Residents of Slough Borough are set to become the first-time participants of a pilot project to build an urban forest in the town.

Slough Borough Council has secured funding from the Urban Tree Challenge to develop an urban forest, the success of which will depend on data from environmental sensors collected by the application.

The technology, built by SSE Enterprise, can help local authorities track real-time environmental data such as soil moisture, root nutrition and sap flow it also includes a smart city App Store, which can be used to integrate existing applications such as smart street lighting or building management services.

Stephen Stead, Director of Strategy and Digital Services for SSE Enterprise, called the application ‘a simple but compelling application of the smart city concept’.

Commenting on the technology, he said: “We have been working with leading Internet of Things and smart service providers to ensure that our Mayflower Smart Cities and Places will provide clients with a complete view of their city, place or environment. We are very much looking forward to this pilot deployment in Slough, and we are looking forward to reporting the findings of the Urban Forest sensors in 2020.”

Planting for Slough’s Urban Forest is expected to commence early 2020 with data to be fed into Mayflower Smart Cities and Places shortly after.