Making Way for Trees? Changes in Land-Use, Habitats and Protected Areas in Great Britain under “Global Tree Restoration Potential”

Numerous tree planting initiatives have been launched worldwide, based on the idea that carbon capture by trees can help to limit global warming. A recent study estimated the additional tree canopy cover that could be established given the growing conditions in every square kilometre of land on earth that is not already forested, urbanised, or used for crop production. It reported a total “tree restoration potential” of >900 million ha worldwide and identified hotspots where opportunities for tree planting initiatives may be the greatest. With the potential for an estimated 4.2 million ha of additional canopy cover, one such hotspot is Great Britain. We quantify the extent of habitats, land uses, and protected areas that would be impacted by tree planting on this scale in Great Britain and discuss the potential social–ecological trade-offs involved. Our findings show that realising the “tree restoration potential” would mean a considerable upheaval for the British landscape with 30–50% of ecologically valuable habitats lost and a reduction of 44% in the area of improved grassland. Up to 21% of land protected by law for its ecological, scientific, scenic, or cultural value would be impacted. Importantly, we demonstrate that an alternative approach based on increasing tree canopy cover by up to 20% in urban areas and on cropland could make a substantial contribution to tree planting targets, potentially offsetting losses elsewhere. Such shifts in the structure and function of the British landscape will depend on deep changes in the food system, evidence-based decisions about which existing habitats to protect, and a long-term commitment to tree planting and maintenance.

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Is Planting Equitable? An Examination of the Spatial Distribution of Nonprofit Urban Tree-Planting Programs by Canopy Cover, Income, Race, and Ethnicity

Environment and Behavior ◽

10.1177/0013916516636423 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 452-482 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Shannon Lea Watkins ◽

Sarah K. Mincey ◽

Jess Vogt ◽

Sean P. Sweeney

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Nonprofit Organizations ◽

Race And Ethnicity ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Tree Planting ◽

Median Income ◽

Eastern United States ◽

Data Set ◽

Tree Canopy Cover

This article examines the spatial distribution of tree-planting projects undertaken by four urban greening nonprofit organizations in the Midwest and Eastern United States. We use a unique data set of tree-planting locations, land use data, and socioeconomic information to predict whether a census block group ( n = 3,771) was the location of a tree-planting project between 2009 and 2011. Regression results show tree-planting projects were significantly less likely to have occurred in block groups with higher tree canopy cover, higher median income, or greater percentages of African American or Hispanic residents, controlling for physical and socioeconomic conditions. In addition, when canopy cover or income was low, plantings were even less likely to have occurred in neighborhoods with high percentages of racial or ethnic minorities. Findings suggest nonprofit plantings might reduce existing income-based inequity in canopy cover, but risk creating or exacerbating race-based inequity and risk leaving low canopy minority neighborhoods with relatively few program benefits.

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Prey abundance and urbanization influence the establishment of avian predators in a metropolitan landscape

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2018.2120 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 285 (1890) ◽

pp. 20182120 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jennifer D. McCabe ◽

He Yin ◽

Jennyffer Cruz ◽

Volker Radeloff ◽

Anna Pidgeon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Wildlife Conservation ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Prey Availability ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Population Declines ◽

Natural Habitats ◽

Tree Canopy Cover

Urbanization causes the simplification of natural habitats, resulting in animal communities dominated by exotic species with few top predators. In recent years, however, many predators such as hawks, and in the US coyotes and cougars, have become increasingly common in urban environments. Hawks in the Accipiter genus, especially, are recovering from widespread population declines and are increasingly common in urbanizing landscapes. Our goal was to identify factors that determine the occupancy, colonization and persistence of Accipiter hawks in a major metropolitan area. Through a novel combination of citizen science and advanced remote sensing, we quantified how urban features facilitate the dynamics and long-term establishment of Accipiter hawks. Based on data from Project FeederWatch, we quantified 21 years (1996–2016) of changes in the spatio-temporal dynamics of Accipiter hawks in Chicago, IL, USA. Using a multi-season occupancy model, we estimated Cooper's ( Accipiter cooperii ) and sharp-shinned ( A. striatus ) hawk occupancy dynamics as a function of tree canopy cover, impervious surface cover and prey availability. In the late 1990s, hawks occupied 26% of sites around Chicago, but after two decades, their occupancy fluctuated close to 67% of sites and they colonized increasingly urbanized areas. Once established, hawks persisted in areas with high levels of impervious surfaces as long as those areas supported high abundances of prey birds. Urban areas represent increasingly habitable environments for recovering predators, and understanding the precise urban features that drive colonization and persistence is important for wildlife conservation in an urbanizing world.

