How to Use i-Tree Landscape

Welcome!

i-Tree Landscape allows you to explore tree canopy, land cover, and basic demographic information in a location of your choosing. With the information provided by i-Tree Landscape, you will learn about the benefits of trees in your selected location, see how planting trees will increase the benefits provided, and map the areas where you decide to prioritize your tree planting efforts.

Interested in viewing this How-To text while you work on your Landscape project? Click on the Menu drop-down list, in the navigation bar, at the top of the page, select Help, then right-click the How to Use option and click Open link in new window. This will open the How-To text in a separate window so you can conveniently view both webpages at once.


Important Features and Tools

As you work through your i-Tree Landscape project, you will see that there are five important features that are available on every page, except Generate Results.

The search bar and control panel features may be collapsed or expanded at any time to customize your view of the map display.


Project Steps

Follow the five, simple steps below to successfully create a project in i-Tree Landscape. The current stage of a project is represented by the progress bar shown below the map. (To move between steps, click the Next or Back buttons or click on the desired step in the progress bar.)

  1. Find Locations
  2. Explore Location Data
  3. See Tree Benefits
  4. Prioritize Tree Planting
  5. Generate Results

1. Find Locations

On the "Find Locations" page, you will find an abbreviated version of this How-To text.

In this stage of your project, you will be identifying the geographic region(s) that you would like to analyze.

To start, you can quickly zoom to an area of interest by entering a location, such as a city or street address, in the search bar.

Another important feature is the control panel located along the right side of the map which lists all of the available datasets: Map Layers, Canopy & Land Layers, and Base Maps. Explore the datasets and view them in the map display by turning layers on and off in the control panel.

With your area of interest visible in the map display, you can select the geographic region(s) that you would like to include in your project. First, designate the type of region that you would like to select by choosing from the "Choose a geograhy to work with" drop-down list in the control panel. Then, select a region of interest or multiple regions by using the control panel's Select tool and clicking on the map.

You can continue through a project by clicking the Next button or by clicking the desired step in the progress bar. However, note that you do not have to move through the project stages in order. Experienced users can safely skip some of the steps and go directly to the stages that they are most interested in.

Limitations

A selection of large areas or a large quantity of selections may take several minutes to process. Sorry for any inconvenience, but processing will halt if it exceeds 30 minutes.

If you receive a timeout error, please try reloading the page once or twice. As some calculations become cached, it may be able to finish the rest. If the problem continues, unfortunately, the only way forward is to go to the homepage and use the Project -> Start Over button in the navigation bar. Then continue your work by spliting it into smaller sub-projects.

It is recommended that only a few selections are made while exploring. Once the final areas are identified, the maximum the system can usually support is: a handful of states, a few hundred counties, or less than a thousand block groups. These maximums have been drastically lowered as more data has been added to the system, but performance improvements are being made. Your computer and internet connection may only be able to handle a smaller number than the server's maximum.

Data Warning

i-Tree Landscape can be a very data intensive application. It is not recommended for use on metered plans that charge based on the amount loaded.

2. Explore Location Data

In this stage of your project, you can view the data associated with the geographic region(s) that you have selected. Data are displayed below the map and can be viewed in English or Metric units and in table or chart format. You can also choose to color code the data among your geographies by total values or by percentages.

It is never too late to change the regions that you have selected for your analysis! Make changes to your selection in any stage you want – just remember to click the Process button in the control panel so the data for your new selection will be presented below the map.

To move between steps, click the Next or Back buttons or click on the desired step in the progress bar.

3. See Tree Benefits

In this stage of your project, you can view the tree benefits associated with the geographic region(s) that you have selected. Data are displayed below the map and can be viewed in English or Metric units and in table or chart format.

It is never too late to change the regions that you have selected for your analysis! Make changes to your selection in any stage you want – just remember to click the Process button in the control panel so the data for your new selection will be presented below the map.

To move between steps, click the Next or Back buttons or click on the desired step in the progress bar.

4. Prioritize Tree Planting

In forest management planning, an important thing to consider is where to target tree planting to promote sustainable tree benefits in the areas where they are most valuable. In this stage of your project, you can try out an easy method for prioritizing your selected regions for tree planting.

The priority planting index requires multiple regions. If your selection group does not contain at least two regions, this stage will not be operable.

For custom scenarios, choose from multiple criteria, including various land cover, demographic, risk, and tree benefit data, to create a priority index. Weight each selected criterion between 1 and 100 so that the sum of all selected criteria equals 100. You can use the Equalize button to weight your criteria equally or enter weights manually by using the slider bar or by typing a number in the space provided.

Each criterion that is included in your analysis is standardized on a scale of 0 to 1, with a score of 1 assigned to the selected region with the highest priority. In each selected region, the individual criteria scores are combined based on their importance (i.e., weight). Overall priority planting index (PPI) values are between 0 and 100.

Try multiple priority planting custon and/or common scenarios! Each time you make changes to your priority planting index, be sure click the Update Map Display button to see your new results in the map. Make your priority planting results transparent on the map display or choose a different color scheme by using the "Planting Prioritization" settings in the control panel. Save the planting priority scenarios that you are interested in so they can be included in your results in step 5.

It is never too late to change the regions that you have selected for your analysis! Make changes to your selection in any stage you want – just remember to click the Process button in the control panel so the data for your new selection will be presented below the map.

To move between steps, click the Next or Back buttons or click on the desired step in the progress bar.

5. Generate Results

In this stage of your project, you can create, view, and export reports with the results that you are most interested in. Landscape provides several standard reports or you can choose to create your own custom reports.

When you have made all of your selections, click the Build Report button to view and choose the layout of your results. Use your Internet browser's print function to print the results that are displayed here. (Note: The content that you see in the dashed border is what will be printed from this page.)

To move back to a different step, click the Back button or click on the desired step in the progress bar.


Helpful Hints

The tips summarized here are also included throughout the help text, in italics.


References

i-Tree Landscape offers users a wide variety of data (including calculated values) and map layers. For more information about Landscape's methods and metadata, visit our References page or go to www.itreetools.org under Resources > Archives > i-Tree Landscape Resources. To access our References page, click on the Menu drop-down list at the top of Landscape window, select Help, and then click the References option.