Portland, Oregon’s Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis Data and Applications: Example of Uneven Distribution of Trees and Benefits
Start Date
3-11-2024 4:00 PM
Abstract
Portland, Oregon’s Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis (Urban FIA) data from 2018 to 2021, revealed an estimated 2.6 million live trees (≥ 5.0 inches in diameter) across public and private lands. Trees in Portland stored about 1.6 million tons of carbon and removed about 639 tons of air pollution per year. However, urban forests and their benefits to human health are not evenly distributed throughout the city. Urban FIA data was parsed into the City of Portland, Bureau of Transportation’s Equity Matrix categories, which assigns scores based on measures of race, ethnicity, and income. Areas with Portland’s least disadvantaged communities contained about 54% of the city’s trees, which contributed to about 56% pollution removal, whereas areas with Portland’s most disadvantaged communities contained only 1% of the city’s trees, which contributed to about 3% pollution removal. This example represents a small fraction of publicly available urban FIA data. Urban FIA data is collected every year across all land ownerships, and together with applications, such as My City’s Trees, can help managers monitor changes in urban forests over time and support policy decisions to improve environmental quality and human health in Portland.
Subjects
Air quality, Environmental policy, Environmental social sciences
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41405
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Portland, Oregon’s Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis Data and Applications: Example of Uneven Distribution of Trees and Benefits
Portland, Oregon’s Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis (Urban FIA) data from 2018 to 2021, revealed an estimated 2.6 million live trees (≥ 5.0 inches in diameter) across public and private lands. Trees in Portland stored about 1.6 million tons of carbon and removed about 639 tons of air pollution per year. However, urban forests and their benefits to human health are not evenly distributed throughout the city. Urban FIA data was parsed into the City of Portland, Bureau of Transportation’s Equity Matrix categories, which assigns scores based on measures of race, ethnicity, and income. Areas with Portland’s least disadvantaged communities contained about 54% of the city’s trees, which contributed to about 56% pollution removal, whereas areas with Portland’s most disadvantaged communities contained only 1% of the city’s trees, which contributed to about 3% pollution removal. This example represents a small fraction of publicly available urban FIA data. Urban FIA data is collected every year across all land ownerships, and together with applications, such as My City’s Trees, can help managers monitor changes in urban forests over time and support policy decisions to improve environmental quality and human health in Portland.