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Urban Forests = Cleaner, Cooler Air

Posted in Forests, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Urban Revitalization on 10/05/2011 | Leave a Comment »

Watch an animation from ASLA’s “Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes” online exhibition that explains how urban forests fight air pollution and the urban heat island effect. See how cities can add in millions of trees, while ensuring the trees themselves live long, healthy lives.

Poor air quality has led to an explosion of asthma cases and other health problems among vulnerable populations including children, the elderly, and low-income residents. Each year bad air causes two million deaths worldwide. Also, in the U.S., there have been 8,000 premature deaths from excessive heat over the past 25 years. Urban heat islands, which are caused, in part, by sunlight being absorbed by paved surfaces and roofs, lead to higher surface temperatures, up to 90 degrees. Atmospheric air temperatures are also higher: in the day by up to 6 degrees, and at night, by up to 22 degrees. Vulnerable populations also face greater risks of heat exhaustion.
(Sources: Heat Island Impacts, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.), World Health Organization (WHO))

Increasing the tree canopy in cities is one way to fight both poor air quality and urban heat islands. Research shows significant short-term improvements in air quality in urban areas with 100 percent tree cover. There, trees can reduce hourly ozone by up to 15 percent, sulfur dioxide by 14 percent, and particulate matter by 13 percent. U.S. trees remove some 784,000 tons of pollution annually, providing $3.8 billion in value. Furthermore, a single large healthy tree can remove greater than 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. In fact, New York City’s urban forest alone removes 154,000 tons of CO2 annually. Through their leaves, trees also provide evaporative cooling, which increases air humidity. Shaded surfaces may be 20-45 degrees cooler, and evapotranspiration can reduce peak summer temperatures by 2-9 degrees. (Sources: Heat Island Mitigation: Trees and Vegetation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.), “Sustaining America’s Trees and Forests,” David J. Nowak, Susan M. Stein, Paula B. Randler, Eric J. Greenfield, Sara J. Comas, Mary A. Carr, and Ralph J. Alig, U.S. Forest Service.)

Some other benefits: Urban forests reduce energy use by providing shade in the summer and wind breaks in the winter, reduce stormwater runoff, remediate soils, and provide animal and plant habitat. Trees have economic benefits: they increase property value. Lastly, trees have positive cognitive effects and may even help improve moods. (Sources: “Does Looking at Nature Make People Nicer?” The Dirt, “The Restorative Effects of Nature in Cities,” The Dirt, “Sustaining America’s Trees and Forests,” David J. Nowak, Susan M. Stein, Paula B. Randler, Eric J. Greenfield, Sara J. Comas, Mary A. Carr, and Ralph J. Alig, U.S. Forest Service.)

In the U.S., cities take up just three percent of land but contain 80 percent of the population. Cities may take up a relatively small share of all land now, but are projected to consume an area the size of Montana between 2000 and 2050. Two-thirds of the planet is expected to live in cities by 2050. With rapid urban growth, it’s essential that trees remain, whether along streets, in small pocket parks, or big green spaces. A 40 percent tree canopy is a challenging but worthy goal for every city to reach. (Sources: American Forests Tree Canopy Goals, “Projected Urban Growth (2000-2050) and Its Estimated Impact on the U.S. Forest Resource,” David J. Nowak and Jeffrey T. Walton, U.S. Forest Service, “Sustaining America’s Trees and Forests,” David J. Nowak, Susan M. Stein, Paula B. Randler, Eric J. Greenfield, Sara J. Comas, Mary A. Carr, and Ralph J. Alig, U.S. Forest Service.)

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Scientists Estimate Planet Has 8.7 Million Species, Give or Take 1.3 Million

Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Forests, Wildlife on 09/01/2011 | Leave a Comment »

A new study published in PLoS Biology, a scientific journal, estimates that there are 8.7 million different species on Earth, give or take 1.3 million. Previous estimates have ranged from 3 million to nearly 100 million. According to The Guardian (UK), this study finds that some three-quarters of all species are on land, and a majority of these are insects. Only one quarter reside in the oceans, even though 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. As famed biologist E.O. Wilson explored in The Future of Life, estimating the number of species is incredibly difficult, largely because a huge share of species are still undocumented. Attempting to put a number on our collective ignorance of the world’s biodiversity, the report argues that some 86 percent of all plant and animal species and 91 percent of ocean species have not been “named and cataloged.” Climate change make things even worse: Scientists estimate mass extinctions of up to 10 percent of all species, meaning that many unknown species will die off before they are even identified.

Dr. Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia told The Guardian that counting all species accurately is important for setting a base line: ”Scientists have been working on this question of how many species for so many years. We know we are losing species because of human activity, but we can’t really appreciate the magnitude of species lost until we know what species are there.”

