This thesis explores the relationship between urban tree canopy and physical health measures between different Springfield, Massachusetts neighborhoods. The study hypothesis was that there would be a correlation between urban tree canopy and human health. Statistical analysis was used to examine the correlation between available health data and urban trees. The existing neighborhood health data that was available comprised of asthma rate, infant mortality, and low birth weight. It also examined other data such as median household income, demographic percentages, home ownership, and green space. The research questions guiding this study were: Are there any correlations between urban trees canopy and the asthma rates, infant mortality rates, and low birth weight in Springfield neighborhoods? Do local residents have equal access to resources such as urban tree canopy and green space? Previous research reviewed in the literature shows that urban tree canopy provides social, environmental, physical benefits to their surroundings and to the residents of urban neighborhoods, such as those in Springfield. The literature review also discussed some challenges with regard to unequal access to urban trees in other cities, such as Boston that show environmental justice issue may be an influence. The current study used data on health, demographic, and urban tree canopy data that was primarily collected by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, the US Forest Service and ReGreen Springfield. The major findings showed correlations between urban tree canopy and median household income, low birth weight, and demographics percentages. Those correlations indicated that there are signs of environmental justice issues in the City of Springfield. This correlation results verifies prior that was reviewed in the literature. One recommendation to offset the issues of environmental justice would be to invest in organization such as ReGreen Springfield and other organizations that promote planting trees by neighborhood groups.

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No description available.

As urban land expands across the globe and impervious surfaces continue to be used for constructing urban infrastructure, stormwater treatment costs and environmental damage from untreated stormwater will rise. Well designed urban landscapes can employ trees and soils to reduce stormwater runoff flowing to streams and treatment facilities. Typical urban soil, however, is compacted and restricts tree growth via high soil strength and inadequate gas exchange. A site preparation method that deeply incorporates compost and includes trees for long term carbon input and pore development was evaluated in the urban setting of Arlington, Virginia. Three species were used in that study of 25 streetside plantings. The site preparation affected soil at 15 30 cm by lowering soil bulk density by 13.3%, and increasing macro-aggregate-associated carbon by 151% compared to control plots, and resulted in 77% greater tree growth during the first year after transplant. In a second experiment, rainfall simulations were used to evaluate common landscape mulch materials for their ability to prevent compaction from traffic as well their affect on surface runoff before and after traffic. When plots were subjected to heavy rainfall, (>97 mm/h) mulches were found to reduce sediment loss 82% and 73% before and after traffic, respectively. Runoff rates from wood chips were only 0.19 ml/s faster after traffic while rates from bare soil and marble gravel with geotextile increased 2.28 and 2.56 ml/s, respectively. Management of soils, trees and landscapes for stormwater benefit could reduce cost of wastewater treatment for municipalities and can prevent environmental degradation. / Master of Science

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:00:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5237.pdf: 14167065 bytes, checksum: 1e32d11a2264a5119e4a0108fb297d3c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-07 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The absence of appropriate conditions for the movement of pedestrians on sidewalks is degrading our human relationships of urban life and therefore the quality of life. There are several factors that determined the current situation of urban public walk among them are the actions without appropriate guidelines for implementation of these, the presence of random equipment, the network of electricity supply, the underground networks and also the deployment of nonspecific and irregular vegetation along the sidewalk. In this context, degradation of public space and the search for the recovery of several research areas that have been developed. Among the topics covered are: inventory methodologies, projects to bring the public footpath to the population needs, planning of urban trees and their various relationships, among others. This study aimed to examine, at a fraction of urban public spaces of the relations of way (sidewalk), are determined by a length of permanence, through microclimatic, tree inventory of the area and questioning passers-by, in order to understand the influence of urban trees on the microclimate on the scale of the pedestrian. / A ausência de condições adequadas para a circulação de pedestres nas calçadas vem degradando as relações humanas de convívio urbano e mente à qualidade de vida. São diversos os fatores que determinaram a atual situação do passeio público urbano dentre eles as ações sem diretrizes adequadas para execução destes, a presença de equipamentos aleatórios, a rede de fornecimento de energia elétrica, as redes subterrâneas e também a implantação inespecífica e irregular de vegetação ao longo do passeio. Neste contexto de degradação do espaço público e na busca de valorização destes espaços que diversas pesquisas vêm sendo desenvolvidas. Abordando temas como: metodologias de inventário; projetos para adequar o passeio público às necessidades da população; planejamento da arborização urbana e suas diversas relações; entre outros. Este trabalho buscou analisar, em uma fração urbana, as relações de espaços públicos de passagem (calçadas), determinados por serem de curta permanência, através de caracterização microclimática, inventário arbóreo da região e questionamento dos transeuntes, com o objetivo de entender a influência da arborização urbana no microclima na escala do pedestre.

