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Urban Tree Health in Socially Vulnerable Neighborhoods in the Southeast: An Ecological and Economic Assessment

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By Climate Adaptation Science Centers December 31, 2023

Urban forest managers often lack the essential information needed to make strategic decisions about planting and maintaining trees to mitigate climate change effects in urban areas. In this project, Southeast CASC-funded researchers will provide data on the health of urban tree species in the region and conduct an ecological and economic cost-benefit analysis to help local and regional urban forest managers optimize their climate adaptation strategies.



Urban forests provide valuable ecosystem services such as mitigating air pollution, moderating temperature, and sequestering carbon. As climate change creates warmer conditions across the southeastern US, maintaining these valuable services will require keeping urban tree canopies healthy. However, urban forest managers in the region lack essential information for making decisions about tree plantings, selecting species, and tree maintenance.



This project will help managers maximize the impacts of tree planting for climate change mitigation at two spatial scales: (1) a local assessment of the urban canopy in Durham, NC, that will focus on historically marginalized neighborhoods and socially vulnerable communities, and (2) a synthesis of urban canopies and future climate change conditions in municipalities more broadly across the entire southeastern US. In Durham, researchers will examine species patterns of urban tree mortality and health to provide actionable management information about which species are thriving and where maintenance efforts may be most effective. The project will also model the ecological and economic costs and benefits of tree planting and management to help decision-makers maximize the benefits of their efforts.



Overall, the project will provide baseline information about the dominant species of urban forest canopies and will identify critical information gaps for future management at the state and municipal levels. Resulting information about which tree species should be proactively planted to maximize climate adaptations can be used by urban forest managers across the region.

 

Urban forest managers often lack the essential information needed to make strategic decisions about planting and maintaining trees to mitigate climate change effects in urban areas. In this project, Southeast CASC-funded researchers will provide data on the health of urban tree species in the region and conduct an ecological and economic cost-benefit analysis to help local and regional urban forest managers optimize their climate adaptation strategies.



Urban forests provide valuable ecosystem services such as mitigating air pollution, moderating temperature, and sequestering carbon. As climate change creates warmer conditions across the southeastern US, maintaining these valuable services will require keeping urban tree canopies healthy. However, urban forest managers in the region lack essential information for making decisions about tree plantings, selecting species, and tree maintenance.



This project will help managers maximize the impacts of tree planting for climate change mitigation at two spatial scales: (1) a local assessment of the urban canopy in Durham, NC, that will focus on historically marginalized neighborhoods and socially vulnerable communities, and (2) a synthesis of urban canopies and future climate change conditions in municipalities more broadly across the entire southeastern US. In Durham, researchers will examine species patterns of urban tree mortality and health to provide actionable management information about which species are thriving and where maintenance efforts may be most effective. The project will also model the ecological and economic costs and benefits of tree planting and management to help decision-makers maximize the benefits of their efforts.



Overall, the project will provide baseline information about the dominant species of urban forest canopies and will identify critical information gaps for future management at the state and municipal levels. Resulting information about which tree species should be proactively planted to maximize climate adaptations can be used by urban forest managers across the region.