The researchers analyzed data on 1.2 million species, and used Carl Linnaeus’ taxonomical “tree-like” system to determine “patterns between [...] hierarchical groupings which they could use to infer the existence of missing species that scientists have not yet described. That allowed them to use data from higher orders – such as anthropods, where there is a lot of data – to predict the number of creatures at the species level.” Their final estimate: 7.8 million species of animals; almost 300,000 different types of plants; more than 600,000 different species of fungi, mushrooms, and molds; some 36,000 species of single-celled organisms; and 27,000 species of algae. The authors didn’t delve into bacteria.

Robert Mays, a UK government advisor, said the findings were realistic: “It is sort of saying that the trunks and lower branches of the tree seem similar from group to group. At one end of the thing, you have birds and mammals that really are completely known. At the other end, you have just got a handful of branches and twigs. But if you do the big assumption the trees are similar, then it seems sensible.”

However, others are critical of the estimate, arguing that if the methodology was changed, an entirely new estimate could easily be calculated. For example, other approaches have tried to classify the Earth’s species based on patterns derived from the size of species or their location, or their relationships with other species. According to The New York Times, Robert May, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford, argued in the late 1980s that the diversity of land animals grows as they shrink in size. “He reasoned that we probably have found most of the species of big animals, like mammals and birds, so he used their diversity to calculate the diversity of smaller animals. He ended up with an estimate 10 to 50 million species of land animals.”

Terry Erwin, a carabidologists or beetle expert, found more than 1,100 species of beetle from a single tree in the rainforest of Panama. He estimated more than 30 million species of insects in tropical rainforests alone. On the approach taken in the new study, Erwin told The Guardian: “These guys base these on classification of animals, and classification of animals are human constructs. The reason it is predictable is that humans are predictable, especially in the scientific field. What they are measuring really is human activity. It is not real activity out in the wild.” Also, a specialist focused on fungi, David Pollack at University of Colorado, agrees and argues that there are far more fungi out there, up to 5 million (not the 600,000 estimated in this paper’s approach). Lastly, microbiologists argue that the diversity of microbes will only dwarf animals. “A single spoonful of soil may contain 10,000 different species of bacteria, many of which are new to science.”

The Guardian writes that one problem is that identifying and cataloging new life forms is “expensive and slow,” with only 14 percent of life forms represented in databases. Scientists point to a lack of funding. ”At the current pace, it would take 300,000 specialists 1,200 years to go through the laborious process of describing the new discoveries in scientific journals, and then entering them in electronic databases.” The lack of funding may be due to a lack of interest in these efforts among the public given most of the species to be discovered will be very small, and concentrated in remote areas.

Still, scientists are making big finds almost every day. “Last week, scientists at the Smithsonian Institution reported the discovery of a primitive eel in a reef off the coast of the South Pacific island nation of Palau. The new species, Protoanguilla palau, bore little relation to 19 other forms of eel currently in existence and some of its characteristics – such as a second upper jaw – were more in line with fossils from 65m years ago.”

Read the article and the study.

Image credit: Cristalino State Park, Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil / Daniel Beltra Conservation Photography

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New Central Park Map Identifies, Plots 19,600 Trees

Posted in Forests, Historic Preservation, Landscape Architecture, Public Spaces on 08/03/2011 | Leave a Comment »

Working with Edward S. Barnard, author of New York City Trees, Ken Chaya, a graphic designer and artist, has spent more than two years creating Central Park Entire, an illustrated, comprehensive tree and trail map of Central Park available either as a poster or fold-out walking map. This guide to the natural history of the one of the world’s greatest parks, which covers 85 percent of the vegetation in the 843-acre park, painstakingly plots more than 19,600 trees, using a set of icons to indicate the 170 different tree species. In addition, the map explores the visionary landscape architecture created by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, including major park design elements such as lawns, lakes, ponds, waterways, rocks, trails, and footpaths. The architecture within the park, including buildings, bridges, archways, monuments and statues are also detailed, along with the park’s recreational areas.

In 2008, Barnard asked Chaya to design a map he was working on with Neil Calvanese, VP of Operations at the Central Park Conservancy. The end product: “the most detailed map of any urban park in the world.” Chaya adds that the map was designed to further illuminate “the masterful design of Central Park’s creators, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux,” which is now “more evident today than it was in the 1870s when the Park was just completed.” In fact, the map is meant to celebrate the enduring vision of the park’s designers.

The actual map is incredibly rich in detail, and any lover of Central Park could spend many hours with this. However, even for the more casual visitor to Central Park (and there are more than 37 million each year), the map’s tree icons can be used at any point in the park to identify the species of any tree. The only challenge: while many species have easily recognizable icons, some are somewhat similar, making identification more difficult. For example, the icons for the different cedars (northern white and eastern red) are nearly identical at tiny map scale. Still, this map enables some potentially fun activities and could help kick-start a walking arboreal bioblitz: Try to identify and count as many trees as possible while walking, or try to find the sole peach tree, or the six instances of persimmon, or one of our favorites, the Chinese scholartree.

