Project Clearinghouse

Quantifying Urban Tree Canopy in the City of Santa Cruz

Sustainability Problem and Proposed Solution: 

Understanding the distribution of tree canopy change can inform where tree planting, growth, death, and removal is occurring relative to different communities. By locating areas where there has been little or no growth we can better direct future planting projects. The outcome of this project will result in repopulating the urban canopy by focusing on canopy deficit areas, which we believe coincides with areas where low-income residents live in Santa Cruz.

Jump to: Contact | Project Description | Funding Sources | How to Join | Metrics for Success | Results
Project Categories: 
Land, Habitat, Watershed
Energy & Climate
Social Justice
Project Status: 
In Progress
Project End Date: 
06/01/2017
(estimated)
Affiliated Department, Unit or College: 
Center for Integrated Spatial Research, Environmental Studies
Project Location: 
Both on and off campus

UC Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Proper


Stakeholder Contacts: 
Contact NameEmail AddressContact NumberDepartment
Erik Lowe
enlowe@ucsc.edu
8314595740
Environmental Studies
Tiffany Wise-West
TWise-West@cityofsantacruz.com
How to Join: 
Email Erik (enlowe@ucsc.edu) for information on getting involved in this project. Ideal partners will have experience in GIS and remote-sensing.
Funding Sources: 
UCSC Carbon Fund
City of Santa Cruz

Project Description: 

By developing Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) algorithms, we can gain a detailed "view" of the landscape and accurately quantify the Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) in Santa Cruz. Initially, these results will provide a baseline quantification of the UTC in which all subsequent analyses (2-year interval) will be compared to. These results will inform how the City implements future planting projects and help them achieve their Climate Action Milestone of a 10% UTC increase by 2020. By April 2017 (tentatively), we will have estimations for the years of 2010, 2012, 2014. Additionally, a community level analysis will be performed which will investigate the spatial distribution of UTC relative to different demographics. By June 2017, a final report will be delivered to the Carbon Fund and data layers will be compiled into the City's GIS database.

Metrics for Success: 

Success will be measured based on the accuracy of our derived Urban Tree Canopy estimations. Accuracy will be assessed by comparing OBIA results to hand-digitized quantifications.

Result Categories: 
Infrastructure/Built Environment
Technology
Data Collection & Analysis
Results: 

Results:
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) layers showing Urban Tree Canopy regions in the City of Santa Cruz
- Community Level Analysis investigating the spatial distribution of derived Tree Canopy relative Santa Cruz Communities.
- Object-Based Image Analysis algorithms/routines for future analyses