Digital Commons Network^™

Applying Asset Management Principles To Urban Natural Areas In Portland, Patrick R. Key

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Portland, Oregon’s Parks & Recreation Bureau has developed a protocol to assess our managed natural areas using an asset management framework. We utilized traditional asset management best practices to create a rapid, actionable protocol that also establishes parity between natural asset assessments and our existing inventory of built asset assessments, such as playgrounds, bridges, and trails. The results of these natural area assessments will help inform resource allocation, planning for future fiscal needs, and prioritization of on-the-ground interventions.

Beyond Tree Planting In Urban Forest Climate Adaptation Actions, Michael T. Yadrick Jr., Lisa A. Ciecko, Weston Brinkley

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Forests in cities, and the communities that steward and benefit from them, face significant disruption due to climate change. It is now time to build the capacity in our institutions and in forested natural areas to help navigate multiple overlapping crises and systems change. This case study from Seattle, Washington provides perspective on how to mitigate climate change beyond tree planting.

Developing A Protocol For Assessing Natural Area Function In Portland, Oregon, Christa Von Behren

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

The Revegetation Program at the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services aims to use active adaptive management to steward natural areas in our portfolio, but we have lacked an adequate monitoring protocol to effectively implement this approach. We spent three years developing and testing a functional assessment protocol to assess progress toward management goals and to infer performance of different ecological functions. We completed our first data collection during the field season of 2022.

Second Addenda To The Special Issue: The Science And Practice Of Managing Forests In Cities, Sam W. Lawson, Sophie Plitt

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

In this second set of addenda to our first special issue, The Science and Practice of Managing Forests in Cities, we present seven new case studies documenting approaches to evaluating, managing, and protecting forested natural areas in cities across the U.S. These case studies were presented at the fourth gathering of the Forests in Cities network which took place in Miami-Dade County, Florida in February, 2024.

Sustaining Urban Forests In Post-Industrial Cities: Place Attachment, Ecology, And Stewardship Potential, Paige S. Warren, Robert L. Ryan, Brenda K. Bushouse, Krista Harper, Kristina Stinson

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

People value urban green spaces for enjoying nature and socializing with friends, family, and other park users. However, overgrown urban forests without clear access points can be perceived as dark, dangerous, and wild places. As many cities experience reduced budgets, they struggle to maintain green spaces established in more prosperous times. We conducted a descriptive analysis of how constrained parks budgets and subsequent city decisions about maintenance are associated with patterns of forest use, place attachment, and social capital and their impacts on the potential for stewardship of forested parks. We selected Springfield, Massachusetts for our study because it is …

Langdon Park Forest Patch: How Three Women Turned Their Tree Rescue Efforts Into A Public-Private Partnership In Community-Based Forest Stewardship., James Woodworth, Kelly Collins Choi, Robert Corletta, Delores Bushong, Mary Pat Rowan, Allison Clausen

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, community tree activists engaged in tree rescue activities in Washington, D.C.’s Langdon Park. They cleared non-native invasive vines and cataloged native tree species within the park’s 2.2-acre forest patch. Over the last 2+ years, they endeavored to share their story of forest stewardship, garnering support from district agencies and local non-profit Casey Trees. The ensuing collaboration has led to a healthier forest with greater community connection.

Addenda To The Special Issue: The Science And Practice Of Managing Forests In Cities, Sophie Plitt, Clara C. Pregitzer

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

In these addenda to our first special issue, The Science and Practice of Managing Forests in Cities, we present five new case studies documenting approaches to conserving, managing, and building an equitable workforce for Forested Natural Areas in cities across the U.S. These case studies were presented at the third annual gathering of the Forests in Cities network which took place in Seattle, Washington in November, 2022.

Assessing Invasive Plant Species In Louisville’S Urban Forest, Elizabeth Winlock

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Within Louisville, KY’s network of urban green space and forests, invasive plant management is vital to protecting biodiversity and allowing native species to thrive. Partners across the city have been working to identify non-native invasive species, map their spread, monitor how they affect native species, and mitigate damage from invasive plants. Much of that falls into three categories:

1) Mapping patterns of invasive plant presence in relation to disturbance

2) Recording the effects of various management practices and

3) Tracking forest health through the regeneration of native tree seedlings and saplings

This data is used to inform management plans and …

Leveraging Community Support To De-Vine New Haven’S Natural Areas, Danica Doroski, Christopher Ozyck, Colleen Murphy-Dunning

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

This case study discusses the Urban Resources Initiative’s efforts to remove invasive vines from natural areas in New Haven, CT. The Urban Resources Initiative (URI) is the primary urban forestry organization in New Haven, and community engagement is a key feature of their programming. Working with a combination of local stewardship groups (“Community Greenspace”) and a workforce program (“GreenSkills”) for previously incarcerated individuals and teens, URI began hosting vine removal workdays in New Haven’s parks as a way to both protect critical components of the city’s forest canopy and build interest and investment in the city’s natural areas.