The New York Times says even with the map, it’s still easy to get overwhelmed by all the rich flora in some of the denser areas: “Just inside the Inventors’ Gate at 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue, Mr. Barnard pointed to a diverse group of about 20 species, including the magnolia, the hornbeam with a sinewy bark, the stately American elm, the omnipresent black cherry (there are 3,839 of those on the map), the buckeye, and the invasive Norway maple, which Mr. Chaya jokingly called Eurotrash because it aggressively took resources from other species.”

Interestingly, only about 150 trees are left from the era of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. One from around 1862, the black Tupelo, sits in its own meadown in the Ramble, near the West 70s. Barnard told The New York Times: “Old trees have a sacred element for me. They created us. We’re all mammals that spent our time in the canopy.”

The duo spent more than $40,000 of their own money to design and publish the maps. Neither the city nor the conservancy provided any money, but some proceeds from the maps go back to the conservancy. They just hope to break even on the project.

Let’s hope their efforts prove to be just the first in a slew of projects by dedicated naturalists around the world aimed at unveiling the rich biodiversity found within urban parks.

Learn more about this amazing project, see a slideshow of Chaya and Barnard in Central Park, and purchase the poster ($35) or fold-out walking map ($12.95).

Image credit: Central Park Nature

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Legacy of the Cold War: Germany’s Green Belt

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Environment, Forests, Wildlife on 06/22/2011 | Leave a Comment »

After the split between West and East Germany, Communist planners in the east worked out a 870-mile border fence that moved from the Baltic Sea through Bavaria. On the East German side, the actual border control system started 5 kilometers from the real border, writes Christian Schwagerl, a Der Spiegel writer, in Yale Environment 360. There needed to be room for a ”first line of control, followed by runs for guard dogs. Then came fences with touch-sensitive alarms, sandy strips to detect footprints, guard towers, minefields, bunkers with automated guns, and — finally — the ultimate fence or wall, behind which lay the forbidden land of West Germany.” Now, with the Cold War over for some twenty years, efforts are underway to preserve the relatively pure nature that took form between the antagonists and expand this ”Green Belt” into the backbone of a bold new ecological corridor running throughout Europe.

Friends of the Earth and other conservation groups have joined with German federal and state governments to turn this former “Death Strip,” where escaping Communists were shot, into one of the “world’s most unusual nature preserves.” Schwagerl says the belt is between 30 and a few hundreds meters wide. While not expansive, biologists view the site as ecologically valuable because it was a “safe haven for rare wildlife and plants” for so many years while development occurred on either side of the old borders.

Dieter Leupold, a biologist with Friends of Earth, said: “The European otter, which is endangered throughout Germany, really likes the ditches that were meant to stop vehicles from crossing. We have black storks, moor frogs, white-tailed eagles — basically you can meet the Red List of endangered species here.” In fact, to date, more than 1,000 species from Germany’s Red List of endangered species were identified in the area by teams of volunteer ornithologists, entomologists, botanists, and other biologists.

Now, the idea is to not only continue to preserve the habitat for endangered species within this Green Belt but also connect 20 large protected areas around the old border into a “continuous, pan-European nature preserve stretching from northern Finland to the Black Sea along the route of the former Iron Curtain” so that migratory species can move more easily. Within Germany, the Federal Agency for Conservation has come up with a proposal for the German piece of the system: a national network of ecological corridors branching off the Green Belt. Many of these reserves are also pretty big: the Harz National Park covers more 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres), while the Schaalsee Lake region features a ”15,000-hectare landscape of moors, fens, forests, and meadowlands.”

To ensure the network functions as an ecological corridor for migrating species, a plan for long-term economic sustainability needs to be put in place. According to Schwagerl, much of the land was purchased by the German government, but parts of the area have already been privatized to compensate people for property expropriated by the communists. Political support for the Green Belt is solid, with most German parties seeing the preserve as an environmental success. Even so, Schwagerl says what’s important is to make ”the Green Belt truly sustainable, which means spinning off income and opportunities for the people living alongside it, in an area beset by high unemployment and an exodus of the young.” For now, that means encouraging neighboring communities to earn income from ecotourism and birdwatching.

He says major upcoming work includes ”turning as many sites as possible into formally designated protected areas and closing the 200 kilometers of gaps in the Green Belt.” With the federal government, the Friends of the Earth are trying to buy up much of the remaining private land to use for conservation. Inevitable conflicts with local farmers’ and business groups are expected.

