Funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) based on a resolution by the German federal parliament.
What is it about?
City trees are increasingly suffering the consequences of climate change and the atypical weather conditions of urban climates. Due to their slow genetic adaptation as a reaction to environmental changes, they are particularly affected by increasingly frequent periods of drought and increasing temperature extremes. The damage caused by longer periods of drought and the ongoing climate change can already be seen in Berlin, as many city trees have to be pruned or felled due to the massive development of deadwood.
With the “Quantified Trees” project, the consortium aims to sustainably counteract tree death by developing an artificial intelligence (AI) based forecasting system that uses a wide range of data to identify urban trees that are acutely threatened by drought at an early stage. Two platforms are to be developed based on an AI algorithm. The platforms will offer both the public administration and civil society in Berlin the opportunity to maintain and preserve the city trees and to react in a quick manner to dynamic weather conditions in the future.
The app “Baumblick”
The first application to emerge from the Qtrees research project is Baumblick. Baumblick is a web application that gives an insight into and an outlook on the condition of our city trees in Berlin. Sensors can be used to measure the suction of a tree to determine how dry or wet the soil is. Using an AI model, we try to identify patterns in the data sets and predict the current and future water supply for all city trees up to 14 days in advance. The app also raises awareness on the topic of “care and irrigation of urban trees” and invites people to get involved with urban trees, thereby contributing to the improvement of the AI model.
Who is involved?
In association with the Birds on Mars, the Technologiestiftung Berlin successfully applied for the promotion of measures for adaptation to climate change and is thus part of the German adaptation strategy to climate change (DAS), funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Nature Conservation and nuclear safety (BMU).
During the course of the project, the consortium will be primarily responsible for promoting the development of the AI-models, exploration of the data and the development of the software components. The SGA (Street and green space office for the Mitte district of Berlin) will be available as a project partner for workshops and will also be constantly available with relevant technical expertise, promote integration into internal processes and support networking with other actors in the administration.
About the funding project
Title : Quantified Trees – Intelligent Irrigation Forecast for Urban Trees
Funding Program: “Measures for Adaptation to Climate Change” from May 2nd, 2019 of the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS)
Funding priority 3: Municipal lighthouse projects and development of local and regional cooperations
Duration: October 1st, 2021 to September 30th, 2023 (24 calendar months)
Funding number: 67DAS219A
Association partner: Technologiestiftung Berlin and Birds on Mars GmbH
Cooperation partner: Road and Green Area Office Mitte Berlin
Project sponsor: Future for Internet and Society
Sponsor: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Contact
Project Lead: Julia Zimmermann
Senior Product Manager: Myrian Rigal
