scholarly journals Growing Energy Conservation Through Residential Shade Tree Planting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Sawka

Urban residential shade trees extenuate the heating of buildings in the summertime by intercepting insolation and by evapotranspirative cooling of their immediate surroundings. By modifying location-specific climate data, and tree growth characteristics, this research adapts the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) Tree Benefits Estimator for application in Toronto, Canada. This tool is then put to use modeling the energy conservation savings delivered by 577 trees planted in Toronto backyards between 1997 and 2000. This study’s results estimate that the trees contributed 77,139 kWh of electricity savings as of 2009, 54.4% of which was due to shading of neighbouring houses. This study’s findings indicate that urban residential tree planting programs should not focus exclusively on location-driven strategic planting to yield large energy conservation benefits. Instead, it is argued that priority should be given to selecting planting locations that will maximize tree survival as neighbourhood energy conservation benefits of a tree that achieves mature stature often outweigh the homeowner-specific benefit of a strategically planted tree.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Sawka

Urban residential shade trees extenuate the heating of buildings in the summertime by intercepting insolation and by evapotranspirative cooling of their immediate surroundings. By modifying location-specific climate data, and tree growth characteristics, this research adapts the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) Tree Benefits Estimator for application in Toronto, Canada. This tool is then put to use modeling the energy conservation savings delivered by 577 trees planted in Toronto backyards between 1997 and 2000. This study’s results estimate that the trees contributed 77,139 kWh of electricity savings as of 2009, 54.4% of which was due to shading of neighbouring houses. This study’s findings indicate that urban residential tree planting programs should not focus exclusively on location-driven strategic planting to yield large energy conservation benefits. Instead, it is argued that priority should be given to selecting planting locations that will maximize tree survival as neighbourhood energy conservation benefits of a tree that achieves mature stature often outweigh the homeowner-specific benefit of a strategically planted tree.


1991 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 187-191
Author(s):  
Calvin Chong ◽  
Glen P. Lumis ◽  
Robert A. Cline

Abstract Five species of landscape shade trees, when grown in fabric containers, showed small but significant reductions in caliper and height compared to field-grown control trees after each of 3 growing seasons, 1988–1990. Reductions also were observed in certain leaf nutrients: N and Ca after the second year, and P and K after the third year. There were increased levels of leaf Mn (1989), Zn (1990), and starch (1989). Trees of all species receiving 5.7 L (1.5 U.S. gal) of water per day plus 200 ppm of supplementary N applied twice weekly had consistently larger caliper after each of the 3 growing seasons and tended to have higher leaf Mn content after the second year. There was inconsistent, little, or no difference in height, or in other leaf nutrients, due to fertigation treatments or to irrigation alone.


2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mincey ◽  
Jessica Vogt

A growing number of municipalities and nonprofits work with private citizens to co-produce the public benefits associated with urban forests by providing sizeable young trees to neighborhoods that agree to plant and water the trees for the critical first few years after planting. Little research has addressed the effectiveness of such programs or the extent to which variation in neighborhood maintenance and watering strategies may be related to biophysical and social outcomes. Without such knowledge, tree-planting investments are at risk of being a sink of public or charitable funds. This paper presents a case study of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc.’s neighborhood tree plantings in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., where researchers explored the relationship of neighborhood watering strategies with planted-tree outcomes, and with subsequent collective activities. The study authors observed neighborhood variation in whether trees were watered by individuals or collectively (groups of individuals), whether signed watering commitments were utilized, whether monitoring of watering occurred, and whether monitoring and subsequent sanctioning (when necessary) changed watering behavior. Results demonstrate that collective watering, signed watering agreements, and monitoring/sanctioning that changed behavior were positively associated with tree survival. Collective watering was also positively associated with subsequent collective activities, such as a neighborhood clean-up or block party. Such findings can improve the guidance offered by municipalities and nonprofits to neighborhoods for the management of successful tree-planting projects, and can ultimately improve the survival, growth, and thereby benefits provided by neighborhood-planted trees.