Read the article.

Also, check out the 155-mile-long demilitarized zone in the Korean peninsula, an inadvertant border zone park. In this case, where there’s no peace, nature has also thrived. See an interview with environmental journalist Caroline Fraser, who makes a clear case for valuing and preserving “trans-boundary” parks as ecological corridors.

Image credits: Green Belt / Wikipedia Commons

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The Power of NASA’s Landsat

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Environment, Forests, Technology on 06/15/2011 | 1 Comment »

Why should the U.S. continue to invest $2 billion a year in earth monitoring satellites? According to speakers at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and its Alliance for Earth Observations, real-time environmental data collected from NASA’s Landsat is crucial to managing climate change and other natural disasters such as the ones that happened in Japan and Haiti over the course of the year. Space-based environmental monitoring infrastructure is also needed to track deforestation rates in the world’s rainforests and gauge environmental damages from oilspills and other man-made catastrophes.

To spread real-time environmental images around the world, Fernando Echavarria, Office of Space & Advanced Technology, U.S. State Department, said the U.S. government has been adopted an “open data” policy that has proven to be a challenge to other countries, even those in the E.U. In practice, this has meant making all U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) satellite-collected environmental imagery freely available via NASA’s Landsat, a tool that has been accessed nearly 4 million times worldwide in the last 6 months.

The U.S. is also working through development organizations to help countries in the Middle East set up their own environmental data monitoring operations. In Egypt, Echavarria said the issue was clearly freshwater and energy has been focused on tracking changing flows. There’s also a focus on “geospatial data for cities.” Echavarria thinks this is smart because “if you are going to do sustainable development, you need to be focused on where the people are: cities.”

For Marty Spitzer, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), accessing satellite data is crucial to establishing a baseline for ecosystem restoration. “We need to understand the baseline conditions, and watch the changes over time in order to restore an ecosystem to its former glory.” Satellites are important because many of these domains are simply too vast and hard to navigate on the ground.

National Geographic, which has been involved in mapping the earth for more than 100 years, is focused on using imagery to tell the story of planetary change. Frank Biasi, Director, Digital Maps and Atlases, National Geographic Maps, said National Geographic and other conservation organizations first “establish an inventory, map a place out, and evaluate how species relate to each other. Next, we assess the threats to those ecosystems. Then, we plan and design actions to sustain those threatened resources. Finally, we do those conservation actions, whether its managing resources or prescribing fires.” However, on the ground, the availability of data is “still patchy” for field work so National Geographic is hoping for newer tools to track water resources.

“Collecting all this data is one thing, but getting useful information in a useable format for policymakers is another,” said Kit Batten, climate change coordinator at USAID. She said it’s the role of scientists in government to intepret scientific data clearly for policymakers. However, many scientists don’t even know where to start when communicating the complexities of climate science and navigating the D.C. political minefield. Spitzer agreed, arguing that during his time at the House Science Committee, “you couldn’t put 85 percent of scientists in front my boss” (the committee chairperson).

Perhaps, even more depressing, is another idea Spitzer brought up. He said he initially thought “most people were rational and wanted more data. Who would say no to more information?” However, in some cases, some elected officials “don’t want to know more” because that knowledge will negatively impact the interests of their supporters. “I’ve seen that again and again.”

Despite the controversy over climate change and ongoing debate on how to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, he said the U.S. is still the number one investor globally in climate change data, more so than all other countries. This earth satellite capability must be maintained in order to improve the “resolution” and ability to track changes over time. Echavarria added: “We don’t want other countries taking this role from us. This is a gift to the world.”

Also, check out ESRI’s free landsat “Change Matters” tool, which shows how any place on the globe looked in 1975 and 2000.

Image credit: South America vegetation cover change 1975 – 2000. Landsat / ESRI

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Comments Needed: U.S. National Forest Service’s New Plan

Posted in Ecosystem Services, Forests, Public Spaces, Water Management, Wildlife on 02/11/2011 | Leave a Comment »

The U.S. National Forest Service announced it was seeking broad public input into its new 97-page plan for the country’s 193-million acre forest system. The new plan, according to The New York Times, will better enable the Forest Service to respond to natural disasters and climate change, deal with lawsuits, and empower local forest managers. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack said the updated forest management rules will encourage forest resiliency. The revamped plan, which could “potentially guide mining, logging, and wildlife protection in 155 national forests” is expected to undergo fierce public scrutiny. More than 3,000 participants in 40 public forums have already logged 25,000 comments in the first phase of review.

Forest Service officials said the new plan enables local knowledge and science to take precendence. Managers can now better draw on science related to their local areas and work out the details on the watershed areas and wildlife species that need protecting in specific forests. For example, the issues facing forests in Alaska will be far different from those in Florida.

