IDs help trees beat stress of urban life

By Edmund Tee

IN SINGAPORE, people are not the only ones to be given an identification number. Trees get one too. This number governs when a tree is inspected, given manure, pruned, and when the time comes, felled.

The National Parks Board (NParks) is using a $10-million computer system, Parks Integrated Management System or Prime, to ensure that every tree gets the care it needs to bloom, said Mr Tee Swee Ping, the board's principal arboriculture manager.

Checking on the growth of this tree is Mr Simon Leong from NParks. -- TERENCE TAN

The system was set up by National Computer Systems (NCS).

Mr Tee said: 'Urban trees here grow under a lot of stress, like pollution and poor quality soil, but we make the best of it and Prime helps us to manage this care.'

NParks is responsible for most trees. However, only those in easily-accessible areas, such as along streets, are maintained intensively, and so, require an ID number.

These account for about 400,000 of the one million trees that NParks looks after.

About four in five already have an ID.

'With the old way of doing things, we might have missed a few trees. Now, things are much more systematic,' said Mr Tee.

NParks decided to replace its manual, paper-based system with Prime in April 1996.

The old system had included a manual way of assigning trees an ID number, but it was a tedious process and covered only a minority of trees here.

The task of implementing Prime was given to the NCS, which completed the project in September last year at a cost of $10 million.

Aside from scheduling the maintenance of trees, Prime has become a central repository for park and greenery data.

It monitors work orders and inventory and helps NParks staff ensure that developers conform to greenery guidelines in their buildings, as well as manages public feedback and monitors park offences.

By computerising its tree management, the board has been able to quicken its work processes, reduce paperwork and errors, and track the performance of its staff and contract workers better.

Said Mr Tee: 'It's very user friendly, and has turned out to be extremely useful. With Prime, we're now able to do more with the same number of staff.'