Trees in Reykjavík gained an attention in year 2010 when the Mayor brought up the issue in a city council meeting, with the intention to replace cottonwood trees in the city center. A new topic was introduced to the scene which initiated a process within the planning system in Reykjavík. That process is studied in this paper and covers the period from April 2010 to February 2014. The purpose of this study is to explore the strategic role of urban trees in the city and the changes that have occurred during the process. The analysis is made to find out if, and then how, the status of urban trees has changed during this period of time from two perspectives. The first perspective involves an analysis of the actions, decisions and connections between main actors involved in the process, in relation to power, discourse and knowledge. The second part is an analysis of changes in discourse on urban trees in Reykjavík where the main extensions of the discourse are identified. This is a qualitative study performed first and foremost by interviews with involved actors and a thorough examination of documents and literature. The main results of the study indicate primarily that the role of urban trees has strengthened extensively during the process. Further, the discourse about urban trees in the city has expanded with new concepts and words, with new and deeper knowledge about already known factors. This new understanding and experience gained are essential when it comes to strategic planning, planting and maintaining. The actors involved in the process utilize their power according to their positions but due to a small and concentrated planning structure in Reykjavík this creates delicate conditions for both the actors and the trees. / <p>.</p>

Den ökade urbaniseringen och klimatförändringarna utgör några av de största utmaningarna vid utvecklingen av hållbara städer. Ekosystemtjänster som vatten- och temperaturreglering samt estetiska tjänster från träd kan bidra till att tackla utmaningar som extremväder och psykisk ohälsa. Gävle kommun har ett gediget hållbarhetsarbete men har inte genomfört någon egen undersökning över hur invånarna upplever de estetiska ekosystemtjänsterna från träd eller undersökt ekosystemtjänster från de vanligaste trädsläktena i staden. Med anledning av detta var syftet att sammanställa befintlig forskning rörande ekosystemtjänster från lind och tall i centrala Gävle samt ta fram egna data kring hur invånarna upplever stadsträd. Målet med studien var även att undersöka hur ekosystemtjänster från träd kan användas för att främja utvecklingen av mer hållbara städer. I denna fallstudie användes en blandad metod bestående av en litteraturöversikt och en webbaserad enkätstudie för att besvara forskningsfrågans olika delar. Litteraturstudien syftade till att undersöka hur lind respektive tall påverkar vattenreglering, temperaturreglering samt estetiska ekosystemtjänster och enkätstudien syftade till att undersöka hur invånarna i centrala Gävle upplever de estetiska värdena av stadsträd. Denna blandning av metoder valdes då de kompletterar varandra och ger en mer nyanserad bild av trädens roll i den hållbara staden. Litteraturöversikten visade att lindar har god förmåga att bidra till temperaturreglering samt gav en indikation att även tallar kan bidra till denna ekosystemtjänst men genom vissa andra egenskaper. Det fanns dock en avsaknad av forskning som fokuserar på lind och tall i relation till vattenreglering och estetiska tjänster i urbana miljöer. Överlag saknas mycket forskning om tall som stadsträd i relation till de valda ekosystemtjänsterna. Resultatet av enkätstudien visade att lövträd föredras framför barrträd i stadsmiljöer samt