Still, some environmental groups argue that the minimum requirements are too lax. According to The New York Times, the current forest rules, which were established under President Reagan in 1982, “require that the forest be managed to maintain ‘viable populations’ of all native fish and wildlife. Under the proposed rule, local managers could choose which species would be of ‘conservation concern’ beyond those already receiving mandatory protections under the Endangered Species Act.”

Overall, environmental groups seem split on the plan. Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation advocacy organization, said: “The bottom line is that this is a significant rollback of required protections for wildlife and habitat compared to what currently exists. It is amazing. The public had the right to expect more from the Obama administration.” In addition, in comments to The Washington Post, he was critical of the new plans to give local forest managers more discretion over managing their lands. “They give too much discretion to individual forest supervisors. We don’t know that they’re going to protect species or not. There is no question that this is a rollback to required protection to wildlife habitat.” In contrast, the Sierra Club has said the plan “is a step in the right direction.”

The extensive commenting period is designed to help reduce the expensive litigation the Forest Service has faced in the past. Individual forest plans have taken five to eight years to move forward because of lawsuits and “other hurdles.” Vilsack says this could be reduced to three years with the new plan.

The “proposed planning rule” will be officially released on February 14, starting a 90 public comment period. Learn more about how to comment. There are also public forums, and a blog where responders can ask questions.

Image credit: White River National Forest, Colorado / Camping Tourist

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A New Way to Plant Urban Trees

Posted in Forests, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design, Technology, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Water Management on 11/18/2010 | 26 Comments »

At the 2010 GreenBuild, Peter MacDonagh, the Kestrel Design Group, James Urban, FASLA, Urban Trees + Soils, and Peter Schaudt, FASLA, Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, argued that without new tree planting techniques that use healthy loam soils, major “one million” urban tree planting campaigns will fail, wasting lots of money in the process. MacDonagh said “urban forestry is broken. We need to remake with a different approach.”

Finding out What Works for Urban Trees

Urban trees are now understood to be a central part of green infrastructure systems and provide a range of benefits. They reduce the urban heat island effect, manage stormwater, and provide shade that lengthens the life of materials. In the summer, shadier streets also means lower neighborhood temperatures, which can reduce air pollution that increase asthma rates. “All of these benefits are great, but they won’t happen if we keep planting like we have. It will be a mirage,” argued MacDonagh.

MacDonagh said larger, older trees are far more valuable than youger ones, so work needs to be done to preserve these and use new techniques to enable younger trees to stay in place longer. Citing data, he argued that a 30-inch diameter breast height (DBH) tree provides 70 times the ecological benefits of a 3-inch DBH tree. For example, a large tree intercepts 79 percent of rain hitting the ground, providing the “best green infrastructure you can find.”

The key to preserving larger older trees and keeping younger ones in place up to 50 years or more is to use large amounts of loam or bioretention soils that are 65 percent sand, 20 percent compost and 15 clay silt. These soils are not only the best growing mix for trees, but also filter out heavy metals, phosphorous, and nitrogen most efficiently. Nitrogen runoff can cause algae blooms and kill other life if it’s allowed to get to the watershed in large amounts.

The rule needs to be two cubic feet of loam for one square feet of tree canopy. So, for a tree that provides a 700 square foot canopy a designer needs to use 1,400 cubic feet of high-quality soil. These soils can be combined with “silva cells” that prevent soil compaction to enable the growth of tall, healthy trees. To prove this, MacDonagh showed the work of Bartlett Tree Lab’s Urban Plaza study, which demonstrated that loam soil grew trees had 300 times more leaves and were 1.7 times taller than those grown in compacted soils. “This is important because the average street tree only lasts 13 years.”

To sum up, MacDonough said “codify minimum loam soil volumes, diversify tree species to prevent devastating blights, set minimum canopy targets, and plant small trees properly.” Otherwise, “those million tree campaigns will be exercises in futility.”

Overcoming Obstacles in the Built Environment and Dealing with Increased CO2 Emissions

James Urban, FASLA, said structural soils, which combine broken up rock and soil, have issues so urban tree planters came up with a new idea: suspended pavements. In a new project, Queens Quay, along the Toronto waterfront, these suspended pavements use 48-inch deep silva cells, which kind of look like rubber packing crates, and 1,680 cubic feet of loam per tree. Within the combined loam and silva cells are irrigation systems that move water to the trees. Given the Toronto government was concerned that this system wouldn’t work, Urban says they first tested in a small strip and demonstrated that the approach works.

Here Urban complained about one major obstacle: low tree quality. He argued the “American nursery business isn’t doing its job” and one firm tried to deliver trees with “girdling roots, a fatal flaw that would have killed the tree in five years.” He added that the current nursery “stock of trees is horrible.” If we are going to do million tree campaigns, he asked, “How can we check each one?”

