What is it about?

Urban trees are increasingly suffering from the consequences of climate change and the extreme weather of an urban environment, where they have limited access to soil. Due to their slow genetic adaptation as a reaction to environmental changes, they are particularly affected by increasingly frequent drought periods and temperature extremes. The consequential damage of the increasing drought periods of the ongoing climate change can already be seen in Berlin, as many city trees already have to be pruned or felled due to massive deadwood development.

With the "Quantified Trees" (QTrees) project, the consortium wants to counteract tree deaths in the long term by developing a prediction system supported by artificial intelligence (AI) that, using a wide range of databases, identifies urban trees that are acutely endangered by drought at an early stage. During the project, two platforms will be developed on the basis of an AI algorithm. The platforms will offer both public administration and civil society in Berlin the opportunity to care for and preserve the city trees and to react agilely to dynamic weather conditions in the future.

Who is participating?

In conjunction with the Birds on Mars, the Technologiestiftung Berlin (Technology Foundation of Berlin) has obtained funding for measures to adapt to climate change and is therefore part of the German Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change (DAS), funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

During the course of the project, the consortium will be primarily responsible for developing the models, exploring the data and developing the software. The SGA Berlin-Mitte (Roads and Parks Authority) will be available as a project partner for workshops and will always be available with relevant specialist expertise, promoting integration into internal processes and supporting networking with other stakeholders in the administration.


About the funding project

  • Intelligent irrigation prediction for city trees
  • Funding program: "Measures to adapt to climate change" from May 2nd, 2019 of the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS)
  • Funding focus 3: municipal lighthouse projects and the development of local and regional cooperation
  • Duration: October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2023 (24 calendar months)
  • Funding reference: 67DAS219A
  • Consortium partners: Technologiestiftung Berlin and Birds on Mars GmbH
  • Cooperation partner: SGA-Mitte Berlin (Roads and Parks Office Mitte Berlin)
  • Funding manager: Zukunft Umwelt Gesellschaft
  • Sponsor: Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz

Funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) based on a resolution of the German Bundestag..