Abstract
Ohio and Michigan Urban Tree Canopy Assessments and Web Portal
Track: Forestry
Authors: William Welsh, Ian Hanou
Assessing urban tree canopies (UTC) using geospatial technology has become a cost-effective and widely used strategy to compliment tree inventories typically conducted by municipalities. Seven studies were conducted in Michigan and Ohio by AMEC Environment & Infrastructure through an Urban and Community Forestry Grant Program that included land cover classification, statistics of canopy cover, and prioritizing planting. The process and data from the project supported curriculum development by faculty at Eastern Michigan University who leveraged ArcGIS Server to develop a Web Portal for use by urban foresters and disseminate project results.
Other ESRI products used included Feature Analyst for mapping trees, impervious surfaces, and plantable space, Model Builder and Python for calculating the area and percent of existing and possible tree canopy by various geographic boundaries, and weighted overlay analysis in CommunityViz for prioritizing tree planting.
This presentation is useful across many disciplines given the interdisciplinary nature of urban forestry.