Development practices and ordinances predict inter-city variation in Florida urban tree canopy coverage

Hilbert, Deborah R.; Koeser, Andrew K.; Roman, Lara A.; Hamilton, Keir; Landry, Shawn M.; Hauer, Richard J.; Campanella, Haley; McLean, Drew C.; Andreu, Michael G.; Pérez, Hector E.

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103603

Cited by 43 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…When we compared a random 5% subsample of points to a second, independent interpreter, we found 91.5% agreement regarding whether a given point was a tree across all years, with better agreement in 2000 and 2010 imagery, 92.9% and 94.9%, respectively, close to other studies of recent imagery [17,76]. The two interpreters' UTC estimates were close: the average difference across all years was 1.3 percentage points.…”

Section: Detecting Utc Changesupporting

confidence: 60%

“…To quantify land cover change, we visually interpreted aerial imagery, a common technique employed by urban forestry researchers [17,18,24,29,76] as well as by landscape ecologists and geographers [77,78]. Due to their long historical reach and widespread availability, aerial photographs represent a unique data source for assessing landscape change [79].…”

Section: Land Cover Interpretation From Aerial Imagery 221 Approacmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The former issue can be minimized by having a single interpreter [24], which was our approach. The latter issue limits inference to the entire city, and not subunits within the city (e.g., 1000 points per city in past studies [17,76]).…”

Section: Land Cover Interpretation From Aerial Imagery 221 Approacmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking Urban Tree Cover Change and Local History in a Post-Industrial City

Roman

Catton

Greenfield

et al. 2021

Land

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Municipal leaders are pursuing ambitious goals to increase urban tree canopy (UTC), but there is little understanding of the pace and socioecological drivers of UTC change. We analyzed land cover change in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States) from 1970–2010 to examine the impacts of post-industrial processes on UTC. We interpreted land cover classes using aerial imagery and assessed historical context using archival newspapers, agency reports, and local historical scholarship. There was a citywide UTC increase of +4.3 percentage points. Substantial UTC gains occurred in protected open spaces related to both purposeful planting and unintentional forest emergence due to lack of maintenance, with the latter phenomenon well-documented in other cities located in forested biomes. Compared to developed lands, UTC was more persistent in protected open spaces. Some neighborhoods experienced substantial UTC gains, including quasi-suburban areas and depopulated low-income communities; the latter also experienced decreasing building cover. We identified key processes that drove UTC increases, and which imposed legacies on current UTC patterns: urban renewal, urban greening initiatives, quasi-suburban developments, and (dis)investments in parks. Our study demonstrates the socioecological dynamism of intra-city land cover changes at multi-decadal time scales and the crucial role of local historical context in the interpretation of UTC change.

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Section: Detecting Utc Changesupporting

confidence: 60%

Section: Land Cover Interpretation From Aerial Imagery 221 Approacmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking Urban Tree Cover Change and Local History in a Post-Industrial City

Roman

Catton

Greenfield

et al. 2021

Land

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“…46 Preservation of existing tree canopy and support for new canopy relies on municipal tree ordinances, and enforcement of strong ordinances is absent in Philadelphia. 47 Cities can also experience rapid drops in tree cover because of extreme weather events, invasive pests, and diseases. 45 These rapid drops can be unpredictable, making planning and budgeting for increases in net tree cover a challenge for cities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health impact assessment of Philadelphia's 2025 tree canopy cover goals

Kondo

Mueller

Locke

et al. 2020

The Lancet Planetary Health

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Background Cities across the world are undertaking ambitious projects to expand tree canopy by increasing the number of trees planted throughout public and private spaces. In epidemiological studies, greenspaces in urban environments have been associated with physical and mental health benefits for city dwellers. Greenworks Philadelphia is a plan to increase tree cover across Philadelphia (PA, USA) by the year 2025. We aimed to assess whether an increase in tree canopy or greenspace in Philadelphia could decrease mortality.Methods We did a greenspace health impact assessment to estimate the annual premature mortality burden for adult residents associated with projected changes in tree canopy cover in Philadelphia between 2014 and 2025. Using up-to-date exposure-response functions, we calculated the number of preventable annual premature deaths citywide, and for areas of lower versus higher socioeconomic status, for each of three tree canopy scenarios: low, moderate and ambitious. The ambitious scenario reflected the city's goal of 30% tree canopy cover in each of the city's neighbourhoods; and low and moderate scenarios were based on the varying levels of plantable space across neighbourhoods.Findings We estimated that 403 (95% interval 298-618) premature deaths overall, including 244 (180-373) premature deaths in areas of lower socioeconomic status, could be prevented annually in Philadelphia if the city were able to meet its goal of increasing tree canopy cover to 30%.Interpretation Bringing all of Philadelphia, and particularly its poorer neighbourhoods, up to the 30% goal of tree canopy cover is not without challenge. Nevertheless, policies are warranted that value urban greening efforts as health-promoting and cost-saving measures.

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“…Accordingly, business as usual policies related to urban trees need to be transformed into more innovative approaches to preserve and increase the existence of urban trees (Trees & Design Action Group 2012. For example, by integrating the control and conservation of urban trees with zoning regulations (Davey Resource Group 2015; Phelan et al 2019), construction permits (Guo et al 2019;Morgenroth, O'Neil-Dunne, & Apiolaza 2017), and development permits as exemplified in many other cities in the world (Hilbert et al 2019;Lavy & Hagelman 2017, 2019. At the same time, programs and activities to grow more trees also need to be implemented in a visionary and measurable way.…”

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing City Greenness using Tree Canopy Cover: The Case of Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Aditya

Ningam

2021

GES

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The study aims to measure the greenness of an Indonesia city using tree canopy cover data. Rapid physical development brings impacts to the loss of urban trees, which leads to the increase of flooding risk, local temperature and pollution level. To address the issues, a baseline assessment of urban tree canopy existence is necessary as inputs for effective urban environmental management policies. The methods used in this research include 1) remote sensing and spatial analysis, and 2) simple quantitative analysis. Furthermore, three indicators are used in assessing the greenness, including 1) size of the canopy, 2) canopy cover percentage, and 3) canopy per capita. The results found that the city of Yogyakarta has a low level of greenness based on the canopy size in which covers only 467.37 ha or 14.38% of the total area. The second finding is Yogyakarta has an unequal distribution of canopy cover percentage in each district (kecamatan). The third finding is Yogyakarta City has a canopy per capita rate of 10.93 sq m/person. This number is below the UN recommendation of 15sq m / person. It indicates that residents have poor access to urban greenery. Additionally, the article discusses that the three indicators used have strength and weakness in measuring the level of greenness. Therefore, the assessment objectives must be taken into account. We recommend the use of each indicator as follows: 1) the canopy size is used as an initial inventory of the existence and distribution of the canopy, 2) the canopy cover percentage canopy percentage for measuring and comparing the level of greenness spatially and visually between areas, 3) the canopy per capita is used to measure the possibility of access and interaction of residents with the presence of a tree canopy. Cities’ authority can use the information to measure the achievement of SDGs number 11, 13, or 15.

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Development practices and ordinances predict inter-city variation in Florida urban tree canopy coverage

Cited by 43 publications

References 60 publications

Linking Urban Tree Cover Change and Local History in a Post-Industrial City

Linking Urban Tree Cover Change and Local History in a Post-Industrial City

Health impact assessment of Philadelphia's 2025 tree canopy cover goals

Assessing City Greenness using Tree Canopy Cover: The Case of Yogyakarta, Indonesia

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