How the 'Internet of Nature' is helping urban nature thrive
Another nature/tech podcast episode
Hello and happy Monday to you!
I’ve got some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that nature in cities is struggling. The mortality rate of newly planted trees in cities in the UK and USA can be as high as 30%. Maybe you’ve experienced that sinking feeling of seeing a fresh new street tree wither in it’s first summer heat and have wondered ‘how do we keep getting this wrong’? It turns out that the local authority departments in charge of caring for our urban forests (all the trees in a city) are often woefully underfunded, understaffed and using outdated technology.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s a whole suite of emerging tech tools that are helping cities to care for urban nature in a smart way, boost survival rates and connect residents to the natural world. Nadina Galle calls this the ‘Internet of Nature’.
This week we’re continuing the theme of nature-supporting tech with a new podcast episode. (Last week’s episode was about an AI tool for Biodiversity Net Gain). This time I’m joined by Nadina Galle, an ecological engineer, podcaster, speaker and author of the fantastic book: The Nature of Our Cities.
In this episode, we explore:
The importance of urban nature for climate resilience, health and children.
The Internet of Nature, emerging technologies that are helping nature to thrive in cities.
How to improve the survival of urban trees.
Which cities are leading the way in a technological approach to managing urban nature.
The potential risks of becoming over-reliant on technology and how to avoid this.
Listen to the episode on the links below:
Nadina is a master storyteller and in the episode she shares some of her favourite stories from the book. It makes for great listening! I particularly enjoyed her story of climbing a 140ft (40m) fir tree in Oregon while interviewing an urban forester for the book. All in the name of research, I guess!
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