att blommor, bred trädkrona, färgstarka blad/barr och hög höjd är viktiga attribut för att ett träd ska upplevas som attraktivt. Utöver detta upplever många att träd är viktiga komponenter för välbefinnandet. Generellt sett bedöms det behövas mer artspecifik forskning gällande urbana träds ekosystemtjänster i de mer kalltempererade områdena där exempelvis tallar oftare förekommer som stadsträd. Vidare bör fler lokala undersökningar göras för att ta reda på hur invånarna upplever stadsträd och grönområden för att säkerställa att planeringen av dessa sker i enlighet med lokalbefolkningen preferenser. Slutligen bör nämnas att om utvecklingen av mer hållbara städer är ett mål som makthavarna avser uppnå måste mer fokus läggas på ekosystemtjänster från träd då de främjar mänskligt välbefinnande och långsiktigt resilienta samhällen. / Increased urbanization and climate change constitute some of the biggest challenges in the development of sustainable cities. Ecosystem services such as water and temperature regulation as well as aesthetic services from trees can help tackle challenges such as extreme weather and mental wellbeing. The municipality of Gävle has worked substantially with sustainability issues but has not conducted any survey of how residents experience the aesthetic ecosystem services from trees or examined ecosystem services from the most common trees in the city. Due to this, the purpose was to compile existing research concerning ecosystem services from linden and pine in central Gävle and research how the inhabitants experience urban trees. The aim of the study was also to investigate how ecosystem services from trees can be used to promote the development of more sustainable cities. In this case study, a mixed method consisting of a literature review and a web-based questionnaire was used. The literature review aimed to investigate how linden and pine affect water regulation, temperature regulation and aesthetic ecosystem services, and the survey study aimed to investigate how the inhabitants of central Gävle experience the aesthetic values of urban trees. This mix of methods was chosen as they complement each other and give a more nuanced picture of the role of trees in a sustainable city. The literature review showed that lindens can effectively contribute to temperature regulation and indicated that pines also have the ability to contribute to this ecosystem service, but through certain other properties. However, there was a lack of research focusing on linden and pine in relation to water regulation and aesthetic services in urban environments. In general, there is a lack of research on pine as an urban tree in relation to the selected ecosystem services. The results of the survey showed that deciduous trees are preferred over conifers in urban environments and that flowers, a broad tree crown, colorful leaves/conifers and height are important attributes for a tree to be perceived as attractive. In addition to this, many feel that trees are important components for their well-being. In conclusion more species-specific research is needed regarding ecosystem services of urban trees in the cold-tempered areas where, for example, pines more often occur as urban trees. Furthermore, more local surveys should be conducted to find out how residents experience urban trees and green areas to ensure planning of these spaces are in accordance with the preferences of the local population. Finally, it should be mentioned that if the development of more sustainable cities is going to be achieved, more focus must be placed on ecosystem services from trees as they promote human well-being and long-term resilient communities.

No description available.

