TY - JOUR

T1 - Tree Risk Evaluation Environment for Failure and Limb Loss (TREEFALL)

T2 - An Integrated Model for Quantifying the Risk of Tree Failure from Local to Regional Scales

AU - Gullick, David Stephen

AU - Blackburn, George Alan

AU - Whyatt, James Duncan

AU - Vopenka, Petr

AU - Murray, Jon

AU - Abbatt, Jon

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 75, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2019.02.001

PY - 2019/5/1

Y1 - 2019/5/1

N2 - Trees provide a multitude of ecosystem services but are vulnerable to failure and limb loss under high winds. This is a natural process which initiates regeneration in forests but tree failures close to critical infrastructure networks lead to disruption to services and financial loss. Hence, network operators tend to apply the precautionary principle and remove all trees close to such infrastructure which leads to unnecessary loss of healthy trees, therefore, a more focussed approach is required. We introduce TREEFALL: an objective and scalable framework to assess tree failure risk. It uses novel approaches to quantify tree geometry, downscale wind parameters, simulate shielding by neighbouring trees and calculate wind-induced failure risk based on meteorological data for previous storms, scenarios or forecasts. Consequently, TREEFALL can identify individual trees which pose the greatest threat to infrastructure networks which can be targeted for field survey and management interventions where necessary. The model has broad potential for application to many different types of infrastructure networks and across the forest and environmental sciences.

AB - Trees provide a multitude of ecosystem services but are vulnerable to failure and limb loss under high winds. This is a natural process which initiates regeneration in forests but tree failures close to critical infrastructure networks lead to disruption to services and financial loss. Hence, network operators tend to apply the precautionary principle and remove all trees close to such infrastructure which leads to unnecessary loss of healthy trees, therefore, a more focussed approach is required. We introduce TREEFALL: an objective and scalable framework to assess tree failure risk. It uses novel approaches to quantify tree geometry, downscale wind parameters, simulate shielding by neighbouring trees and calculate wind-induced failure risk based on meteorological data for previous storms, scenarios or forecasts. Consequently, TREEFALL can identify individual trees which pose the greatest threat to infrastructure networks which can be targeted for field survey and management interventions where necessary. The model has broad potential for application to many different types of infrastructure networks and across the forest and environmental sciences.

KW - Tree Failure

KW - Wind-Throw

KW - Model Framework

KW - Integrated Assessment

KW - Critical Infrastructure Support

KW - Decision Support

U2 - 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2019.02.001

DO - 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2019.02.001

M3 - Journal article

VL - 75

SP - 217

EP - 228

JO - Computers, Environment and Urban Systems

JF - Computers, Environment and Urban Systems

SN - 0198-9715

ER -