Azavea's goal for treetective is to significantly lower the barriers to entry for small to mid-sized communities that want to establish a tree management program, but do not have the resources…

Azavea's goal for treetective is to significantly lower the barriers to entry for small to mid-sized communities that want to establish a tree management program, but do not have the resources available to perform the necessary fieldwork. Treetective enables users to leverage panoramic, ground-level imagery from google street view or similar sources to discern the presence of street trees in their communities and to derive the geographic coordinates and related tree data that can serve as a supplement or even a first-pass alternative to traditional field-based tree inventory methods. By locating and identifying trees through the lens of street-level imagery, even a single volunteer in a small community will be able to perform first-pass tree inventories whenever they have time, regardless of weather conditions or season, and without ever leaving their computers.trees play an important role in community well-being.healthy street trees slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases, intercept stormwater runoff, improve air quality, reduce noise levels and surface temperatures, create wildlife habitat, increase property values, and provide shade and windbreak that reduce business and household energy consumption. Treetective will provide baseline data on tree location, species or genus, diameter, and condition that can help maximize these benefits and enable the responsible agencies to plan future planting efforts more effectively.