Evidence For The Effects Of Wind On The Biogeography Of Soil Mites In Urban Tree Wells, John R. Mceachern

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

The theoretical predictions of island biogeography have been applied successfully by a number of researchers studying the population and community structures of invertebrates living in large urban parks and remnant natural areas. Few, however, have examined the biogeography of smaller patches and the role that specific dispersal techniques play in shaping species distributions. In this study, I examine the impact of several biogeographical and environmental factors, including wind channelization effects, on the abundance of soil mites in small, urban tree wells in Westminster, Maryland. By testing five models that include the variables of well area, isolation, and dominate wind direction, …

Spatiotemporal Relationships Of Coyotes And Free-Ranging Domestic Cats As Indicators Of Conflict In Culver City, California, Rebecca N. Davenport, Melinda Weaver, Katherine C. B. Weiss, Eric G. Strauss

Center for Urban Resilience Scholarship

As habitat generalists, urban coyote (Canis latrans) populations often utilize an abundance of diverse food sources in cities. Within southern California, domestic cats (Felis catus) comprise a higher proportion of coyote diets than in other studied urban areas throughout the United States. However, it is unclear which ecological factors contribute to higher rates of cat depredation by coyotes in this region. While previous research suggests that coyote presence may have a negative effect on free-ranging domestic cat distributions, few studies have determined whether urban green spaces affect coyote or free-ranging domestic cat occurrence and activity within …

Contextual Considerations Of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Siting, Dexter H. Locke, Amanda K. Phillips De Lucas, Colleen Murphy-Dunning, Dawn Henning, Giovanni Zinn

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Green infrastructure increasingly is used to ameliorate water quality and quantity problems caused by runoff in cities. Studies show how the spatial distribution of these Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) sites are unevenly distributed relative to socioeconomic and demographic groups. Often this is described as an indicator of perpetuated environment injustice, given the purported social and environmental benefits of GSI. To assess equity, researchers often examine either who gets what with respect to environmental ‘goods’ such as tree canopy and other green infrastructures, or investigate the procedures, decision making processes, and power structures pertaining to planning processes. This paper uses both …

Prioritization And Planning To Improve Urban Tree Health In The Chicago Region, Lydia Scott, Karen Ann Miller, Joseph Mccarthy, Matthew Freer, Lindsay Darling, Melissa Custic

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

The Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI) has collected one of the largest data sets on urban forestry in the United States. This data informs where and how CRTI prioritizes its work and capacity building. This data has been incorporated into interactive online resources that communities and neighborhoods can access to help decision makers, landowners, and managers understand where and what to plant, the value of the urban forest, impacts of woody invasive species, heat island challenges, and where opportunities exist for oak ecosystem enhancement. This data helps CRTI and its partners to prioritize action.

Plant Community Assessment And Management Recommendations For Minneapolis Park Natural Areas, Marcia A. Holmberg, Debra L. Pilger, Jeremy R. Barrick

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

In 2017 the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) began a two-phase study to collect quantitative and qualitative data for urban park natural areas in Minneapolis, MN parks to inform management activities. The first phase took existing GIS data and quality ranking systems and tailored them to the Minneapolis park system. The second phase, which is still in process, involves field checking the data, applying the quality ranking system, and writing a management plan.

Theoretical Perspectives Of The Baltimore Ecosystem Study: Conceptual Evolution In A Social–Ecological Research Project, Steward T. A. Pickett, Mary L. Cadenasso, Matthew E. Baker, Lawrence E. Band, Christopher G. Boone, Geoffrey L. Buckley, Peter M. Groffman, J. Morgan Grove, Elena G. Irwin, Sujay S. Kaushal, Shannon L. Ladeau, Andrew J. Miller, Charles H. Nilon, Michele Romolini, Emma J. Rosi, Christopher M. Swan, Katalin Szlavecz

Center for Urban Resilience Scholarship

The Earth’s population will become more than 80% urban during this century. This threshold is often regarded as sufficient justification for pursuing urban ecology. However, pursuit has primarily focused on building empirical richness, and urban ecology theory is rarely discussed. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) has been grounded in theory since its inception and its two decades of data collection have stimulated progress toward comprehensive urban theory. Emerging urban ecology theory integrates biology, physical sciences, social sciences, and urban design, probes interdisciplinary frontiers while being founded on textbook disciplinary theories, and accommodates surprising empirical results. Theoretical growth in urban ecology …

Assessing The Potential Of Urban Ecology Research To Inform Municipal Sustainability Practices, Gaston Small, Michael Simeon, Paliza Shrestha, Maria Dahmus, Elise L. Amel