In another project, The Bosque on the new Lincoln Center roof in New York City, Urban worked with Diller, Scofidio + Renfro on planting 30 trees on a roof deck. “There were lots of obstacles — everything is going on in the built urban environment.” Urban navigated the shallow roof, elaborate lighting systems, and thin paving on top of the deck. He ended up adding in “geogrids” and gravel that helped ensure the new platform could provide a safe growing environment for trees and also bear the weight of a light pick-up truck or ambulance.

Urban added that in addition to the CO2 emissions created from hauling in those soils, there were also tons of emissions released from the trailers and cranes that were used to install the huge trees. “Are urban trees really sustainable? Our carbon footprint was so large that these trees will never be able to sequester the amount we just put into the atmosphere.” He argued landscape architects must stop pretending urban trees sequester carbon when they are actually net-producers of carbon if you factor in transportation and installation. Also, landscape architects may be specifying other unsustainable materials (see earlier post).

Still, many progressive city governments including New York City see massive tree planting campaigns as a core part of their climate adaptation plans (see earlier post). Perhaps the questions are: Is there a way to mitigate uban trees’ installation and transportation-related emissions in the short-term with a greener installation technique? If not, does improved long-term resiliency to climate change somehow make up for increased short-term CO2 emissions?

Urban Trees Are Key to Successful Public Spaces

Peter Schaudt outlined his firm’s well-regarded Uptown Normal traffic circle (see earlier post) in Normal, Illinois, which was funded by federal, state, and local governments, “so you can imagine the number of meetings.” Schaudt decided to create a “people space in the center of a roundabout,” which some government officials didn’t think would be safe.

Schaudt thinks the new space, which features a set of urban trees, outer lawn, bog water infiltration system, and circular stream filled with cleansed water, represents the “park of the future.” Instead of seeming dangerous, the circle interior offers a safe space in large part due to the trees, which separate the cars from the social space. Trees in the traffic circle and nearby streets were also supported by silva cells, loam and drip irrigation, using Urban’s approach but on a smaller scale.

The circle’s trees were set-up to live a long time – Schaudt says he plans for the “4th dimension — time,” and likes to show clients what the site will look like in 25 years.

Lastly, MacDonagh added that well-planted trees are not only more cost-efficient, they also provide more ecosystem benefits. To demonstrate cost-efficiency, he pointed to research conduced by Minneapolis’ government, which found that they could either spend $3.5 million on new stormwater conveyance pipes to deal with runoff or spend $1.5 million on silva cell systems. On ecosystem service benefits, another study showed that 13-year old trees planted in standard structured soils had a net cost of $3,000, while a 50-year old tree planted in bioretention soils and silva cells offered $9,000 in benefits over its total lifecycle.

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How Can You Put a Price on Air? Who Would Buy It?

Posted in Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Policy and Regulation on 09/29/2010 | 2 Comments »

It seems a price on the CO2 in air can be determined, and lots of people will buy it, said Denise Farrell, Environmental Capital, at a meeting of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA. In a session that explored how cities and local communities can access voluntary carbon markets to finance landfill gas elimination, wetland restoration, or reforestation projects, experts said carbon credits “can create project revenue” even without a national, regulated carbon market in place.

Lisa Jacobson, Business Council for Sustainable Energy, said the idea of a carbon market “took a huge hit” on Capitol Hill during the recent debate on the comprehensive climate and energy bill. However, there is still a growing bottom-up call for market-based approaches that can “generate revenue for good projects.”

What Is a Carbon Market?

A carbon market can be defined as a process of measuring and monitoring the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There are two major types of markets: regulatory markets which are used for verified greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, and voluntary markets, which is the option available in most of the U.S. The E.U. currently has a regulated market, formed under the Kyoto Protocol. Under the Kyoto system, developed countries can buy GHG emission offsets structured and verified by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which provides funds to developing countries for their GHG reduction projects. The U.S. has never signed on to the Kyoto Protocol so largely operates in voluntary markets (except for California, which has its own regulated market).

Dealing with environmental pollution through a cap and trade system, which Jacobson said will now “need a new name,” is an approach that has some history in the U.S. The approach already exists under the Clean Air Act and has been used for reducing other types of environmental air pollution. In the system proposed for GHG emissions, the government would set a cap, the E.P.A. would issue allowances equal to the cap, and capped utilities and other entities would need to retire allowances at the end of the year equal to their annual emissions. “If they are short, they can purchase allowances or they can buy offsets.”

Offsets are a financial tool designed to reduce emissions efficiently. An entity can purchase and retire offsets. One offset is usually equal to one metric ton of CO2 (or even methane). These offsets are called carbon credits when they are used for an environmental compliance program.