Digital urban tree registers serve many porposes and facilitate the administration, care and management of urban trees within a city or municipality. Currently, mapping of urban tree stands is carried out manually with methods which are both laborious and time consuming. The aim of this study is to establish a way of operation based on the use of existing LiDAR data and othophotos to automatically detect individual trees. By using the extensions LIDAR Analyst and Feature Analyst for ArcMap a tree extraction was performed. This was carried out over the extent of the city district committee area of Östermalm in the city of Stockholm, Sweden. The results were compared to the city’s urban tree register and validated by calculating its Precision and Recall. This showed that FeatureAnalyst generated the result with the highest accuracy. The derived trees were represented by polygons which despite their high accuracy make the result unsuitable for detecting individual tree positions. Even though the use of LIDAR Analyst resulted in a less precise tree mapping result, individual tree positions were detected satisfactory. This especially in areas with more sparse, regular tree stands. The study concludes that the use of both tools complement each other and compensate the shortcomings of the other. FeatureAnalyst maps an acceptable tree coverage while LIDAR Analyst more accurately identifies individual tree positions. Thus, a combination of the two results could be used for individual tree mapping. / Digitala urbana trädregister tjänar många syften och underlättar för städer och kommuner att administrera, sköta och hantera sina park- och gatuträd. Dagens kartering av urbana trädbestånd sker ofta manuellt med metoder vilka är både arbetsintensiva och tidskrävande. Denna studie syftar till att utveckla ett arbetssätt för att med hjälp av befintliga LiDAR-data och ortofoton automatiskt kartera individuella träd. Med hjälp av tilläggen LIDAR Analyst och FeatureAnalyst för ArcMap utfördes en trädkartering över Östermalms stadsdelsnämndsområde i Stockholms stad. Efter kontroll mot stadens träddatabas och validering av resultatet genom beräknandet av Precision och Recall konstaterades att användningen av FeatureAnalyst resulterade i det bästa trädkarteringsresultatet. Dessa träd representeras av polygoner vilket medför att resultatet trots sin goda täckning inte lämpar sig för identifierandet av enskilda trädpositioner. Även om användningen av LIDAR Analyst resulterade i ett mindre precist karteringsresultat erhölls goda positionsbestämmelser för enskilda träd, främst i områden med jämna, glesa trädbestånd. Slutsatsen av detta är att användandet av de båda verktygen kompenserar varandras tillkortakommanden där FeatureAnalyst ger en godtagbar trädtäckning medan LIDAR Analyst bättre identifierar enskilda trädpositioner. En kombination av de båda resultaten skulle alltså kunna användas i trädkarteringssyfte.

abstract: The world has been continuously urbanized and is currently accommodating more than half of the human population. Despite that cities cover only less than 3% of the Earth’s land surface area, they emerged as hotspots of anthropogenic activities. The drastic land use changes, complex three-dimensional urban terrain, and anthropogenic heat emissions alter the transport of mass, heat, and momentum, especially within the urban canopy layer. As a result, cities are confronting numerous environmental challenges such as exacerbated heat stress, frequent air pollution episodes, degraded water quality, increased energy consumption and water use, etc. Green infrastructure, in particular, the use of trees, has been proved as an effective means to improve urban environmental quality in existing research. However, quantitative evaluations of the efficacy of urban trees in regulating air quality and thermal environment are impeded by the limited temporal and spatial scales in field measurements and the deficiency in numerical models. This dissertation aims to advance the simulation of realistic functions of urban trees in both microscale and mesoscale numerical models, and to systematically evaluate the cooling capacity of urban trees under thermal extremes. A coupled large-eddy simulation–Lagrangian stochastic modeling framework is developed for the complex urban environment and is used to evaluate the impact of urban trees on traffic-emitted pollutants. Results show that the model is robust for capturing the dispersion of urban air pollutants and how strategically implemented urban trees can reduce vehicle-emitted pollution. To evaluate the impact of urban trees on the thermal environment, the radiative shading effect of trees are incorporated into the integrated Weather Research and Forecasting model. The mesoscale model is used to simulate shade trees over the contiguous United States, suggesting how the efficacy of urban trees depends on geographical and climatic conditions. The cooling capacity of urban trees and its response to thermal extremes are then quantified for major metropolitans in the United States based on remotely sensed data. It is found the nonlinear temperature dependence of the cooling capacity remarkably resembles the thermodynamic liquid-water–vapor equilibrium. The findings in this dissertation are informative to evaluating and implementing urban trees, and green infrastructure in large, as an important urban planning strategy to cope with emergent global environmental changes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2019