Fall 2017 Lecture Series

Thursday, September 14, 2017

12:00pm to 1:00pm

The Impact of Climate Change on Street Trees in California

Joe McBride, UC Berkeley

Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning

Speaker Information

Professor Emeritus of the Departments of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley. During his 44 year career at the University of California he taught courses in ecological analysis, forest ecology, urban forestry, and California Landscapes. He currently teaches Urban Ecology and hydrology at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. His research has focused on various aspects of urban forestry as well as studies of forest succession. The urban forest research includes studies of the effects of trees on air pollution in urban areas, transition of wildland forest to urban forests, the influence of biome characteristics on urban forests around the world, the reconstruction of urban forest destroyed by warfare, and the impact of climate change on street trees in California. McBride received a B.S. in forestry from the University of Montana and M.S. (Forestry) and Ph.D. (Botany) degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Marsh Rotunda, 360 Prospect Street
12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
Free and open to the public.
Lunch provided.

Abstract

The Impact of Climate Change on Street Trees in California

Climate change will alter the species composition of urban tree populations through a combination of modified precipitation regimes and increased temperatures. Likely changes in the composition of common street tree species in California were examined using the ‘space-for- time’ substitution method. Sixteen cities covering the climatic range of the state (“representative city”) were paired with a “warm city” counterpart, where the climate of today approximates the climate of the representative city in 2099. Of the 140 tree species found, as many as 83 species may be unsuitable for the future warmer climate in specific cities. This change is geographically non-uniform, with greater losses (up to 100% of common species unsuitable for future climate) found in cities away from the coast. In contrast, applying the “climate envelope” approach, i.e., assessing climate suitability of tree species from published sources based on the geographic distribution of a species, reduces the number of unsuitable species to as few as 14, although a more rigorous “professional judgment” approach that accounts for the substantial gaps in the “climate envelope” information results in 56 unsuitable tree species. The difference between the observed and estimated results (83 unsuitable species vs. 56) is likely caused by the climate envelope information insufficiently accounting for the irrigation needs of newly-planted street trees in the Mediterranean-type climates like California. The results of this study demonstrate the viability of the ‘space-for- time’ substitution method for evaluating possible climate change effects on urban trees, and suggest both an immediate need to re-evaluate the planting palette of street trees, and a long-term imperative to trial new tree species.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Street tree mortality and demography: Case studies and general concepts

Lara Roman

Speaker Information

Lara Roman is a Research Ecologist with the US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Philadelphia Field Station. She studies the temporal dynamics of urban forests, including tree mortality and growth, canopy cover change, historical development of urban forests, species composition change, and citizen science monitoring. Her studies take a participatory research approach, collaborating with practitioners for study design and implementation. She has been funded by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, the TREE Fund, the Garden Club of America, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and the Schwabacher and Berkeley Fellowships. She received a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelors in Biology and Masters of Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Roman is currently the chair of the Urban Tree Growth & Longevity (UTGL) Working Group, an affiliate of the International Society of Arboriculture, and she serves on the Citizen Science Core Team of the Forest Service. Through the UTGL, she is also leading the development of standard protocols for urban tree monitoring.

Abstract

Street tree mortality and demography – Case studies and general concepts

Massive city planting campaigns have invigorated the urban greening movement, and engaged politicians, planners, and the public in urban forestry. These planting campaigns – and urban forestry programs in general – depend on tree survival to deliver benefits over the long-term. However, recent studies show that many planted urban trees do not survive to maturity. In this presentation, I will review fundamental concepts in urban forest population dynamics (i.e., tree demography), with a focus on the cultivated street tree environment. Sustaining the urban forest requires attention to the full life cycle of planting, growth and maintenance, removal, and replanting. A meta-analysis of published street tree survival rates challenges the myth that street trees have a seven-year average lifespan; the real typical lifespans are higher, yet still troublesome for long-term performance of planting programs. Results from field monitoring of planted street tree cohorts in Oakland and East Palo Alto, California, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will also be presented. Young tree stewardship has been shown to be critical to survival, and thereby to broader delivery of ecosystem services. Intensive tree care by volunteers and youth staff lead to tree survival, and on the flip side, neglect and inappropriate care lead to mortality. To promote increases in the total counts of city trees or tree canopy cover, it is critical to have long-term commitments to not only plant trees, but also maintain them. Moving forward, researchers and practitioners have collaborated to produce standards for urban tree monitoring. These protocols can provide urban forestry professionals with information to evaluate the success of their planting initiatives while engaging citizen scientists and student interns, and simultaneously expand data sets available to researchers. Such partnerships to co-produce knowledge are essential to connect research and practice in urban ecosystems.

Monday, October 23, 2017

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Urban tree coverage and residents’ social conditions: Case studies in Baltimore and Beijing

Ganlin Huang, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Visiting Fellow

Speaker Information

Ganlin Huang is an Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources, Beijing Normal University. She teaches “Environment and health” and “Ecosystem services and human well-being” to undergraduates. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Vermont in 2008 and worked as a Postdoc researcher in Plant Science and as a Mapping Lab Coordinator at the Center for Regional Change, UC Davis (2008-2011). She studies urban ecosystem services and human well-being focusing on urban heat islands, urban parks, green spaces and air quality. She looks at how urban parks and green spaces serve residents, including their spatial distribution and potential impact factors. Her research emphasizes an environmental justice dimension, examining how people from different socioeconomic groups may benefit differently from their surrounding environments.