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Bird Diversity Unconsciously Increases People’s Satisfaction with Where They Live

Land ◽

10.3390/land10020153 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 153

Author(s):

Lauren Hepburn ◽

Adam C. Smith ◽

John Zelenski ◽

Lenore Fahrig

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Bird Species ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Bird Community ◽

Well Being ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Bird Diversity ◽

Neighbourhood Satisfaction ◽

Tree Canopy Cover

There is growing evidence that exposure to nature increases human well-being, including in urban areas. However, relatively few studies have linked subjective satisfaction to objective features of the environment. In this study we explore the links among objective environmental features (tree cover, water, and bird diversity) and subjective judgements of satisfaction. We surveyed residents of Ottawa, Canada (n = 1035) about their satisfaction with their local neighbourhoods. We then compared the survey responses to measures of nature near their homes, including bird diversity (number of bird species), tree canopy cover, and distance to water. After controlling for effects of income and subjective happiness, residents’ neighbourhood satisfaction was positively related to the number of bird species nearby, even before participants were prompted to consider nature. Residents’ appreciation of their local neigbourhood relative to others also increased with tree canopy cover and nearness to water. Unsolicited comments from participants following the survey indicated that while residents consciously appreciate trees and water, the relationship between bird diversity and neighbourhood satisfaction appears to be unconscious; very few of the participants mentioned birds. Based on these results, we speculate that a diverse local bird community may provoke feelings of satisfaction through their presence, activity, and songs. Our results create a compelling argument for city planners and individual residents to maintain bird-friendly spaces in urban areas.

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A Spatial Ecosystem Services Assessment to Support Decision and Policy Making: The Case of the City of Bologna

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052787 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2787

Author(s):

Francesca Vignoli ◽

Claudia de Luca ◽

Simona Tondelli

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Open Data ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Tree Canopy Cover ◽

The City

In recent years, both mapping and assessing urban Ecosystem Services (ESs) to support urban planning has been a topic of great debate. This work aims at contributing to this discussion by developing and testing a methodological approach to first assess and map supply and demand of ESs, and then identify areas of priority of intervention. Starting from the existing models, the work develops a tailored approach to map and assess three ESs (water retention and runoff, PM10 removal, and carbon sequestration and storage) that are tested in the city of Bologna and tailored according to available open data. All data are processed in a GIS environment to allow for spatial distribution and visualization of ESs. These maps facilitate defining supply and demands and, consequently, the presence and distribution of ESs deficiencies. Building on mismatches, this paper proposes four clusters by grouping the city’s districts based on predominant land use (built-up, green urban areas) and tree canopy cover. This classification enabled the identification of intervention priority areas and suggestions of relevant nature-based solutions (NBS) to be implemented. The proposed method can serve other urban areas to perform a rapid assessment of their current needs and challenges in terms of ES provision.

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TREE CANOPY COVER MAPPING USING LiDAR IN URBAN BARANGAYS OF CEBU CITY, CENTRAL PHILIPPINES

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xli-b8-611-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol XLI-B8 ◽

pp. 611-615

Author(s):

J. A. Ejares ◽

R. R. Violanda ◽

A. G. Diola ◽

D. T. Dy ◽

J. B. Otadoy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Canopy Cover ◽

The Philippines ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Tree Planting ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Kappa Index ◽

Slope Length ◽

Object Based ◽

Tree Canopy Cover ◽

Length Width

This paper investigates tree canopy cover mapping of urban barangays (smallest administrative division in the Philippines) in Cebu City using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) was used to extract tree canopy cover. Multi-resolution segmentation and a series of assign-class algorithm in eCognition software was also performed to extract different land features. Contextual features of tree canopies such as height, area, roundness, slope, length-width and elliptic fit were also evaluated. The results showed that at the time the LiDAR data was collected (June 24, 2014), the tree cover was around 25.11 % (or 15,674,341.8 m<sup>2</sup>) of the city’s urban barangays (or 62,426,064.6 m<sup>2</sup>). Among all urban barangays in Cebu City, Barangay Busay had the highest cover (55.79 %) while barangay Suba had the lowest (0.8 %). The 16 barangays with less than 10 % tree cover were generally located in the coastal area, presumably due to accelerated urbanization. Thirty-one barangays have tree cover ranging from 10.59–-27.3 %. Only 3 barangays (i.e., Lahug, Talamban, and Busay) have tree cover greater than 30 %. The overall accuracy of the analysis was 96.6 % with the Kappa Index of Agreement or KIA of 0.9. From the study, a grouping can be made of the city’s urban barangays with regards to tree cover. The grouping will be useful to urban planners not only in allocating budget to the tree planting program of the city but also in planning and creation of urban parks and playgrounds.

