Tree Benefits

Owned by Alexander Kinzer
Last updated: Oct 09, 2024
2 min read

Overview

The i-Tree Eco Tree Benefits panel shows a breakdown of ecological and economical benefits provided by the inventoried trees in your TreeKeeper system. The benefits are calculated for each tree and the total numbers are compiled and displayed in the i-Tree Eco Tree Benefits panel.

Viewing Benefits

To open the Benefits panel, click the button in the sidebar of TreeKeeper. This panel is dynamic based on your map selection, meaning its values will update to reflect the benefit data for all of the sites that are selected on the map.

Benefits can be viewed for different timeframes: 20 years (default), 15 years, 10 years, 5 years, 4 years, 3 years, 2 years, and 1 year.

BenefitsTab.png

How are benefits calculated?

The benefit values are calculated for each site using a few key pieces of required data in TreeKeeper:

  • Species (required)

    • Benefits are calculated based on the i-Tree Species Code associated with each tree species. Admins can edit i-Tree Eco Species assignments via the Administration Center’s Species Information Management tool. Users with access to the Report Builder can reference these assignments within the “Species List Assignments” system report.

    • Benefits are calculated only for species having a viable i-Tree Code assigned (Stumps, Vacant Sites, etc. are omitted).

  • DBH (required)

  • Condition (required)

  • Height (optional, will be included if attribute exists in TreeKeeper)

  • Crown Light Exposure (optional, will be included if attribute exists in TreeKeeper)

  • Crown Height (optional, will be included if attribute exists in TreeKeeper)

  • Crown Width (optional, will be included if attribute exists in TreeKeeper)

It may sound odd, but even a dying or dead tree can still provide benefits in the form of cooling shade, reducing topsoil erosion, and stormwater runoff!

If you would like to get further information regarding i-Tree Eco, please visit our i-Tree partners' website at http://itreetools.org/tools/i-tree-eco . More information concerning i-Tree Engine can be found at http://api.itreetools.org.

Individual Benefits

Benefits for an individual site can be viewed in the Benefits tab of the site information window.

See here for more information on viewing an individual site’s benefits: Site Benefits