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Cities are increasingly making decisions related to sustainability, and information from the field of urban ecology may be useful in informing these decisions. However, the potential utility of this information may not translate into it actually being used. We surveyed municipal sustainability staff through the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program documenting their information needs and information sources, and used these results to identify the frequency with which urban ecologists are publishing studies of potential relevance to practitioners. We also quantified funded awards from the U.S. National Science Foundation in urban ecology that explicitly describe active partnerships with city policy makers. Our …

Socioeconomic Factors Associated With Increasing Street Tree Density And Diversity In Central Indianapolis, Ben Lockwood, Adam Berland

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Urban trees provide an abundance of benefits to city residents. Information about the geographic distribution of urban trees is critical to ensure equitable access to these benefits. Street trees are unique among urban trees because they are often managed by municipalities as a public resource, but they are challenging to manage in part because they are spatially dispersed across a city in close proximity to private property. While street tree inventory data sets are costly to generate, they provide important information to understand the spatial distribution of trees in the city and to plan for ongoing street tree management. Here, …

Managing Cities As Urban Ecosystems: Fundamentals And A Framework For Los Angeles, California, Isaac T. Brown

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Ecosystem-based frameworks offer a robust platform for managing complex ecological challenges associated with land management. Actionable frameworks for urban ecosystems are just emerging, and the purpose of this essay is to support advancing application in city management contexts. Comprehensive urban ecosystem frameworks have the potential to synergize interrelated, yet often siloed, urban environmental management themes including urban biodiversity and natural features, pollution management, ecosystem services enhancement, and natural hazards; particularly as urban sustainability, resiliency, and infrastructure initiatives increasingly reshape cities and elevate consideration of these topics. This essay begins with a review of fundamentals of urban ecosystems across multiple relevant …

Analyzing The Impact Of Demographics On Resident Use And Understanding Of Urban Green Spaces, Emily R. Simso

Honors Thesis

Urban ecology is the study of how humans interact with their built surroundings, particularly in cities, which have high population densities and significantly altered natural environments. A subset of this field looks specifically at urban green spaces, which are vital areas for community health and environmental benefits. In this study, residents from Inglewood, Santa Monica, and Culver City, California were surveyed to determine how demographics affect their use and understanding of green spaces in their neighborhood. Data was collected from 98 individuals over the three cities at parks, libraries, and farmers’ markets to best represent the city’s known demographics. Statistical …

Differentiating Urban Forms: A Neighborhood Typology For Understanding Urban Water Systems, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, Philip A. Stoker, Martin Buchert, Joanna Endter-Wada, Carlos V. Licon, Molly S. Cannon, Shujuan Li, Zack Bjerregaard, Luke Bell

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

With rising populations and changing climates, urban areas need water systems capable of meeting a range of social, economic and environmental sustainability objectives. Different configurations of urban growth and development also produce varying water system outcomes. In this paper we develop a multi-dimensional classification scheme that identifies distinct configurations of ‘urban forms’ in Northern Utah, USA. We identified characteristics within urban landscapes that have been linked in the scientific literature to three types of water outcomes: water demand, water budgets, and water quality. Using publicly-available data at the census block scale, we create a typology of urban neighborhoods that share …

Cities And The Environment: Eight Years Of Urban Ecology Research And Practice, Eric G. Strauss, Laurel Hunt, Michele Romolini, Dexter H. Locke

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Since its inception, Cities and the Environment has sought to showcase a broad range of urban environmental research and practice. Thus, as we celebrate the closing of our eighth anniversary, the purpose of this paper is to remind (or, for some, introduce) researchers and practitioners of the aims and scope of the journal by describing the first eight years of its history, and to outline our vision for the next eight years.

Cities, Gardening, And Urban Citizenship: Transforming Vacant Acres Into Community Resources, Matthew Delsesto

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

What does the urban gardener do, in the process of reclaiming and transforming previously vacant and abandoned land? What are the political, social, and ecological implications of creating community managed and owned spaces through urban agriculture? To address such questions, in the context of work that is being done across the world to transform vacant land into community resources, this article investigates the powerful potential of community managed gardening projects from the perspective of urban citizenship. First, the term “urban citizenship” is explored, with particular emphasis on the distinction between passive and active forms of citizenship. The article then explores …

Green Roofs Over Time: A Spatially Explicit Method For Studying Green Roof Vegetative Dynamics And Performance, Max R. Piana, Stephanie C. Carlisle

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

In the past decade, conventional green roof research methodology has emphasized performance measures that assume a static state condition of vegetative composition based on design intent and establishment conditions. Such research has predominantly been limited to short-term observations for low diversity, rigorously maintained systems. These conditions, however, are not the reality of many installed green roofs, and as a result knowledge of how these living systems change over time is limited. Given this perspective, this paper presents an ecologically grounded and spatially explicit methodology aimed at assessing the long-term performance and dynamics of green roof vegetation. The method allows for …

