An official website of the United States government
Abstract Urban trees are increasingly used by cities for cooling and climate adaptation. However, efforts to increase tree cover across cities have neglected to account for the trees' health and function, which are known to control their associated environmental benefits but have been difficult to assess at scales relevant for management. Here, we use remotely sensed, high resolution canopy temperature as a proxy for tree health and function and evaluate its relation to the built environment across Minneapolis‐St. Paul (MSP) using machine learning analyses. We develop a new index that incorporates information on urban trees' health and function, in addition to their presence. This index, when applied across MSP, suggests that canopy benefits may not be distributed equally even in neighborhoods with similar canopy cover. Furthermore, accounting for tree health and function can yield more effective and equitable benefits by guiding the location and magnitude of intervention for urban tree management.
more »
« less
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Canopy Temperature and Combined Urban Tree Index (CUTI), 2018-2021
This dataset includes a series of raster datasets of canopy temperature across Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN at a resolution of approximately 70 meters. There are data from five different warm, summer afternoons from 2018-2021. The canopy temperature data was derived from ECOSTRESS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity data and high-resolution land cover data using a downscaling approach. Canopy temperature acts as a proxy of canopy health and function, with higher temperatures indicative of higher stress and lower function in the canopy. For each image, we also compute the combined urban tree index (CUTI), a metric we developed that provides an indication of relative benefits from urban canopy which arise from a combination of the amount and function/health of urban canopy (based on the canopy temperature). CUTI ranges from 0-1, with high values indicating areas likely experiencing greater canopy benefits due to greater canopy cover and better canopy health/function.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2045382
- PAR ID:
- 10565736
- Publisher / Repository:
- Environmental Data Initiative
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)Objectives. To examine the relationships among environmental characteristics, temperature, and health outcomes during heat advisories at the geographic scale of street segments. Methods. We combined multiple data sets from Boston, Massachusetts, including remotely sensed measures of temperature and associated environmental characteristics (e.g., canopy cover), 911 dispatches for medical emergencies, daily weather conditions, and demographic and physical context from the American Community Survey and City of Boston Property Assessments. We used multilevel models to analyze the distribution of land surface temperature and elevated vulnerability during heat advisories across streets and neighborhoods. Results. A substantial proportion of variation in land surface temperature existed between streets within census tracts (38%), explained by canopy, impervious surface, and albedo. Streets with higher land surface temperature had a greater likelihood of medical emergencies during heat advisories relative to the frequency of medical emergencies during non–heat advisory periods. There was no independent effect of the average land surface temperature of the census tract. Conclusions. The relationships among environmental characteristics, temperature, and health outcomes operate at the spatial scale of the street segment, calling for more geographically precise analysis and intervention.more » « less
-
Abstract ContextLand use history of urban forests impacts present-day soil structure, vegetation, and ecosystem function, yet is rarely documented in a way accessible to planners and land managers. ObjectivesTo (1) summarize historical land cover of present-day forest patches in Baltimore, MD, USA across land ownership categories and (2) determine whether social-ecological characteristics vary by historical land cover trajectory. MethodsUsing land cover classification derived from 1927 and 1953 aerial imagery, we summarized present-day forest cover by three land cover sequence classes: (1) Persistent forest that has remained forested since 1927, (2) Successional forest previously cleared for non-forest vegetation (including agriculture) that has since reforested, or (3) Converted forest that has regrown on previously developed areas. We then assessed present-day ownership and average canopy height of forest patches by land cover sequence class. ResultsMore than half of Baltimore City’s forest has persisted since at least 1927, 72% since 1953. About 30% has succeeded from non-forest vegetation during the past century, while 15% has reverted from previous development. A large proportion of forest converted from previous development is currently privately owned, whereas persistent and successional forest are more likely municipally-owned. Successional forest occurred on larger average parcels with the fewest number of distinct property owners per patch. Average tree canopy height was significantly greater in patches of persistent forest (mean = 18.1 m) compared to canopy height in successional and converted forest patches (16.6 m and 16.9 m, respectively). ConclusionsHistorical context is often absent from urban landscape ecology but provides information that can inform management approaches and conservation priorities with limited resources for sustaining urban natural resources. Using historical landscape analysis, urban forest patches could be further prioritized for protection by their age class and associated ecosystem characteristics.more » « less
