| Summary: | Trees have been playing an important roles in our lives for centuries, however too often
we are unaware of the risk associated with the trees. Trees with defects may become
hazard and cause personal injury or property damage. Structural defects such as decay.
cavities, dead limbs, splits and shakes and injured roots, heavy horizontal limbs, wind
and vehicle damage, leaning trees are some of the factors that predisposes a tree to failure
such as property damage and personal injury. Interest in hazard tree management has
increased in recent years due to safety and liability concerns. Recognizing hazardous
trees and taking proper corrective actions can protect property and save lives. To achieve
the initial step especially for the hazard tree management. a study was conducted to
identify the criteria and indicators for evaluating and identifying hazardous street trees.
The purpose of this study were: (1) to develop a reliable set of criteria for evaluating
hazardous street in urban areas, (2) to develop a reliable set of indicators for evaluating
hazardous street trees in urban areas and (3) to examine the relationship between group of
experts in the Delphi process. Delphi method was used in this study to solicit the opinion
from the expert. It is an iterative process for soliciting and collating opinions on a
particular topic through a series of Questionnaire. Finally, this study has been successful
in using the Delphi method that generated and identified six criteria and 38 indicators that
need to evaluate and identify hazardous street trees. Besides developing the criteria and
indicators, this study also indicated that there were no any differences in opinion between
the lecturers and officers from the government agencies and even between respondents
from different education levels. Hopefully the generated criteria and indicators will be an
initial step for the Shade Tree Unit of DBKL to implement their hazard tree management
programme.
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