Global Forest Watch - The Power of Open Source Technology is Truly Exceptional

Todays, (to-do list) priority was … Matt – learn about - Global Forest Watch. https://www.globalforestwatch.org/

I started with a park that I will be doing some community engagement work with and wanted to get an idea of the area that the community group has revegetated. There are many tools out there to conduct this type of analysis but most of them are cumbersome to understand how to use them effectively.

I found that the Global Forest Watch site allowed for fast, user friendly analysis of Urban Forests. I kept going and ended up looking at Australian Capital cities, as it was fascinating.

Amazingly, I developed an understanding of the platform fast. This is due to the open source nature of the site. This platform is awesome, and due to its fundamental aspect of being Open Source it allowed me to make rapid analysis of the Urban Forest at unprecedented speed. It only took a couple of hrs, to look all around the country. I don’t have the city boundaries 100% correct but it did give me an idea of what has occurred in the Urban Forest over a 15 year period. There are allot of functions on the site and does require further analysis to get an overall accurate picture of each urbanized area, but as you can see it provides a great, quick snapshot.

Understanding how well we are going with Urban Forest development is essential, as trees take decades to grow and provide the benefits we as an industry promote. If the Urban Forest industry promotes benefits of the investment it must be validated by scientific principles.

Global Forest Watch allows any individual on the planet with internet access to investigate global forest’s with high level robust scientific measures.

My caveat, is that the below analysis was conducted over a 2 hour period. Yes, a very short time-frame with interesting data outcomes.

Yes, I have not defined the areas of city boundaries exactly. I don’t mind in this case, as I hope others in the industry will pick up the tool and help identify the figures in more accurate means.

We need to measure how well we are going with Urban Forest densification through scientific measurables, and encourage the wider community to develop greater scientific understanding. Platforms like Global Forest Watch that are easy to use will improve scientific literacy of the general public.

Science Is for all of Humanity.

The era of Ivory Tower Science is coming to an end. Open Source Science is the future, and will inherently improve and stimulate science in general.

I urge anyone in the green industry to investigate this open source tool, I’m sure you will enjoy yourself.

West gate Park - Melbourne

Royal Park - Melbourne

City of Moreland

Hobart - Tasmania

Melbourne - Victoria

Canberra - ACT

Sydney - New South Wales

Brisbane - Queensland

Perth - Western Australia

Adelaide - South Australia