Abstract

McKinney, Texas Urban Forest Canopy and Ecosystem Study
Track: Environmental Management
Authors: Lucien Matillano, Ian Hanou, Tarig Ahmed

McKinney, Texas received funds through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program of the US Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct an urban ecosystem analysis and tree canopy study. The City and AMEC Environment and Infrastructure used several ESRI products and extensions to meet the technical needs of the project including land cover classification, zonal statistics of canopy cover, and future tree planting prioritization.
This presentation will briefly describe the environmental, economic and social benefits of urban forests and how ESRI technology was used to map, analyze, visualize, and plan for trees that provide maximum green infrastructure and shade benefits for stormwater management and energy conservation. The process included leveraging Feature Analyst to map trees, impervious surfaces, and plantable space, Model Builder and Python for calculating the area and percent of tree canopy by parcel and land use, and weighted overlay analysis in CommunityViz for prioritization tree planting.