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Analyzing Potential Tree-Planting Sites and Tree Coverage in Mexico City Using Satellite Imagery

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11040423 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 423 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Juan C. Bravo-Bello ◽

Tomas Martinez-Trinidad ◽

J. Rene Valdez-Lazalde ◽

Martin E. Romero-Sanchez ◽

Sergio Martinez-Trinidad

Keyword(s):

Mexico City ◽

Satellite Images ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Impervious Surface ◽

Bare Soil ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Tree Planting ◽

Classification Approach ◽

Tree Canopy Cover ◽

Tree Coverage

Locating potential tree-planting sites and analyzing tree canopy cover is important in the planning and management of urban forests. This paper reports the quantification of potential planting sites as well as tree canopy cover in the urban area of Mexico City, estimated by means of SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre) 6 satellite images and a supervised pixel-based classification approach. Results showed an estimated area of 3100.7 ha of potentially useful sites, including places with bare soil and grass-covered areas such as median strips, roundabouts and parks. An average tree canopy cover of 10.6% and an average impervious surface of 79.2% for the 15 boroughs were also analyzed. The area of potential planting sites would represent a 5% gain for the current tree canopy cover if it were to be planted. With an overall accuracy of 92.4%, the use of both images from the SPOT 6 sensor and the classification approach proved to be appropriate for obtaining thematic covers in the urban environment of Mexico City.

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TREE CANOPY COVER MAPPING USING LiDAR IN URBAN BARANGAYS OF CEBU CITY, CENTRAL PHILIPPINES

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprsarchives-xli-b8-611-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol XLI-B8 ◽

pp. 611-615 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J. A. Ejares ◽

R. R. Violanda ◽

A. G. Diola ◽

D. T. Dy ◽

J. B. Otadoy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Canopy Cover ◽

The Philippines ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Tree Planting ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Kappa Index ◽

Slope Length ◽

Object Based ◽

Tree Canopy Cover ◽

Length Width

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Historic Urban Tree Canopy Cover of Great Britain

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11101049 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 1049

Author(s):

Kieron J. Doick ◽

Annabel Buckland ◽

Toni-Kim Clarke

Keyword(s):

Great Britain ◽

Trend Analysis ◽

Urban Forestry ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Ongoing Research ◽

Urban Tree ◽

Tree Canopy Cover ◽

Urban Tree Canopy

Research Highlights: Historic trend analysis of urban tree canopy cover change, while growing in popularity, remains uncommon and concentrated to just a handful of countries. Background and Objectives: Tree canopy cover is a relatively quick, easy to obtain and cost-effective urban forestry metric. It is used to provide insight into not only the coverage of a defined area but also an urban forest’s potential to provide benefits to those who live and work in the locality. On-going delivery of benefits is reliant on a sustained healthy canopy, and knowing how canopy coverage is changing over time can be informative for strategic urban forestry management planning. Materials and Methods: Changes in tree canopy cover is assessed for ten urban areas across Great Britain since the 1940s using a random point-based assessment of paired aerial imagery. Results: The study reveals a predominance of increasing trends over the long term, with just one town displaying a long-term decrease and two revealing “flat lined” trends. Over the past two decades, however, the trends are more variable, with six towns displaying no statistically significant change, one declining and just three increasing in canopy cover. Conclusions: The results indicate a need for ongoing research to broaden the geographic spread of trend analysis and investigation into the drivers of changes, but also to increase the number of time points considered.

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A Comparison of Three Methods for Measuring Local Urban Tree Canopy Cover

Arboriculture & Urban Forestry ◽

10.48044/jauf.2013.009 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Kristen King ◽

Dexter Locke

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

New Technologies ◽

Urban Forest ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Urban Tree ◽

Tree Canopy Cover ◽

Urban Tree Canopy

Measurements of urban tree canopy cover are crucial for managing urban forests and required for the quantification of the benefits provided by trees. These types of data are increasingly used to secure funding and justify large-scale planting programs in urban areas. Comparisons of tree canopy measurement methods have been conducted before, but a rapidly evolving set of new technologies and applications may leave urban foresters wondering, “Which method is most appropriate for my circumstances?” This analysis compares two well-established measures of local tree canopy and building cover with a third, relatively untested technique. Field-based visual estimations (using the USDA Forest Service’s i-Tree protocols), summaries of highresolution land cover data using geographic information systems (GIS), and an analysis of skyward-oriented hemispherical photographs at 215 roadside sites across the five diverse counties of New York City, New York, U.S., are the methods evaluated herein. The study authors found no statistically significant differences between the methods when comparing tree canopy; however, the hemispherical camera had a tendency to overestimate building coverage. It is concluded that hemispheric photo techniques are understudied in urban areas, and that the i-Tree and GIS-based approaches are complementary and reinforcing tools indispensable for both the urban forest management and research communities.

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