Nature Positive Cities Efforts to Advance the Transition San Francisco 2025

2 Assessment of enabling environmentOverview Nature data within San Francisco is managed at city, state and federal levels by individual organizations, as needed for internal purposes. Some groups maintain data for external use. For example, the Yerba Buena Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) maintains lists of all locally native plant species and locally significant native plants. Some city data is published publicly – for example, geographical information on street trees is published by Public Works on San Francisco’s Open Data Portal. Other urban forestry data is only found in the Annual Urban Forest Report, which is published by the Urban Forestry Council and posted on the San Francisco Environment Department’s website. Collection, tracking and management of nature data is a challenge for most organizations. Within the city, environmental data systems and processes are not standardized across agencies, and currently are not managed in a single repository. The city is in the process of creating a database of all municipal biodiversity laws. The city is also aiming to establish a methodology to standardize measurements of biodiverse greenspace, which will enable the tracking of biodiversity metrics. Reporting on human health and well-being indicators is underway, and is currently being used to identify communities in the city most affected by pollution and other health risks. Insights from the analysis are starting to inform cross-department maps as well as policies and resources to promote community health. This work has emerged following the adoption of the Environment Justice Framework, which ensures all residents live in and enjoy equitable environments, a key focus San Francisco’s nature agenda. Challenges identified –Several non-standar dized data sets limit collaboration, transparency and data sharing among all relevant stakeholders. –A lack of coor dinated data management programmes, methods and tools means biodiversity goals and targets are not measured against. Impr ovement areas –Develop a standar d data-collection-and-visualization tool to facilitate collaborative management, share insights, enable nature-informed decision-making and engage the community. –Convene a data working gr oup as part of Reimagining San Francisco to tackle the citywide problem of data standardization and collection.2.5 Data and analytics 27 Nature Positive: Cities’ Efforts to Advance the Transition