Brief description of the organization
Tree Trust is an Ontario-based environmental non-profit focused on protecting mature “legacy” trees through arborist care, public education, and community fundraising. Started through the Elora Environment Centre in 2019, it helps local chapters identify significant older trees, raise money for their care, and preserve tree canopy across communities. Its core idea is simple: planting new trees matters, but protecting big, old trees is also critical because they store carbon, support biodiversity, manage stormwater, and provide benefits young trees cannot yet match.
Problem area
The project will begin with a needs assessment to determine what kind of canopy equity tool would be most useful to Tree Trust, its partners, potential funders, and the communities it serves.
The project should remain open to the strongest avenue students uncover. That may include looking at what other countries, municipalities, and leading researchers are doing, then packaging the best current thinking on canopy equity and mature tree care into something useful for Tree Trust and its arborists.
The central problem students will explore is how Tree Trust can use data to identify where mature tree care, tree planting, and canopy investment are needed most. Tree canopy is not evenly distributed across communities. Areas with lower canopy coverage often overlap with higher heat exposure, higher density, lower income, and other indicators of vulnerability.
Students will explore how Tree Trust could use mapping and data to identify priority areas, support stronger site selection, and position itself as a data-informed leader in equitable urban forest protection and care.
Main objectives
- Conduct a needs assessment with Tree Trust to determine the most valuable use cases for a canopy equity mapping tool.
- Identify relevant public datasets related to canopy cover, heat islands, income, population density, land use, vulnerable populations, and municipal boundaries.
- Build a prototype interactive map or dashboard that highlights areas with low canopy and high community need.
- Develop a scoring or prioritization framework to help Tree Trust assess where its work could have the greatest impact.
- Explore how this tool could support funding applications, municipal partnerships, public storytelling, and program planning.
- Provide Tree Trust with a practical, usable prototype and recommendations for future development.
Scope of work
- Interview Tree Trust staff, board members, and potential users to determine what decisions the tool should support, such as site selection, municipal engagement, funding proposals, or public education.
- Review existing canopy equity, heat vulnerability, urban greening, and environmental justice mapping tools from Canada and other jurisdictions.
- Identify and assess public datasets that could be layered into the tool, including canopy cover, urban heat, income, density, age, land use, impervious surface, public land, and municipal boundaries.
- Develop a simple prioritization framework that scores or ranks areas based on canopy gaps and equity indicators.
- Build an interactive map, dashboard, or visual tool that Tree Trust can use to identify priority areas and communicate need.
- Test the prototype with Tree Trust users and refine it based on feedback.
- Provide a working prototype, methodology note, final presentation, and recommendations for how Tree Trust could maintain, expand, or fund the tool in the future.
Deliverables
- Report
- Website
- Presentation
- Resources
- Survey tools
- New protocols/processes
Team meeting frequency
Monthly
Skills and training required
- GIS and spatial analysis
- Data collection and data cleaning
- Research and environmental scan skills
- Equity-informed analysis
- User research and needs assessment
- Dashboard or prototype development
- Data visualization
- Presentation and plain-language communication skills
Resources required
- Tree Trust staff, board members, and advisors
- Public GIS and open data sources
- Municipal canopy, heat, land use, and demographic datasets
- Statistics Canada data
- GIS software such as ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, or similar tools
- Dashboard or mapping platforms such as ArcGIS Online, Tableau, Power BI, Mapbox, or similar tools
- University library resources
- Tree Trust branding or communications guidance for the final prototype and presentation
NDA or a commercialization agreement for this project?
Yes