Branching Beyond and the Tree Value Visions tool

New routes for impacting policy around the social and cultural values of urban trees

Building upon a novel framework for assessing the social and cultural values of urban treescapes, Branching Beyond creates a user-friendly, online, value porting template aimed at local government planners, tree officers, voluntary organisations and community groups. 

The tool packages up the associations between treescape characteristics and social and cultural values - which were previously identified through storytelling, mapping, and deliberation – before validating and refining the results ‘horizontally ported’ through a rapid participatory assessment. As such it bridges qualitative, quantitative and place-based interests to address policy needs. 

The project worked with local authority partners and the Local Government Association to develop and disseminate training in using the tool to local authorities, private developers, and local third sector or community groups. It drew upon initial primary research in three fieldsites (Milton Keynes, Cardiff and York), before testing a lightweight applied tool in two replicator cities: Edinburgh and Camden (London).

The final ‘Tree Value Visions’ tool is now available for download. It includes a free, self-study, online course that walks users through the practicalities of running ‘citizen panels’ to apply the porting methodology locally. The Open University’s OpenLearnCreate platform hosts the tool & training course. 

The Branching Beyond project (NE/Y004183/1) was funded through United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Welsh Government, Scottish Government, and Forestry Commission as part of the Future of Treescapes Programme. The primary data collection was part of Branching Out, (UKRI project NE/V021176/1). See also www.valueoftrees.co.uk 

The Open University’s Geography Discipline is represented on both projects by Dr Peter Wood, providing a leadership role as Branching Beyond Researcher-Investigator (R-I).

A peer-reviewed paper reporting the development and uses of the tool will be published by npJ Urban Sustainability on July 13th 2026. Open access versions of project outputs are available from OU Open Research Online (ORO).