Assessment of economic and ecological costs and benefits of urban tree planting and mortality in socially vulnerable neighborhoods in durham, north carolinaproject dates: 8 1 2024 through 7 31…

This U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Cooperative Agreement award under the National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CFDA 15.820) program will assess the economic and ecological costs and benefits of urban tree planting and mortality in socially vulnerable neighborhoods in Durham, North Carolina. Key activities include:

• Assessing Durham's urban canopy and modeling ecosystem services provided
• Modeling optimal urban tree planting strategies to maximize economic returns and ecosystem services
• Quantifying opportunity costs of tree planting and maintenance
• Synthesizing urban canopy data across the Southeast U.S. and projecting future canopy composition under climate change

The $399,096 award to North Carolina State University will run from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2027. The university will collaborate with local partners Keep Durham Beautiful and the City of Durham to execute the research objectives. The project aims to provide actionable data and recommendations to urban forest managers in Durham and across the Southeast on species selection, planting, and maintenance priorities.

Activities

Assess the urban canopy of durham, NC-model ecosystem services provided by the urban canopy-model urban tree planting to optimize economic returns and ecosystem services-quantify opportunity costs of tree planting and maintenance-synthesize urban canopy data from municipalities across the SE-compare urban canopies between current and future climate analog citiesdeliverables and expected outcomes: assessment of durhams urban canopy literature synthesis on models of benefits of urban canopy cover models for optimal tree planting and management strategies synthesis of data on urban canopy composition across the SE projections of future urban canopies for select cities using climate analogs three publications in peer-reviewed journals two presentations at research conferences three articles for the ncufc and ISA newsletters webinar on results for ncufc in year 3 fact sheet on species selection in the SE and tree planting priorities in the piedmontintended beneficiary(IES):urban forests provide key ecosystem services such as air pollution mitigation and temperature moderation. Maintaining healthy urban forest is essential to providing these services, and will become even more important as climate change creates warmer conditions across the SE US. However, urban forest managers lack information essential for future decision making around tree planting, species selection, and maintenance. The city of durham and municipalities across the SE will benefit from this project.

Subrecipient activities

The north carolina state university will subaward to keep durham beautiful (non-profit) as a partner in execution of the research objectives of this project.