Analyzing environmental and social impacts of urban forestry practices in Tacoma, WA with PlanIT Geo

Urban forestry encompasses street trees, residential trees, park trees and greenbelt vegetation. Despite local groups’ efforts and trends in better forest management practices, there is an unequal distribution of urban forests and their associated ecosystem services across most of the United States. Evaluating canopy distribution is the first step to enable cities to better devote limited resources to marginalized communities, which often have additional equity concerns. Our project will help the urban forestry nonprofit, PlanIT Geo™, and their future clients in their urban forestry management plan recommendations and could increase the equitable dispersal of environmental benefits. 

In addressing the equity of Tacoma’s urban forests, we assessed trees' impacts on air quality and human health. We designed an equity index model to compare census block groups based on five indicators: canopy coverage, demographic, climate, air quality, and health. The air quality and health indicators ...