-
The continually increasing global population residing in urban landscapes impacts numerous ecosystem functions and services provided by urban streams. Urban stream restoration is often employed to offset these impacts and conserve or enhance the various functions and services these streams provide. Despite the assumption that ‘if you build it, [the function] will come’, current understanding of the effects of urban stream restoration on stream ecosystem functions are based on short term studies which may not capture variation in restoration effectiveness over time. We quantified the impact of stream restoration on nutrient and energy dynamics of urban streams by studying 10 urban stream reaches (five restored, five unrestored) in the Baltimore, Maryland, USA, region over a two-year period. We measured gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) at the whole-stream scale continuously throughout the study and nitrate (NO3-N) spiraling rates seasonally (spring, summer, autumn) across all reaches. There was no significant restoration effect on NO3-N spiraling across reaches. However, there was a significant canopy cover effect on NO3-N spiraling, and directly comparing paired sets of unrestored-restored reaches showed that restoration does affect NO3-N spiraling after accounting for other environmental variation. Furthermore, there was a change in GPP:ER seasonality, with restored and open-canopied reaches exhibiting higher GPP:ER during summer. The restoration effect, though, appears contingent upon altered canopy cover, which is likely to be a temporary effect of restoration and is a driver of multiple ecosystem services, e.g., habitat, riparian nutrient processing. Our results suggest that decision-making about stream restoration, including evaluations of nutrient benefits, clearly needs to consider spatial and temporal dynamics of canopy cover and tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services. Here we provide the raw dissolved oxygen, temperature, light, depth, and discharge data used to estimate whole-stream metabolism from 10 sites throughout the greater Baltimore area. These estimates are included in the manuscript “Seeing the light: Urban stream restoration affects stream metabolism and nitrate uptake via changes in canopy cover” by A.J. Reisinger, T.R. Doody, P.M. Groffman, S.S. Kaushal, and Emma J. Rosi, which is currently accepted for publication in Ecological applications.more » « less
-
The continually increasing global population residing in urban landscapes impacts numerous ecosystem functions and services provided by urban streams. Urban stream restoration is often employed to offset these impacts and conserve or enhance the various functions and services these streams provide. Despite the assumption that ‘if you build it, [the function] will come’, current understanding of the effects of urban stream restoration on stream ecosystem functions are based on short term studies which may not capture variation in restoration effectiveness over time. We quantified the impact of stream restoration on nutrient and energy dynamics of urban streams by studying 10 urban stream reaches (five restored, five unrestored) in the Baltimore, Maryland, USA, region over a two-year period. We measured gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) at the whole-stream scale continuously throughout the study and nitrate (NO3-N) spiraling rates seasonally (spring, summer, autumn) across all reaches. There was no significant restoration effect on NO3-N spiraling across reaches. However, there was a significant canopy cover effect on NO3-N spiraling, and directly comparing paired sets of unrestored-restored reaches showed that restoration does affect NO3-N spiraling after accounting for other environmental variation. Furthermore, there was a change in GPP:ER seasonality, with restored and open-canopied reaches exhibiting higher GPP:ER during summer. The restoration effect, though, appears contingent upon altered canopy cover, which is likely to be a temporary effect of restoration and is a driver of multiple ecosystem services, e.g., habitat, riparian nutrient processing. Our results suggest that decision-making about stream restoration, including evaluations of nutrient benefits, clearly needs to consider spatial and temporal dynamics of canopy cover and tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services. Here we provide site descriptions and nitrate spiraling data from nutrient releases performed at 10 sites throughout the greater Baltimore area. These estimates are included in the manuscript “Seeing the light: Urban stream restoration affects stream metabolism and nitrate uptake via changes in canopy cover” by A.J. Reisinger, T.R. Doody, P.M. Groffman, S.S. Kaushal, and Emma J. Rosi, which is currently accepted for publication in Ecological applications.more » « less
