecosystem services has seen a global surge in “nature positive” investments, with 40 of the world’s leading financial institutions last year responsible for more than US $21 trillion in assets under management, embracing a new ‘Nature Positive Framework’ to unlock the US $100 trillion ecosystem industry.
