Natural Assets: Advancing a 5G Framework for Natural Asset Management

Natural Assets

Think of the natural environment you live in – parks provide a space to socialize and exercise. Trees provide shade and cooling in the summer. There are also effects you may not be conscious of in your day-to-day routine – for instance the air purification provided by trees. Parks and trees are all included under the umbrella of natural assets and provide a suite of services related to climate change mitigation, human health and well-being, and biodiversity. We can see the importance of green spaces, included under the umbrella of natural assets, for mental and physical wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, governments across Canada struggle to effectively manage their natural assets with traditional technologies and tools. This has been challenging due to the labor-intensive and complex nature of natural asset monitoring.

Problem Statement

Land managers, in particular municipal governments, face significant struggles effectively managing natural assets with current tools and processes. Currently, natural asset management requires a qualified person to go into the field to monitor natural assets. This labor and time intensity makes it too expensive and infeasible to have proper natural asset management.

This is where our project comes in. With 5G technology, there is a potential to create a new, low-cost system for monitoring, and hence better managing and utilizing the services of natural assets. We are working with a team from Forest Resources Management and Electrical and Computer Engineering to deploy a low-cost tree monitoring sensor network on campus.

The natural assets at UBC Vancouver campus make it an ideal location for this project. This includes Pacific Spirit Park, but also trees along Main Mall and grassy areas scattered around campus.

Project Approach

This project looks at integrating natural assets within high-tech environments, like smart cities, to create resilient ecosystems and human developments. To create a framework to better manage and utilize natural assets, this project uses low-latency sensors and remote sensing technology to monitor natural assets and human interactions.