We use some essential cookies to make this website work.
We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use forestresearch.gov.uk, remember your settings and improve our services.
We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.
Preparing to search
Forest Research have worked with Wirral Council to undertake a study of the region’s tree population using i-Tree Eco.
The study area covers the whole of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, covering an area of 15,700 hectares. 250 sample plots were distributed within a regular grid across the study area to ensure the sample was representative of the different land uses and characteristics present in Wirral. Details of ground cover, land use, shrubs, and trees were recorded in each plot. The i-Tree Eco software was used to extrapolate the field data to estimate the structure and composition of the whole tree population, and the ecosystem services the trees provide.
This study is the first i-Tree Eco project to include measures of social and cultural values of trees. The Urban Forest and Society and Environment research groups worked together to design a data collection methodology that uses data commonly collected during an i-Tree survey, and additional data variables to represent social and cultural values. These include:
As well as the tree survey, this project included an online questionnaire which was shared with people living in Wirral. The questionnaire asked people about:
To capture information about the distribution of trees and the benefits they provide in different socio-economic regions in the study area, the sample was stratified according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). This is a metric which is widely used to represent the relative deprivation of small areas. IMD is a single number combining seven different measures of deprivation:
The study area was divided into five levels of IMD (quintiles), with level 1 being the most deprived and level 5 being the least deprived. An appropriate number of plots was assigned to each quintile to ensure that enough data were collected to enable comparison of the tree population between quintiles.
The aims of this project are:
Surveying was completed during summer 2022. Data analysis has been completed. Summary and technical reports are now being drafted and will be available to download from this page.
Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to store information about how you use the dwi.gov.uk website, such as the pages you visit.
Find out more about cookies on forestresearch.gov.uk
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form. They always need to be on.
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about: how you got to the site the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page what you click on while you're visiting the site
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.