Climathon: Tree Inventory Challenge for the City of Athens

How can we create Athens’ first open-data Urban Tree Inventory?

How can Sustainable Design Principles, Technological Breakthroughs & Innovative Civic Engagement be combined to create Athens’ first open-data Urban Tree Inventory?

Challenge context

A major challenge for cities in the future will be to meet our need for nature based solutions towards a more resilient city that will be able to withstand climate change and environmental challenges. Athens, a city that suffers from heatwaves, flash floods and poor air quality, has historically wasted, misused and mismanaged its natural resources. It needs a culture change to understand, support, and promote its green infrastructure. The city needs to create, as well as, better manage its green areas. Creating a Tree Inventory is an integral part of Athens Resilience Strategy to integrate natural systems into the urban fabric. An urban tree inventory is the database of accurate information on the health and diversity of an urban green stock.

Challenge description

How concerned & active citizens of Athens, together with expert arborists & foresters, research students & members of the Academia, IT specialists & software programmers, innovative entrepreneurs & local businesses, design thinking facilitators & community-based organizations, along with city officials, can create an open data Urban Tree Inventory that will provide information for the planning, design, planting, maintenance, removal of community trees as well as civic usage of green spaces?

Good tree inventory practice involves integrating sustainable design principles, available advanced technologies such as the use of AI applications, excellent knowledge of urban forestry & civic land use, and innovative community engagement that encompasses collaboration and co-creation between city officials and citizens.

Solutions that Climathon Athens 2018 could focus on:
• Developing a holistic approach to spatial planning for open green spaces and greener pedestrian streets in the Municipality of Athens.
• Enabling mapping and identification of trees in predefined areas to support public awareness and demonstration activities such as labelling, development, maintenance, etc.
• Assessing the benefits of trees and open green areas using environmental and socioeconomic indicators (assessing the flooding reduction potential, ecosystem benefits, social benefits, cognitive function of green spaces, shading and cooling, urban heat island effect, landscape enhancement, etc.).
• Adapting or creating business models that will support public-private sector collaborations.
• Using design and technology to add value and extend the useful life of current public green spaces.
• Establishing co-creation opportunities between city officials, citizens, local businesses, research centers & universities.
• Enhance and promote public awareness on trees value and importance in the city with any possible ways (e.g. use of technology, stakeholder engagement processes, others).

The aim of the Challenge this year is to fuel new thinking, that will ideally include the holistic analysis of satellite, environmental, biological and socio-economic data and the interactions between open green spaces, water attenuation and spatial planning. Copernicus, EMODnet, BlueBRIDGE, FAO, Eurostat, Natura2000 are among the relevant datasets that will be made available to all participants.

Further information: climathon.climate-kic.org