The American Carbon Registry (ACR), California Climate Action Registry, WWF’s Gold Standard, and the Voluntary Carbon Standard are all ways to register local GHG emissions reduction projects but each have different methodologies. Unfortunately, however, it seems registering a project’s GHG emission reductions isn’t so quick and easy. The emissions reductions still need to be verified by a 3rd party to ensure they are “real, surplus, additional, permanent, net of leakage, fungible, and transferable.”

To be viable, the GHG emission reduction projects “can’t be business as usual.” The project designers must be targeting GHG emission reductions as a key goal. Kyoto mandates credits need to be enough to justify the project. “Real” implies they must be verifiable. “Permanent” means projects can’t be reversed. “Net of leakage” relates to the boundaries of a project, and forestry projects are especially complex in this regard. This means that “landfill methane gas capture projects are the easiest because the gas can be destroyed. Forests are the hardest because, over time, trees grow or parts of the forest gets cut down. Also, you have to estimate GHG emission reductions over a 100 year period but verify annually,” said Farrell. Other complex issues involve ownership. “Who owns the emission reductions?”

Accessing Voluntary Carbon Markets to Finance Projects Now

In 2009, some 94 million tons of GHG emissions worth nearly $400 million were traded. Despite the debate on Capitol Hill, the market has been growing, says Farrell. While there are a range of voluntary or regulated markets for nutrients, water, wetlands, and other ecosystem services, project designers seeking to tap the existing voluntary carbon market can’t get “credit in multiple places.” The concept of ecosystem services is all about “aggregating the benefits along the value chain.” In comparison, carbon markets are just about isolating out and verifying the GHG emission reductions. So while a project may provide ecosystem services naturally, designers can’t financially benefit from both markets at the same time. In other words, either benefit from an environmental market or design the project to generate GHG emission reduction revenue, says Farrell. “Carbon finance has to be central to the inception of the project.”

Beyond defining the project so it meets the criteria of a registry, the project designers must also actively seek out a potential buyer. “Some projects involving selling credits in five-year increments or by year” and buyers may be interested in one over the other. Designers need to put together the project with prospective buyers, which are mostly large corporations seeking to offset their own emissions through corporate responsibility programs. Google, for instance, is buying a lot of carbon credits but is mostly interested in “charismatic carbon,” or projects that have high-profile GHG emission reductions. Walmart and other major retail firms are buying carbon to meet the terms of disclosure rules. The E.P.A.’s Climate Leader program is also a place to find some of the 300 major corporate buyers of carbon, who need to purchase a set number of tons to meet their climate leader goals. Lastly, E.U. hedge funds are also buying up American emissions. “They think the crazy Americans are totally undervaluing their carbon.”

Given the growth in demand for carbon, cities and communities are now in a position to create their own carbon mitigation projects (or even voluntary markets). “There’s lots of buyer interest in the projects of municipalities and public authorities because they are reputable agents.” Plus, municipal records are “transparent and open to the public.” Farrell sees composting, recycling, and green building efficiency as potential carbon markets, but “says you have to find buyers” interested in these specific areas.

Farrell argued that the future of the voluntary markets will be shaped by what happens on Capitol Hill. “Will existing credits be absorbed into a new federal system?” If it passes, Proposition 23 in California will also have a major impact on the Western Climate Initiative and “ripple effects” on the price of carbon throughout the U.S.

Image credit: Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment

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Restoring Wetlands to Save the Gulf

Posted in Climate Change, Forests, Water Management on 09/21/2010 | Leave a Comment »

According to Places, Louisiana State University’s interdisciplinary Coastal Sustainability Studio has been exploring the post-Katrina landscape of Louisiana and the Gulf South. The group has found that New Orleans and other local communities won’t be safe from future storms and flooding until the delta is allowed to function, natural soils are allowed to build up, and the region’s extensive wetland ecosystem is restored and integrated into local communities. The trick will be getting the powerful economic interests (shipping and industrial firms that depend on the artificially-hardened, deepend waterways) and local communities to buy into the natural protections that are needed.

Elizabeth Mossop, ASLA, Director of the Landscape Architecture Department, Louisiana State University, and Jeffrey Carney, manager of the Coastal Sustainability Studio, have found that “without massive land-building efforts, the coastal region will disappear” by 2100. The goal of their studio is to come up with more natural development plans for a region facing rising continual severe storms and rising sea levels. However, any solution for future development must also take into account the “natural flux of the Mississippi River,” which is the result of “the geophysical forces of the Delta,” a history of large-scale civil and environmental engineering projects, and the local culture.

