Residents provided high-level intel on urban greening

The City of Marion Council has partnered with an Adelaide software developer to provide real-time data on its urban forest to interested residents.

The council is planting nearly 4000 trees each year and 2800 reserve trees over the next seven years and believes that providing real-time data in an interactive map will allow it to better communicate the value of its urban forest to residents.

The software company, Forestree, works with several other councils on managing urban canopy data, but company co-founder Ben Seamark says Marion “has taken it to the next level”.

Marion’s new Green City webpage integrates with other technology to give residents unprecedented amounts of information.

“What’s so great about the Marion site [is that] what you see there is real time, it’s not a snapshot in time, it’s right now, today,” Mr Seamark told an Adelaide newspaper this week.

Residents searching for a street or suburb can see each individual tree, including photographs and details about the 200 different tree species throughout the city.

The watering schedule, the volume of water used, and the number of tree ­inspections made are also displayed.

Marion Mayor Kris Hanna said the Forestree partnership was about adding momentum to the council’s plans to double the city’s street tree canopy.

Local Government Association of SA president Angela Evans said that SA councils were committed to increasing urban canopy, supporting the state government’s target of increasing green cover by 20 percent in metropolitan Adelaide by 2045.

“It’s fantastic to see technology evolving in this area, and councils embracing the opportunity to modernise their tree management practices,” Ms Evans said.