German capital launches initiative to protect trees from summer heat

Residents of Germany's capital Berlin can do their bit to ensure the city's trees get enough water during the hot summer months as part of a new neighbourhood initiative. Once an account has been set up users can exchange information, enabling better coordination to take care of trees in the city.

Residents of Germany's capital Berlin can do their bit to ensure the city's trees get enough water during the hot summer months as part of a new neighbourhood initiative. The platform, dubbed "Giess den Kiez" - which can loosely be translated as "water the 'hood" - was launched by CityLAB, a foundation-backed body that looks at future concepts for Berlin's metropolitan area.

On an interactive map, https://www.giessdenkiez.de users can trace and track 625,000 trees in Berlin, including their type, age and water needs. Once an account has been set up users can exchange information, enabling better coordination to take care of trees in the city. "And each time a tree has been watered it can be entered into the system, with the correct amount of litres which shows other users that you've taken care of a tree," Malgorzata Magdon of the CityLAB initiative said.

The city of Berlin said that due to extreme weather, including storms and drought, there were 7,000 fewer trees at the end of 2019 compared with 2016.