Urban planning and governance

Assessing changes in urban vegetation using Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for epidemiological studies

Urban vegetation is an important component of healthy, livable cities and has been linked to several benefits, including improved human health outcomes, natural system regulation, and habitat provision. Understanding and documenting changes to urban vegetation is essential for planning for sustainable cities. This study focuses on identifying where and when urban vegetation changed in Metro […]

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Invited Perspective: Nature Is Unfairly Distributed in the United States—But That’s Only Part of the Global Green Equity Story

As we experience increased impacts of climate change and urbanization, the many benefits to health and well-being provided by green and blue spaces are becoming more important, and research has shown these health benefits to be particularly strong for lower-income populations. Given these benefits, we have seen increased societal concern about the inequitable distribution of

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Wealthy, educated, and… non-millennial? Variable patterns of distributional inequity in 31 Canadian cities

This article assesses the distribution of urban vegetation in 31 Canadian cities to determine whether certain social-economic/demographic factors are associated with increased proximity to greenness. Using spatial lag models, Canadian census data, and urban ‘greenness fractions’ derived from Landsat imagery, we find diversity between cities in the factors associated with increased urban vegetation. This makes

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Improvement, not displacement: A framework for urban green gentrification research and practice

As researchers have continued to expand the bounds of green gentrification scholarship, understanding of what green gentrification is and how to identify the phenomenon on the ground has grown obscured. In an attempt to bring clarity to this conversation, our research presents an urban green gentrification framework, based on findings from a scoping review and

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Expelled from the garden? Understanding the dynamics of green gentrification in Vancouver, British Columbia

There is substantial evidence detailing the ecological and social benefits provided through urban greening. However, research in the field of urban green equity has revealed that these benefits are not enjoyed equitably by all residents; existing disparities in the distribution, accessibility, and experience of urban greening disproportionately affect historically marginalized communities and residents. Furthermore, green

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How well do we know green gentrification? A systematic review of the methods

This systematic literature review identifies and critiques methodological trends in green gentrification research (focusing on studies of vegetative greening) and provides suggestions for advancing this field. Findings reveal (1) research has largely focused on U.S. case studies; (2) early work employed qualitative methods but quantitative analyses have become more common; (3) little attention has been

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Why protect big trees?

If you ask any practitioner in my field of urban forestry why we need trees in urban areas, they’re sure to enumerate a litany of benefits ranging from environmental to economic to human health and well-being. Science has made much progress in quantifying these benefits to human society through advances in ecosystem service research; today

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Urban Forest Governance in the Face of Pulse Disturbances–Canadian Experiences

The sustainable provision of urban forest benefits can be threatened by the occurrence of sudden, major disturbance events, such as forest fires, insect outbreaks, and extreme weather events, which are considered to be “pulse” disturbance events from a socio-ecological systems perspective. Sound urban forestry programs are needed to prepare for these disturbances and reduce their

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The Digital Forest: Mapping a Decade of Knowledge on Technological Applications for Forest Ecosystems

Forest ecosystem resilience is of considerable interest worldwide, particularly given the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and recent instances of zoonotic diseases linked to deforestation and forest loss. Novel, digital-based technologies are also increasingly ubiquitous. We provide a more comprehensive understanding of how these new technologies are being used for forest management in different sectors and

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Alignment of municipal climate change and urban forestry policies: A Canadian perspective

While being major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, cities also suffer some of the most severe climate change impacts. Urban forests have gained increasing recognition as nature-based solutions to climate change via the various benefits they provide, such as carbon sequestration and temperature regulation. Many cities have developed climate change and/or urban forest policies to enhance

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