Bringing Nature To Humans: How To Evaluate The Next Generation Of Urban Parks And Green Spaces, Jeffrey W. Ackley

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

With the rise of designer habitats and citizen scientists, ecologists and the general public will play a broader role in evaluating and managing urban parks and green spaces in America. This revised decision making process would benefit from the inclusion of concepts from environmental ethics like ecological citizenship, as well as a re-evaluation of traditional conservation priorities. A reduced emphasis on large protected areas, native biodiversity, static park designs, and hard boundaries between nature and the city would allow for a new generation of ethical urban environments, which can provide a wider array of current benefits while remaining adaptable to …

Past Forward: Roots And Recovery In The American City, Justin G. Moore

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Today’s focus on the development of "sustainable” communities as being critical to the recovery of the economy and the challenge of maintaining our high standard of living raises important questions: What is sustainable environmentally, economically, and socially? Who will be a part of the future economy and how will they participate? Or, in general, what do we mean by progress? Cities are resilient places of memory, and along with nature, can be our greatest teachers. Perhaps our cities’, and their inhabitants’, promise and progress for the future just may have something to do with their recovered past. In researching my …

American Environmentalism And The City: An Ecosystem Services Perspective, Dorothy C. Ibes

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

This study traces the evolution of eight influential American environmental organizations and their relationship with, and conceptualizations of, ‘the city’ and ‘nature.’ Guided by the ecosystem services framework, the organizations’ urban-based initiatives were analyzed to determine what types of ecosystem services they emphasized and what the implications are for cities and environmental health. Results from historical, content, and interview analyses reveal the potential of the ecosystem services framework to unite the interests and efforts of multiple stakeholders, including urbanists, ecologists, economists, and environmentalists in a way that enhances both urban quality of life and conservation efforts overall.

A Multi-Scalar Approach To Theorizing Socio-Ecological Dynamics Of Urban Residential Landscapes, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Kelli Larson, Morgan Grove, Colin Polsky, Elizabeth Cook, Jeffrey Onsted, Laura Ogden

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Urban residential expansion increasingly drives land use, land cover and ecological changes worldwide, yet social science theories explaining such change remain under-developed. Existing theories often focus on processes occurring at one scale, while ignoring other scales. Emerging evidence from four linked U.S. research sites suggests it is essential to examine processes at multiple scales simultaneously when explaining the evolution of urban residential landscapes. Additionally, focusing on urbanization dynamics across multiple sites with a shared research design may yield fruitful comparative insights. The following processes and social-hierarchical scales significantly influence the spatial configurations of residential landscapes: household-level characteristics and environmental attitudes; …

Ecology Of Urban Bees: A Review Of Current Knowledge And Directions For Future Study, J. L. Hernandez, G. W. Frankie, R. W. Thorp

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Urban bee ecology is an emerging field that holds promise for advancing knowledge of bee community dynamics and promoting bee conservation. Published studies of bee communities in urban and suburban habitats are fewer than those documenting bees in agricultural and wildland settings. As land lost to urbanization is predicted to increase in coming years the necessity of studying urban bee populations is growing. We reviewed 59 publications on urban bee ecology with the following goals, to assess current knowledge, to highlight areas in need of further research, and to suggest applications of study findings to bee conservation. Methodological variation between …

Introduction To Ecological Landscaping: A Holistic Description And Framework To Guide The Study And Management Of Urban Landscape Parcels, Loren B. Byrne, Parwinder Grewal

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Urbanized ecosystems and urban human populations are expanding around the world with potentially negative environmental outcomes. A challenge for achieving sustainable urban social-ecological systems is understanding how urbanized landscapes can be designed and managed to minimize negative effects. To this end, an interdisciplinary Ecological Landscaping conference was organized to examine the interacting sociocultural and ecological causes and consequences of landscaping practices and products. A theme of the conference was that scientific principles are important for guiding the development of sustainable landscaping practices and the public policies. To introduce this special issue of Cities and the Environment which contains articles from …

Urban Principles For Ecological Landscape Design And Maintenance: Scientific Fundamentals, Mary L. Cadenasso, Steward T. A. Pickett

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Urban ecology is a rapidly developing scientific discipline with great relevance to sustainable city design and management. Though several frameworks have been proposed in the last 10 years, urban ecology, as yet, has no complete, mature theory. There are, however, general principles emerging that may facilitate the development of such a theory. In the meantime, these principles can serve as useful guides for ecological landscape design and maintenance. This paper aims to use the principles to conceptually frame a series of papers to follow in this special issue. The main ecological principles concerning cities are that: 1) Cities are ecosystems; …