Abstract

Urban tree coverage and residents’ social conditions: Case studies in Baltimore and Beijing

Urban heat island not only impacts the comfort of urban dwellers, but also increases energy use, ozone production, and the death risk for humans in a heat wave. Our research focuses on the variation in land surface temperature as well as its relationship with tree coverage and residents’ social conditions in Baltimore, Maryland. We found that tree coverage is the driving factor causing both social conditions (race and income) and temperature to change. Based on this finding, we examined the spatial distributions of tree coverage and residents’ social conditions in Beijing. To further understand how residents may benefit from urban green space, we investigated how air pollution may change people’s park visit behaviors. Finally, we combined the spatial patterns of tree coverage, air quality and social conditions in Beijing to discuss how environment benefits different socioeconomic groups.

Monday, November 6, 2017

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Dreams and Nightmares of Urban Restoration Ecology

Steven N. Handel, PhD, Hon. ASLA, Rutgers University and Visiting Professor of Ecology at Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Distinguished Professor

Speaker Information

Steven Handel studies the potential to restore native plant communities, adding sustainable ecological services, biodiversity, and amenities to the landscape. He has explored pollination, seed dispersal, population growth, ecological genetics, and most recently, problems of urban and heavily degraded lands. Working with both biologists and landscape designers, he is improving our understanding of restoration protocols and applying this knowledge to public projects and to environmental initiatives.

He is currently Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University, and Visiting Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Deisgn. Previously, he was a biology professor and director of the Marsh Botanic Garden at Yale University. He is also Director of the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology, an initiative of Rutgers, dedicated to teaching graduate students and professionals, and conducting research on rebuilding and improving urban native habitats. In 2006, he also was awarded an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Ecology at the Univ. of California, Irvine. He was Visiting Professor of Ecology at Stockholm Univ., Sweden, in 2009.

Dr. Handel is an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and a Certified Senior Ecologist of the Ecological Society of America, and is the Editor of the professional journal Ecological Restoration. For his scientific achievements, he has been named as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), of the Australian Institute of Biology, and of The Explorers Club. In 2000, he was awarded the Board of Directors Service Award by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). In 2007, he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for “national or international significant achievements… to the profession.” He then received the SER’s highest international research honor, the Theodore M. Sperry Award in 2011 “…for pioneering work in the restoration of urban areas.” He has led national workshops for the U.S. EPA to train environmental specialists in ecology. He was on the State of New Jersey Invasive Species Council, recommending new public policies to halt habitat degradation.

He has been a lead member of landscape design teams doing ecological restoration in urban areas, including the Fresh Kills landfill and Brooklyn Bridge Park in NYC, the Duke Farms Foundation 2,700 acre holdings and the Great Falls National Historical Park in NJ, the landscape for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Summer Games, the new 1,450 acre Orange County Great Park in California, and the forestlands of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta. Recognition for this work includes 2008 and 2009 ASLA National Awards of Honor for Analysis & Planning, 2009 and 2015 ASLA National Honor Awards for Research, 2009 American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Honor Award in Regional & Urban Design, and the 2009 American Planning Association National Planning Excellence Award for Innovation in Regional Planning, and the 2015 ASLA National Honor Award for Communication. The U. S. National Science Foundation, EPA, National Park Service, and private foundations have supported his research. Handel has been an invited lecturer at over 200 universities and meetings throughout the world, teaching his concepts for ecologically improving urban land.

EDUCATION
B.A. Major in Biological Sciences, Columbia University.
M.S. and Ph.D. Field of Ecology and Evolution, Cornell University.

Abstract

Dreams and Nightmares of Urban Restoration Ecology

There is great interest in increasing ecological structure and function is urban centers. What are realistic goals for this work and what ecological links can be rebuilt to overcome the stresses of urban environments? We have worked with landscape architects on the design of ecological public parks in cities from Brooklyn to Beijing.

Monday, November 27, 2017

12:00pm to 1:00pm

Korea's Planning for Healthy Cities

Shi-Chul Lee, Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Yale FES

Professor of Kyungpook National University, South Korea

Speaker Information

Shi-Chul LEE, Professor of Kyungpook National Univ. (KNU), S. Korea, now Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Yale FES, was Dean of Academic Affairs; Dean of Strategy & Finance; and Dean of Graduate School of Public Administration at KNU for the past five years. He also served as Editor-in-chief of Journal of Local Government Studies (2012-14) and taught undergraduate courses at the Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst for three semesters (2009-10). He had served both national and major local government for 15 years before entering academia in 2003; his last government job was Director-General of Transportation Bureau in Daejeon Metropolitan City, Korea’s fifth largest city. He acquired a Ph.D. at the Univ. of Washington in 2000 (Dissertation: “Measuring acceptance of regulatory growth management policy”). With research interests being local government, green urbanism, and health impact of urban policies, he has recently authored: Recent decentralization challenges in Korea (2007); Implications of green urbanism for Korea's urban management (2013); A Tale of Two Greens: European green urbanism and Korea’s Green Growth policies (2015); Health impact of spatial planning: An inquiry comparing Sweden and Korea (2016), etc.

Abstract

Exploring probable linkage between health and urban planning: Korea's case

This lecture will build on the now-popular research topic linking urban planning and individual health by presenting the case of South Korea. Dr. Lee will provide an introduction of the cities and planning system of the highly-centralized, rags-to-riches country, focusing on a comparative perspective toward investigating Korean and American practices. While there is growing evidence in the research literature focused on the planning-health connection in the U.S., the linkage in either theoretical or practical terms has yet to be explored and evaluated in Korea’s planning literature. Using Suseong District (a major autonomous district in Daegu¬) as a case study, Dr. Lee will review relevant programs currently practiced. He will discuss whether planning at the local government level affects the residents’ health in Korea, and examine what planning factors contribute to variations in health outcomes.