Civic hacknight #239 VIRTUAL Emerging Digital and Urban Technologies in Forestry

• Topic:

The management of urban natural capital is often challenging. In many cities, practitioners are struggling to make informed and strategic decisions about urban forests and green infrastructure in the face of constrained budgets, limited capacity and resources, conflicting priorities, and, importantly, environmental change. To this end, data-driven decision making and planning will be increasingly recognized a crucial component of urban forest management. We discuss how emerging digital and urban technologies can help urban foresters make better decisions about the trees under their care in the face of environmental change. We also discuss opportunities for open and big data to understand and assess citizen requests about urban trees, and hypothesize about the growing role of technology in supporting citizen science and promoting tree stewardship.

Come help us chip away at civic problems by combining technology with the power of our community. We've got everything you need for a perfect Tuesday night: a presentation to learn from and some projects to work on.

• Presenter Biography:

Sophie Nitoslawski is a PhD student in Forestry at the University of British Columbia, focusing on the intersection of smart city planning and urban forest management. She is excited by the potential for technology to enhance green benefits and drive citizen engagement in green space planning.

James Steenberg is an environmental scientist focusing on the ecology and sustainable management of both commercially managed forests and urban forests. He is the forest carbon and climate change analyst with the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry and is an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University's School for Resource and Environmental Studies. He received his PhD from Ryerson University.

• Social Media Cheat Codes:

@SophieNito
@JamesSteenberg

@CivicTechTO #civictech
https://link.civictech.ca/tweet

• Venue Sponsor:

Join us this week from the comfort of your own home, or wherever you are practicing social isolation, for a virtual civic tech hacknight!

• Check-in details:

Join us via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85847811289?pwd=THhwOEQvTlh5R3QvbWxha25xTWdGUT09
Webcams and mics optional, but encouraged!

Check in with us on the Civic Tech Toronto Slack: https://link.civictech.ca/chat

• Accessibility:

We're exploring ways to make our online hacknights more accessible, but at the moment we only provide video of the presentation slides and audio.

• About Us:

Our weekly civic tech hacknights bring together designers, coders, urban planners, government staff, mappers, policy-makers, students, communications strategists, and all other Torontonians who share an interest in making Toronto more responsive, prosperous, sustainable and equitable, through design, tech, and data. (Coders are welcome, but you don’t have to be a coder to contribute!) Come and be part of it!

• Agenda:

6:45-7: Civic Tech 101
7-7:10: Welcome and Introductions
7:10-7:40: Presentation and Q&A/discussion
7:40-9: Breakout groups (go make something!)

For more info, visit http://civictech.ca
Here's our Code of Conduct: http://civictech.ca/about-us

Hope to see you Tuesday!