Urban Ecosystems and Social Dynamics
Urban Forest Research
Our research demonstrates new ways in which trees add value to communities.
We convert our results into real dollars and cents
in order to stimulate more investment in trees.
Using our research results, we create new methods
and strategies for managing and caring for community
forests to help managers optimize the benefits
and investment value of their community forest.
Areas of research...
Most of our research falls into five major categories:
Benefits and Costs, Energy Conservation, Air
Quality, Water Resources, and Fire. However,
we are not limited to those five categories.
Additional research focuses on Urban Forest
Policy and Management, Tree Stewardship, Biometrics,
Infrastructure Conflicts, and Urban-Wildland
To read more detailed explanations and to browse
the Center's current and past studies, please
click on each research category
Benefits & Costs
Research that quantifies the net benefits of municipal forests, as well as tree planting and stewardship programs is essential in an era of dwindling ...
Quantification of energy benefits is an important part of the Center's research. Healthy urban forests have the ability to cut heating and air conditi...
Emissions from energy use and atmospheric carbon dioxide are shown to contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Urban forests improve ai...
Water quality improvements are one of the main benefits provided by trees. Tree crowns intercept rainfall, thereby reducing the amount of runoff. Tree...
Research in urban forestry seeks to identify future trends in the planning and management of sustainable urban ecosystems. Our research and technology...
Stewardship of urban trees is necessary to maintain and improve urban forest health. Our research focuses on developing volunteer tree inventory an...
The benefits provided by an urban tree, such as energy conservation and improved air quality, are dependent on the size of the tree. The total value o...
Urban Forest and Urban Infrastructure Conflicts
Trees need space to grow. With cities struggling to accommodate the needs of increasing populations, tree space is a precious commodity. In California...
Urban Forestry at the Urban-Wildland Interface
Urbanization of rural areas creates a plethora of problems, ranging from increased pollution from cars to wildlife habitat destruction from new constr...