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OneMap; helping to scope win-wins for people and ‘urban nature’ in our suburbs

Tract and Deakin University’s Live+Smart Lab are funding Georgina de Beaujeu’s PhD, which is considering how to create co-benefits for urban nature and people in our suburbs.

Georgina has been using OneMap to help – lets find out how!

The first step was to develop a site analysis process to determine if, and where, co-benefits and trade-offs might present in a place, and then applying this process to a local government area.

A tool for non GIS experts to consider the spatial needs of people in a place

Georgina wanted to analyse the area from the perspective of people, then urban nature, then bring those views together to understand where needs did and didn’t align. This meant determining available datasets that shed light on human and ecological health and wellbeing in a place, as well as how to analyse them – but Georgina is not a GIS expert. OneMap bridged this gap.

Easily considering data from both perspectives
Urban Nature

A diversity of data at your fingertips

OneMap enabled Georgina to look at a range of factors that matter for people in a place, from SEIFA disadvantage to population density and forecasts. For urban nature, OneMap presented canopy tree heights and ground cover, as well as building footprints and heights.

Tree heights and canopy cover data
TreeCanopy

Readily move between scales

To meaningfully consider connectivity for wildlife it’s important to start at a regional scale and zoom in. Also, what needs to be measured changes at different scales, for example SEIFA scores at a suburb level and continuous canopy cover at street level.  OneMap enabled Georgina to easily move between regional, city and local scales to consider different factors that impact on the health and well being of urban nature and people in a place.

Moving between scales
Multiple Scales

Analyse a diversity of data through heat maps and categories

The heat map function, available on a range of datasets, from proximity to open space, transport, major shopping centres to schools, enabled Georgina to test how far people were from the amenities they need, as well as where a network of existing open space existed that could be retrofitted with additional habitat features. Some datasets, such as building heights, can be filtered. Georgina used this tool to identify building heights over 10 metres, which can be a barrier to movement for select wildlife.

Layering up OneMap maps to get a cumulative view
Layering up data

Quickly test ideas and benchmarks using tools

OneMap tools, such as measures, filters, and buffers, helped Georgina explore strategies, for example buffering creek lines to see whether the current conservation zoning meets good practice riparian benchmarks and understand how far different taxa groups, such as woodland birds or water-based insects, could travel into the suburb given their dispersal ranges if barriers, such as roads and buildings, were moderated.

Heat map of open space that can be changed with various distances
OpenSpace Heatmap

Easily layer up data in and out of OneMap to get a cumulative view

By saving a project view and exporting successive maps Georgina was able to overlay data in Adobe Photoshop to identify potential ‘win-win’ locations for people and urban nature. OneMap also enables property boundaries and up to two extra data sets to be brought together in one place, such as overlaying Population Density and Bushfire Zones to identify which Areas have the most people at risk of bushfires.

Buffering the creek zone by various distances, alongside the implications of zoning
Urban Nature - Buffering

Continue Reading about this work over on Tract Consultants' website

We are proud to be supporting this important research.
Read More about this work from Georgina below:
https://tract.com.au/co-benefits-for-urban-nature-and-people-but-how/