For a range of sectors – railways, theme parks, hospitals, industrial sites, retail parks and many others – the topic of vegetation management can be a significant issue, whether the classic ‘leaves on the line’ in winter for railways, maintaining a pleasant customer experience, or enhancing the operational efficiencies of managing a site, for example.
However, these issues involving vegetation management can quickly be overwhelmed by other matters that take mindshare away from senior managers, whether operational issues, budget management issues, staffing issues, or any other of the many balls that managers juggle every day.
There are, however, times when a situation forces the issue of vegetation management to the top of the agenda, such as recently, when there was, tragically, a fatality at a park, when a tree with known issues collapsed.
It raises the question whether vegetation management is a nice-to-have or a need-to-have, and how best to manage it, while still keeping all the other balls in the air.
Vegetation is a key issue – among many others – in managing a location or estate, as it directly impacts the surrounding environment.
While it offers a pleasant experience for staff, visitors, and users, for managers, it presents an endless source of problems, including extensive leaf debris, earth bank collapse, fallen trees, protected habitats and animal life, overhanging vegetation – the list is seemingly endless.
Its significance really hinges on the site and its potential impact.
For rail service providers, its impact can be significant. A fallen tree, leaves on the line, or an embankment slip, for example, can all impact punctuality as well as passenger and staff safety. For others, such as theme or recreation parks, for example, vegetation issues can impact the safe operation of a site – as seen earlier – as well as the appearance of the location, which is key to the user experience. For hospitals, leaf litter can create safety issues, whereas tree roots can undermine buildings, pipework and other key components of infrastructure, causing damage that can cost millions to repair.
The various ways in which vegetation can impact a location will drive different responses and priorities, but the incident highlighted earlier demonstrates that it cannot be ignored.
The challenge for location managers is finding the most effective way of managing vegetation, while still addressing all their other priorities.
One challenge with vegetation management is the way location managers typically handle it.
Many vegetation inspection programmes use manual procedures, involving pen, paper, and a clipboard to capture results, complete reports, and then, in some cases, using internal mail or the postal service to file them with their central management team.
This can prove to be slow, cumbersome, inefficient, and sometimes ineffective if issues are not raised quickly enough to prevent incidents from happening.
There is a premium in terms of efficiency, safety, consistency, accuracy, and resource management for automating the vegetation inspection and management process, which can be significantly improved. This would allow location managers to pick and choose their priorities in a more informed way, based on need rather than urgency, as well as make better use of scarce budget, time, and resources.
In principle, enhancing vegetation management through automation is a straightforward process.
Digital capabilities can capture data at every stage of the inspection process – from planning, to site visit, to report submission and review – to provide an efficient, streamlined and effective inspection programme that optimises the use of all resources.
The devil is in the details, but the combination of mobile data connectivity, SaaS-based data analytics, and third-party data integration can provide automated vegetation management that aligns easily with the other elements of site operations.
The ideal vegetation management platform will provide inspection teams with detailed information about the site location, including the specific assets to be inspected, their precise location, and information from previous site visits. It would also contain information about the inspection site itself, for example, its proximity to railways, roads, power lines, local amenities, and any other factors that would dictate how the inspection team would approach and leave the location, quickly and safely, with minimal disruption to services.
All the information needed for a site visit would be readily available on a smart device, complete with specific issues to be checked and a record of previous visits, including text, imagery, audio, and any other essential details.
Lastly, there would be an automated report dispatch capability that allows the site visit report to be sent instantly to the reporting centre, ready for analysis, review, and ongoing monitoring, enabling the initiation of urgent remedial action on the same day if necessary.
Pole Star offers the Vegetation Asset Management System (VAMS), which provides comprehensive vegetation asset monitoring, review, and reporting. Leveraging our proven Enterprise Asset Management (EAMS) platforms, it offers comprehensive visibility and insight into the vegetation estate that forms part of a working environment.
It utilises handheld smart devices to capture information, reports, and documents that help inspection teams quickly locate the assets that need to be checked, ensuring a quick and safe process. The consolidated reports can then be sent instantly to managers, allowing them to plan remedial work to address the issues.
Learn more about how VAMS can help you achieve your objectives.