Mapping the Urban Forest
May 9, 2007 Posted by Pete Ferne in : Bristol, Innovation, Environment, South West region , add a commentFollowing on from a recent Guardian article on the death of the urban tree I came across the San Francisco Urban Forest Mapping Project — a collaboration between the City of San Francisco’s Bureau of Urban Forestry and a local group called Friends of the Urban Forest.
In the past, San Francisco’s long-term urban forest planning was hindered because there was no way to share information, much less get the community involved. That’s all changed, thanks to a significant partnership effort between Friends of the Urban Forest, the City and County of San Francisco, and Autodesk. By working together and leveraging new technology – MapGuide Open Source – the project team has created an Urban Forest Map, which digitally pinpoints the location of each tree, maintains tree data in a consistent database, and offers web access to the tree data – key for maintenance and planting efforts. The community can get involved by posting photos and stories about their own trees that they plant and map online. With the launch of this collaborative effort and the support of the Mayor’s Office, a critical step has been taken to move San Francisco’s urban greening efforts forward.
It would be great to see something similar for Bristol and the Forest of Avon.
Geeks, Eco Freaks and those who object to Simple Steroetypes
January 5, 2007 Posted by Stephen Hilton in : Digital Challenge, Events, Environment , 2 comments
Wikipedia doesn’t appear to define an “eco freak” but down the ages, a “geek” has been seen as “1:a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake 2: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked 3: an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity.”
It was mostly the latter (thankfully) who turned up to last night’s sustainable digital café event at Watershed. They were joined by a good sprinkling of eco-conscious folk and many others who preferred not to be defined in such a simplistic way.
Vala Ragnarsdottir from University of Bristol holds regular sustainable café events. Last night, Penny Gane added a specific Connecting Bristol focus, challenging the 60+ attendees to identify how Bristol’s ‘sustainable’ and ‘digital’ comunities can work together to ensure the future of the city and the planet.
In true café style, small groups worked together to record their thoughts before movimg on to another table and another conversation. The process generated a huge amount of ideas and thinking, which is being written up now and will be posted here.
I was really pleased to be able to attend, contribute but most of all listen. Sustainability and concern for the planet is a strong theme within the Connecting Bristol bid. Last night’s discussions were timely and will help to hone thinking before the final submission is made.
Thanks to Vala, Penny and all who took part.
Knowle West Media Centre meets Lesley Belgium
November 24, 2006 Posted by Roz in : Digital Challenge, Community Media, e-society, Learning, Environment , add a commentLesley Belgium
30 October 2006
I met with Lesley Belgium. Lesley told me that her children help her if something goes wrong with the computer, or if she has any issues with using it, such as accessing different things on line. She said that she really relies on her children, especially her daughter, to access the internet and do the things she wants to do with it.
One of the main ways Lesley uses the internet is to have contact with her family in Australia. She said that she found such exchange really beneficial, because of the speed with which she can communicate with her family compared to how long it used to take for a letter to reach them. However, she told me that one issues for her is that she doesn’t always check her email regularly, and so sometimes when people expect an immediate response to email, they don’t get it from her. We talked about how people have different uses of things like email and consequently have different expectations of each other’s uses.
Lesley said that she also finds shopping on line very useful, especially when trying to buy specialist items, such as craft shop things and materials for making jewellery. She told me that it’s brilliant to be able to go on line and just order such things without having to make a special journey or traipse around town all day.
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Is it good for the planet?
November 20, 2006 Posted by Penny in : Digital Challenge, Environment , 2 commentsI’m working on the sustainable development impact of the bid and strengthening the environmental aspects. I have been meeting with/talking to a number of people already involved with the digital challenge and people tackling the challenge of safeguarding the planet through sustainable development. I hope to meet with and hear from many more over the next few weeks.
We are currently looking at a digital sustainable development toolkit from SustainIT which could be useful to people developing local projects; it provides both a checklist and an assessment tool. We may then use it to back up our impact assessment of the bid. (more…)
