The Challenge & The Reference Case
Municipalities of all sizes bear the responsibility for maintaining green spaces, but doing so efficiently at scale is a complex challenge. The digital mapping of every tree—including species, age, and condition—is crucial for public safety to prevent hazards like branch failures.
To solve this, the Municipality of Brasschaat (Belgium) partnered with Dipla to transition their entire green asset management from fragmented lists into a centralized digital system.
Tasked with managing a continuous digital inventory of approximately 35,000 city trees, Brasschaat provides a perfectly scalable reference case for modern, data-driven urban forestry.
Brasschaat, Belgium
A live digital inventory of ~35,000 city trees.
Visualizing the Urban Canopy & Inventory
For Brasschaat, a solid management plan begins with a detailed and flexible mapping process to catalog their 35,000 assets:
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MyObs App for Fast Inventory
Inventories are easily conducted using the MyObs app. It provides a fast approach, highly accessible and designed for use even by untrained, non-technical users in the field.
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Visual Tree Assessment (VTA)
Dipla features standard VTA templates for tree controls that are fully customizable. Irrelevant properties can be removed, and specific local parameters are easily added.
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Contextual Intelligence
To assess a tree's context remotely, municipal administrators consult Google Street View directly within Dipla. The platform also supports custom 360-degree photo uploads via a built-in viewer.
Strategic Asset Allocation: The Hybrid Model
Once the urban canopy is mapped, how is it maintained? To efficiently manage their vast inventory, Brasschaat utilizes a smart, hybrid strategy within the Dipla platform.
50% Proactive Management
Roughly half of the municipality's trees operate on a fixed, structural maintenance schedule. Periodic pruning and safety checks are linked to management trajectories in Dipla, automatically recurring in the multi-year planning.
50% Reactive Management
The remaining half is fully inventoried but receives active maintenance only on an ad-hoc basis when needed. Driven by reports from city services or citizens (e.g., post-storm damage), an immediate task is generated and dispatched directly to field teams.
Mobile Execution & The Continuous Digital Dossier
With the inventory established and the hybrid plans set, daily execution for Brasschaat's teams runs seamlessly:
Task Dispatch: Teams receive specific tasks clearly via the MyDipla mobile app.
Field Execution: Workers log completions on-site with photos and remarks.
Single Source of Truth: Results in a continuously updated, accurate digital dossier per tree.
Conclusion: A Future-Proof Urban Canopy
By transitioning to a centralized digital platform, municipalities can combine daily operational efficiency with a strategic view on urban livability and sustainability. The Brasschaat reference case demonstrates that starting with a highly accessible inventory, followed by a smart hybrid maintenance model, ensures a continuously updated, accurate digital dossier per tree. Ultimately, this empowers local governments to maintain safe, high-quality green spaces, respond swiftly to citizen reports, and provide conclusive reporting to stakeholders and higher authorities.