PROJECT SUMMARY
Savannah, Georgia’s oldest city is filled with centuries old architecture and culture. The beautiful city also has a tree planting and maintenance culture that is as rich as its history. With 100plus year old trees and beautiful parks spread out about the city, the ‘tree system’ is a source of income for the city through tourism and other means. However, maintaining the extensive ecosystem which was made of, not just trees but the caretakers, city dwellers, municipalities and tourists, was quite challenging for the Savannah Tree Foundation.
We worked with Foundation to uncover reasons why upkeep was a challenge, and to recommend ways to make the entire system more sustainable for the city.
Designing a Self-Sustaining System for Savannah’s
Arboriculture Ecosystem
Arboriculture Ecosystem
The vast number of parks and trees around the city called for a huge investment of maintenance from city officials, non-profits, and from citizens as well. Rallying all relevant stakeholders to become participatory in the city’s arboriculture was a huge challenge.
We worked with the Savannah Tree Foundation (STF) to explore ways to get people to not just enjoy the city’s greenery, but to actively play a role in its upkeep.
METHODS
CONTEXTUAL INTERVIEWS & SHADOWING
IMMERSION
SYSTEM MODELING
OPPORTUNITY MAPPING
SCENARIO MAPPING
IMMERSION
SYSTEM MODELING
OPPORTUNITY MAPPING
SCENARIO MAPPING
TEAM
Azadeh Abrishami
Hamit Kazanci
‘Jerry’ Yue Jia
Susan Onigbinde
Hamit Kazanci
‘Jerry’ Yue Jia
Susan Onigbinde
In understanding the entire arboriculture system in the city, we (four design researchers) divvied up, and for a period of 4 weeks, engaged in extensive contextual research in major parts of the city. We shadowed and carried out in-depth interviews with senior stakeholders of the Foundation, the city’s maintenance staff, city officials, park visitors, tourists, neighborhood associations and school and public space stakeholders.
(From Left to Right) IMAGE 1: PARKS AND TREES AROUND THE CITY TEND TO BE USED AS A ‘THIRD PLACE’ FOR DWELLERS AND TOURISTS. IMAGE 2: The city’s greenery IS A contributor to the CITY’s thriving TOURist business. IMAGE 3: A park WORKER CLEANING FORSYTH PARK. MAINTENANCE CREW ALONE ARE UNABLE TO MANAGE THE VAST UPKEEP
Mapping out Savannah’s Tree Planting and Maintenance System
With all the data collected, we were able to determine and map out the entire ecosystem involving stakeholder’s key activities, highlighting those that were needed to successfully maintain the cycle.
We broke down the activities, elements and stakeholders we found into A-E-I-O-U framework to further detail out areas of opportunities.
USING THE A E I O U FRAMEWORK TO BREAK DOWN IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF THE CYCLE
Connecting the Dots in the Ecosystem
In further making sense of the data for actionable insights and to share with the stakeholders at the Savannah Tree Foundation, we translated the synthesized data into flow charts, showing the important activities and entities needed for a thriving arboriculture ecosystem, highlighting how their connections would achieve this.
FLOW MAP SHOWING ALL THE KEY PLAYERS IN SAVANNAH’S TREE ECOSYSTEM AND HOW THEY ALL INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER
Outlining Future Scenarios
Through a series of ideation phases, we narrowed down opportunities the Foundation could leverage in creating a more sustainable ecosystem in the long term.
SCENARIO MAP HIGHLIGHTING INSIGHTS, OPPORTUNITIES AND SCENARIOS CREATED FROM THEM
SCENARIO MAPPING
