SustaiNat

Project Description

The vision for this weekend was to create a solution that builds on the sense of community to make our open public spaces safe and engaging whilst contributing to a more sustainable communities by leveraging digital technology to bring the idea of a circular economy to life.

The purpose of SustanNat is to engage the entire local community in contributing towards a sustainable future using digital technology. This will be accomplished by collaboration between individuals, local businesses and local governments encouraging the use of public and shared spaces through the sponsoring of local native trees

There is an opportunity for this solution to be used for Local Government Areas, local businesses and individuals to minimise and offset their carbon footprint though incentive programs such as a potential reduction in rates.

Problem Statement

We know that:

Local Government Areas are seeking solutions to better use and activate green public spaces in their communities.
Local Government Areas seek to ensure that their public spaces are safe, welcoming and engaging whilst creating educational, social and cultural opportunities to each resident.
Increasing population and and technology, along with thousands of normal everyday routine activities produce carbon emissions. These emissions build up in the atmosphere which contribute to global warming and speed up climate change
A sense of ownership brings with it care, shared responsibility and a need to to be involved.

But we also know that:

A good proportion of residents do not engage in community activities
Busy work lifestyles limit the time and energy available to individuals to utilise public shared places for leisure or social events
A large proportion of residents do not feel a sense of "connectedness" with their community.

Therefore:

SustaiNat will allow individuals and businesses to sponsor a native tree within their community. Sponsoring a local tree will encourage individuals or business to feel “connected” to their community. They will be able to upload pictures of "their" tree to their profile, they may even wish to visit their tree, sit amongst the foliage with their families and even perhaps even talk with or even "hug" their tree. They will be able to watch it grow and change through the seasons. Residents and businesses also have the ability to GIFT a tree to others. Building on the sense of community, the use of SustainiNat by LGA's has the potential to supply native fruit to socio-economic disadvantaged groups. There will also be an ability to offset their carbon emissions or receive other incentives from their local government authorities.

SOLUTION - SustainNat

Is a Community Native Tree Sponsorship and Carbon Offset solution that allows for

Residents and local businesses to collaborate with local area councils in greening public and shared spaces through the sponsoring of local native trees.
Residents and family through Tree Sponsorship will "want to" engage more by visiting their tree and having a sense of responsibility for their community.
The greening of community open and public shared spaces.
Minimising or carbon offsetting of carbon footprints within communities.
Encourages residents back into the community shared and open spaces
Provides incentives which can also assist those during difficult financial times
Educates residents and communities of their native plants indigenous to their areas
Provides a food/healing source for residents including socio-economical disadvantaged groups

Data Story

Local residents and LGAs register to participate in the Tree Sponsorship Scheme. SustaiNat is a front end solution for residents to access the scheme. On registration residents set up a profile and using settings elect which incentive scheme they wish to participate in. The incentives available to each resident depends upon the LGA offerings. Once residents have set up a profile they can search for a tree within their LGA and if available can sponsor the tree at an annual cost (eg $20). LGAs will pay upfront cost annually to participate in the program. A portion of the residents sponsor proceeds will be redirected back to the LGA. Each LGA will elect resident incentives to be utilised within the LGA i.e. rates subsidy, pet registration subsidy etc.
Residents may also gift a tree sponsorship for another person in any LGA. The resident receiving the gift will receive an email inviting them to SustaiNat to register to take advantage of the incentive scheme available in their LGA.
Using organisations OAuth allows for the organisations authorised staff to log into the Data Portal ensuring confidentiality and privacy complying with organisations cyber security requirements to access the databases to add new trees, retire old trees and update existing tree information. Organisations can also access reports on residents incentives and credits and update residents carbon credits account when resident requests incentive to be "cashed in".
LGAs will place a geo marker on native trees which when they are added to Native Tree Dataset and imported into SustaiNat and through API will link to Geolocation and Directions for individual tree location. Geo markers will be visible to walkers in the open shared spaces which will take them to SustainNat and provide information about the tree and its sponsorship status ie available for sponsorship, not available for sponsorship.
We use Australian Local Government Association LGA ID (ALGA - provides ID for all LGAs) as the unique identifier of Local Government Areas across Australia.
Data sets we used and potentially could be used within SustaiNat under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license were:

Wildlife Species List Datahub (moretonbay.qld.gov.au)

This is an excel list maintained by Moreton Bay LGA which lists all native plants to the area. Most LGAs would have a similar database listing their native plants indigenous to their areas. These lists could be exported from the LGA and imported to SustaiNat automatically when modifications are made to the original database. This data would provide SustaiNat with the LGA specific data around which trees are native to each area.

Great public spaces | NSW Dept of Planning, Industry and Environment

NSW Spatial Services - NSW Administrative Boundaries Theme - Local Government Area https://portal.spatial.nsw.gov.au/portal/home/item.html?id=3e1edb6861524b5490c74db81e42433a

NSW Local Government Area dataset depicts polygons of gazetted boundaries defining Local Government Area. All states and territories will have a similar dataset

Suburbs within a Local Government Area (LGA) - Excel Spreadsheet https://portal.spatial.nsw.gov.au/portal/home/item.html?id=3612e383d4db434896b4b3d1e532da97

This dataset shows list of suburbs/localities and the LGA's they fall within. All states and territories will have a similar dataset

Local Government Directory https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/public/local-government-directory/

Provides information on the following local government entities, including general contact information, address details, Councilors and General Managers etc. All states and territories will have a similar dataset

The national map with the boundaries for all local government areas https://www.nationalmap.gov.au/#share=s-aJS6sDWNcRYfERcqeod1fxAoeEP

All states and territories will have a similar dataset

Local Government Area Map (ecq.qld.gov.au) https://results.ecq.qld.gov.au/local_area_maps/

All states and territories will have a similar dataset

App Storyboard

From a residents or local business perspective

From an LGA perspective

About Team

Team SisterNurse is made up of two nurses who are also sisters. Nurses with an interest in data, hackathons and learning. Set out just to chill and have fun this event and go at our own pace.

Annette - Master

Colleen - Apprentice

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