Free quantified tree risk assessment method

[daltontrees]

I fear your article is going to come too late though Jules.

 

I fear so too, but I think I will persever because it would be a mistake to assume that anything resolved here on Arbtalk will reach even the Arbtalk members never mind the wider arb community and across the pond. Surely only peer-reviewed publication can do that? And if nothing gets resolved or emerges then my energies will not be wasted because after all an article is just one person's opinion. And if I incorporate any useful parts from this debate in an article I will give credit where it is due. I stand to get nothing but more grey hairs from publication, and quite honestly I don't care who gets the credit for advancement of best practice as long as no-one is trying to pass off others' work as their own.

[Gary Prentice]

I fear so too, but I think I will persever because it would be a mistake to assume that anything resolved here on Arbtalk will reach even the Arbtalk members never mind the wider arb community and across the pond. Surely only peer-reviewed publication can do that? And if nothing gets resolved or emerges then my energies will not be wasted because after all an article is just one person's opinion. And if I incorporate any useful parts from this debate in an article I will give credit where it is due. I stand to get nothing but more grey hairs from publication, and quite honestly I don't care who gets the credit for advancement of best practice as long as no-one is trying to pass off others' work as their own.

 

Sorry Jules, I meant to help me get my head around the risk matrix. I'm not sure why but I have this morbid fear that I'm going to get buried in figures trying to create it and then explain the workings and calculations involved. It's one of those assignments that may be easier in practice than in contemplation.

 

One student has already completed a risk matrix with only two input groups, he's not elaborating but it's baffling me at the moment. Back to Matheny I think.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Forgive me, I know this is "Granny's, eggs and sucks" , but the following published guidance may offer some direction for development of your TRA system.

 

Cheers, n 'good luck'

 

Paul

 

PS and this of course Management of the risk from falling trees or branches

EnglishNatureVetTreesRiskGuide.pdf

NTSG Common Sense TRM.pdf

[daltontrees]

Sorry Jules, I meant to help me get my head around the risk matrix. I'm not sure why but I have this morbid fear that I'm going to get buried in figures trying to create it and then explain the workings and calculations involved. It's one of those assignments that may be easier in practice than in contemplation.

 

One student has already completed a risk matrix with only two input groups, he's not elaborating but it's baffling me at the moment. Back to Matheny I think.

 

I don't see a 2 input system being useful as a risk management tool but you could just about get away with it as a risk assessment tool.

 

It's the time spent pondering it that teaches you though, isn't it, rather than by getting the answer right? And if you also learn along the way that it's difficult, then that's probably a valid conclusion. What would we all do if consultancy work was so easy and simple that anyone could do it?

 

I hope you mean Matheny & Clark and not the recent Matheny-assisted ISA system. I would never use the latter unless I was told to be the client and even then I would be caveating my reports to say that I thought the outcomes are inherently crude and unreliable for some purposes. It has 24 possible outcomes, each of which has to fall into one of 4 categories. The M&C 1994 has 24 also but oddly has 12 possible categories, which is better.

[Acer ventura]

I've a risk matrix to create for tree risk assessment for an assignment, so any research or references will be useful.

 

Hi btggaz

 

Risk matrices are really easy to design, which is probably why they are so popular. The problem is most of them, to quote Tony Cox from his seminal 'What's Wrong with Risk Matrices' paper, are 'worse than useless' at measuring risk. When I was doing the research into the ISA Best Management Practices - Tree Risk Assessment & TRAQ thread, one of tests I put myself through was to try and explain what the Likelihood and Risk matrices revealed to someone who knew nothing about risk, trees, or matrices. When I finished, they said,

 

“It’s just colouring squares, isn’t it?”

 

However, as it's an assignment the purpose is to pass, so don't go for more than four inputs on each axis but you should have a minimum of three.

 

Colour the top right cell red, and the bottom left cell green.

 

Describe the worst case scenario Likelihood and Consequences inputs to give you the red top right cell and call it something like Extreme. Or right click Extreme and choose a synonym you like the sound of.

 

Describe the best case scenario Likelihood and Consequences inputs to give you the green bottom left cell and call it something like Low. Or right click Low and choose a synonym you like the sound of.

 

Now all you have to do is fill in the bits between with your choice of words and colours that are in between the top right and bottom left.

 

If you pop into the

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/73829-isa-best-management-practices-tree-risk-assessment-traq.html

 

thread tomorrow, I’m going to start posting what often goes wrong with risk matrices and how it’s impossible to avoid some of the problems, which you might find useful.

 

Cheers

 

Acer ventura