process ecosystem services values #92
Description
AS A/AN:
user
WHEN I:
view an individual tree (and the urban forest as a whole)
I WANT TO:
see data that document what ecological benefits the tree (and whole forest - maybe on the landing page) offer
USDA Forest Service calculations make some ecosystem services values possible to estimate (by species and tree size) with iTree, a Windows software program:
- Pollution removal and human health impacts
- Carbon sequestration and storage
- Hydrology effects (avoided run-off, interception, transpiration)
- Building energy effects
- Tree bio-emissions
- Avian habitat suitability
- Ultraviolet radiation (UV) tree effects
The calculations are also documented in this PDF.
https://github.com/OpenTreeMap/otm-ecoservice offers another way to access these calculations. what do you think is the best way to go about it? if we use this repository, computing these values may require supplementing this csv, which only includes 23 species https://github.com/OpenTreeMap/otm-ecoservice/blob/develop/data/output__SoCalCSMA__species_codes.csv
let's add these values to the existing tree json files? in a future back end, we could also calculate ecological benefits based on a user's specific view, for example, all of the trees visible on the map or in a specific neighborhood (but that's not on option right now)