2020 ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Arindam Ghosh ◽  
Soumya Majumder ◽  
Sumedha Saha ◽  
Malay Bhattacharya

Beneficial properties of shade trees of tea plantations other than their medicinal properties have been extensively studied. This research was initiated to explore the properties of some shade trees with special emphasis on their antioxidant and antibacterial properties. Leaves from shade tree like Dalbergia sissoo (DS), Cassia siamea (CS), Derris robusta (DR), Leucaena leucocephala (LL), Acacia lenticularis (AL) and Melia azedarach (MA) were used for the study. Characterization of shade tree leaves by determination of moisture, crude fibre and ash content and tests of non polar – polar solvent extracts for steroid, tannins, cardiac glycosides and coumarin, free radical scavenging, ferric reducing power, NO scavenging activities, quantification of Flavonoids and antibacterial activity were conducted. The average moisture, crude fibre and ash percentage of shade tree plants were found to be 62.95, 11.28 and 1.86 respectively. Methanol, ethanol, acetone and ethyl acetate respectively proved to be the most potent solvent for various phytochemical extractions as it gave positive results for tests like tannin, steroid, cardiac glycosides and coumarin. AL (91.46%), DR (92.69%), LL (94.32%) and MA (93.34%) leaf extracts showed a high level of DPPH scavenging activity in their water extracts. In DS (88.11%) and CS (83.23%) maximum DPPH scavenging activity was observed in Diethyl ether and Methanol extracts respectively.  Acetone extracts were more active than the water extracts in exhibiting ferric reducing power and NO scavenging activity. Summation of the quantity revealed that DS showed maximum presence of flavonoids and acetone as most potential for isolation of flavonoids. The decreasing order of summative antibacterial activity was recorded in DS, followed by CS, DR, AL, MA and LL. Chloroform showed the highest summative inhibition zone followed by ethanol, ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, acetone, water,  hexane, benzene and methanol. The antioxidant and antibacterial potential of shade trees were established.


1992 ◽  
Vol 117 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean R. Evert ◽  
Paul F. Bertrand ◽  
`Benjamin G. Mullinix

Bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge cv. Paraguayan-22) growing under newly planted peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.] trees severely stunted the trees. Neither supplemental fertilizer nor irrigating with two 3.8-liters·hour-1 emitters per tree eliminated tree stunting emitters were controlled by an automatic tensiometer set to maintain 3 kpa at a depth of 0.5 m under a tree in bahiagrass. Preplant fumigation with ethylene dibromide at 100 liters·ha-1 increased tree growth, but not tree survival. Fenamiphos, a nematicide, applied under the trees each spring and fall at a rate of 11 kg-ha -1 had no positive effect on tree survival, tree growth, or nematode populations. Bahiagrass tended to suppress populations of Meloidogyne spp. under the trees., Meloidogyne spp. were the only nematodes present that had mean populations > 65 per 150 cm3 of soil. Leaf concentrations of several elements differed between trees growing in bahiagrass sod and in. bare ground treated with herbicides. Leaf Ca was low for all treatments in spite of a soil pH near 6.5 and adequate soil Ca. The severe stunting of trees grown in bahiagrass, irrespective of the other treatments, demonstrated that bahiagrass should not be grown under newly planted trees. The low populations of parasitic nematodes in bahiagrass showed that bahiagrass has potential as a preplant biological control of nematodes harmful to peach trees. Chemical name used: ethyl 3-methy1-4-(methylthio) phenyl (1-methylethyl) phosphoramidate (fenamiphos).


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 494
Author(s):  
Christine Magaju ◽  
Leigh Ann Winowiecki ◽  
Mary Crossland ◽  
Aymen Frija ◽  
Hassen Ouerghemmi ◽  
...  

Increasing tree cover in agricultural lands can contribute to achieving global and national restoration goals, more so in the drylands where trees play a key role in enhancing both ecosystem and livelihood resilience of the communities that depend on them. Despite this, drylands are characterized by low tree survival especially for tree species preferred by local communities. We conducted a study in arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya and Ethiopia with 1773 households to assess how different tree planting and management practices influence seedling survival. Using on-farm planned comparisons, farmers experimented and compared tree survival under different planting and management practices as well as under varying socioeconomic and biophysical contexts in the two countries. Seedling survival was monitored at least six months after planting. Results show that watering, manure application, seedling protection by fencing and planting in a small hole (30 cm diameter and 45 cm depth) had a significant effect on tree seedling survival in Kenya, while in Ethiopia, mulching, watering and planting niche were significant to tree survival. Household socioeconomics and farms’ biophysical characteristics such as farm size, education level of the household head, land tenure, age of the household head had significant effects on seedling survival in both Ethiopia and Kenya while presence of soil erosion on the farm had a significant effect in Kenya. Soil quality ranking was positively correlated with tree survival in Ethiopia, regardless of species assessed. Current findings have confirmed effects of context specific variables some involving intrahousehold socioeconomic status such education level of the household head, and farm size that influence survival.


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