Mossop and Carney say a history of resource extraction, expansion, shipping, urban development, and flood protection schemes in the region have contribute to the current problems in the region: “Today it is unmistakably clear that the results of human intervention — dramatically escalating land loss and rapid wetland destruction are only the most visible signs — are imperiling the future of Louisiana. The amplification of the impacts of these interventions has brought us to this moment in the early 21st century when, following a series of disastrous storms, the engineered landscape of coastal Louisiana has reached its breaking point.”

New Orleans has borne the brunt of misguided interventions in the natural landscape. “Again, it is human activity — the constraining of the delta with levees, the petrochemical industry’s fragmentation of coastal landscapes, and the inappropriate location of urban development — that has accelerated the loss of protective wetlands and barrier islands and created the catastrophic situation we face today. Many communities are highly vulnerable to the potential damages of future flooding and storms.”

The Coastal Sustainability Studio calls for a new approach to development in the region that is rooted in current realities. This means understanding the reality of the region’s environment, and that future severe storms and sea level rise are a given. Also, the local communities present another type of reality — there are a set of political and economic conditions on the ground that need to be considered.

The studio thinks the Mississippi River should return to its early role as a “delta builder.” Given it’s impossible to return to the early untouched landscape, coastal scientists, engineers, and designers will need to focus on how to mitigate the impact of the growth of communities, industries and shipping along the river. A series of “spillways” could be constructed along strategic points in the gulf, which can be opened to allow in sediment. The sediment can “build up, maintain, and protect large expanses of land.” There could then be an additional set of “five diversions,” which would operate at the endpoints of delta basins. Each diversion would be a combo of “hard” and “soft infrastructure (see earlier post). ”Our goal is to make the river once again flexible and powerful, with the resulting land-river dynamics working in harmony with existing and future delta communities.”

Local communities, they argue, can adjust to a new, fluctuating, fertile landscape that is more connected to the river.” The neighborhood as we know it will have to evolve — to become better integrated with natural systems and flexible to changing water levels. Its architecture will have to become nimble, and increased open space will be needed to absorb seasonal floodwaters.” In New Orleans, Mossop and Carney call for the Lower Ninth Ward to return to its earlier wetland state, providing a flexible protective middle zone. “To do this, we propose restoring the Central Wetlands Unit — the 30,000 acres of cypress forest that once protected the Lower Ninth from hurricanes.”

Read the article

Also, check out an interview with Yale ecologist Os Schmitz, who has also argued for the return of wetlands to the region. He also says recent research proves that most ecosystems can be restored or recreated.

Image credit: New Orleans Wetland Protection System / LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio

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San Francisco’s Urban Forest Map Calculates Value of Ecosystem Services

Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Forests, Technology, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Water Management on 06/02/2010 | Leave a Comment »

San Francisco’s city government, along with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and Friends of the Urban Forest, recently launched the Urban Forest Map, an open-source web-based tool that not only catalogues the city’s trees, but puts an economic value on the range of ecosystem services they provide the city.

Amber Bieg, manager of the project, said Urban Forest Map is like ”a census for trees.” Just like human populations are estimated through personal data submitted by residents, this tool will also rely on data and images uploaded from around the city. Fast Company explains: “The reasoning behind the ambitious project is simple: San Francisco has only 90,000 trees in its database, but there are hundred of thousands in the city. It costs city governments $3 to catalog a single tree. So instead of wasting city cash on the issue, the UFM intends to harness the power of community for a comprehensive database.”

The idea is to also demonstrate the enormous value of trees. Urban Forest Map enables users to calculate the economic value of the ecosystem services trees provide, including greenhouse gas mitigation, water storage, and air quality improvement. The economic value of benefits are calculated by tree species in a given area. As an example, 201 Fern Pines (Podocarpus gracilior) across the city were calculated as providing $8,109 in benefits, made up of the following categories: greenhouse gas benefits (5,715 lbs CO2 reduced and $3,199 saved); water benefits (105,615 gallons conserved and $422 saved); energy benefits (6,813k Wh conserved and $4,277 saved); and air quality benefits (26lbs pollutants reduced and $209 saved).

The program also fits in nicely with San Francisco’s Data SF, its broader open data initiative. Using the site, technologists can layer tree data with geographic data. According to the City of San Francisco, “that data can then be used by urban foresters and city planners to better manage trees in specific areas, track and combat tree pests and diseases, and plan future tree plantings. Climatologists can use it to better understand the effects of urban forests on climates, and students can use it to learn about the role trees play in the urban ecosystem.” Additionally, the city can also use the program to build community support for broader tree planting programs. A number of cities are now promoting million tree campaigns.

Hopefully, this open-source tool will be plugged-in elsewhere, enabling other cities and states to make stronger cases for the role trees play in biosequestering carbon, storing water, reducing energy use, and creating more livable communities.

Check out Urban Forest Map and watch a brief video at Good Magazine.

Image credit: Urban Forestry Map

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