GPS surveying equipment to be used in Florida tree count

28/03/2011

Local officials in the Florida city of Naples have granted a request for GPS surveying equipment by its environmental department - in order to plot the locations of all of the city's trees.

The city's official arborist, Joe Boscaglia, said the equipment would help create a digital record that would be of benefit to the city in the long run as it would unequivocally determine whose responsibility certain trees are. He said the survey - which would measure in excess of 28,000 trees - could be carried out in conjunction with the city's street tree inventory update.

"Every five years we inventory the street trees. (People) remove or plant new ones in the city rights of way, and every year we go out and look at every tree on every street," he said. "But no one knows the GPS location. When that's entered into a system, it's 100 per cent accurate and there's no question of 'is this a city tree or not?'"

Naples has been part of the Tree City USA scheme for more than a decade, taking part in events and initiatives to encourage the planting and growing of trees across the USA.

During the inventory survey, community service department staff will take GPS coordinates of a tree, take a picture of it and upload it into a database. The information will then be layered into the city's geographic information system (GIS) maps, along with things like electric lines and sewer lines.