[ad_1]
Low-income neighborhoods average about 15% less tree cover, and are 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degree Celsius) hotterCompared to high-income areas. This issue is called “shade equity,” a social and environmental justice concern focused on ensuring that shade is accessible in neighborhoods regardless of income, race, or ethnicity.
Apart from providing cooling and reducing heat related illnesses, EvidenceTree cover in cities can provide significant health benefits to people, including lower levels air pollution, better heart function and better mental health. Trees are one of the best, most cost-effective and nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. California’s study found that for every $1 spent on tree maintenance and planting in urban areas, $1 is saved. returns $5.82 in benefits.
Los Angeles: Plant A Tree, Grow A Community | Climate Next by AWS
“Urban areas are at the heart of the climate crisis, because that’s where 80% of the North American population lives. If we want to reduce the impact of climate change on people’s lives, we must consider how our cities are going to cope with the climate crisis,” said Dr. Tanushree Biswas, carbon program director at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a global conservation organization.
The difference in tree cover is due to a series consecutive policies that were championed locally and codified by federal actions throughout 20th century. As infrastructure and population grew rapidly in the early 1900s. Disinvesting in neighborhoods was a decision takenwhere people of colour lived. These decisions were codified in federal laws during the 1930s that gave legal authority to local segregation programs. The federally backed segregation policies, commonly referred to as “redlining,” divided residential neighborhoods and concentrated services, including the provision of green spaces, to wealthier and whiter neighborhoods. Communities deemed “hazardous” or “declining” were left without green spaces and other social services. Recent years have seen cities becoming more urban. Each year, we lose approximately 4 million treesThis is 1.3% of total urban tree stock. American cities spend less then.3%Tree planting and maintenance are part of the municipal budget.
“Nature is our best ally in resolving climate change.”
Dr. Tanushree Biswas
Director of the Carbon Program at The Nature Conservancy
Urban dwellers are feeling the effects from this disinvestment. “We don’t have a lot of trees. I can remember seeing a lot of trees as a child. They have disappeared. They died. They were cut down by people. I don’t think so. It’s very similar to the food desert. It’s a tree desert,” said Joe Ward-Wallace, co-founder of South LA CafeSouth Los Angeles Market in South Central Los Angeles. “We need trees here—it gets hot. It looks better when trees are around, and it makes people feel better.”
Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation between tree cover and urban temperatures. We know little about the logistic feasibility and benefits of increasing tree cover in urban areas to combat urban heat and reduce disparities in urban green spaces. TNC relies on data and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to address this gap. TNC analyzes data from many sources, including satellite-based measurements on tree cover, available land areas in cities, and socio-economic variables like block group demographic-economic estimates), to understand the spatial feasibility of a city to support trees.
A statewide assessment of the nature-based solutions to the climate crisis was doneTNC found that urban California has 1.2 million acres of land available for urban afforestation. This could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. TNC also showed that trees could be planted on 500,000 acres in low-income and disadvantaged communities. TNC conducted a state-wide follow-up assessment. It found that California cities had 34 million trees available. It also identifies areas where tree planting can be done immediately and predicts how much urban heat island effects and temperature could drop as a result of the planting of new trees. According to A recent study, this would reduce the average urban land surface temperature and provide multiple co-benefits totaling $1.1 billion annually—including reduction in heat-related medical visits (more than 4,000 over 10 years) and 4.5 million metric tons of annual CO2 sequestration. In California, an annual investment of $467 million for urban afforestation using TNC’s prioritization pathways will lead to $712 million of net annual benefits and serve 89% of the approximately 9 million residents in the lowest income quartiles of the state’s cities.
The geospatial data and research is even more powerful when it’s presented as a story. Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps—an AWS-powered tool that combines text, video, charts, and advanced interactive geospatial visualizations—does just that. TNC uses this tool in order to tell a story and collaborate with partners to make the data actionable for local nonprofits as well as government agencies in different cities. Data stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)Enterprise GeoDatabases, such as Amazon AuroraStoryMaps can be used to analyze and show how a city has changed over time. Advanced Esri ArcGIS ServerAnd Image ServerTools that run on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud – Amazon EC2StoryMaps makes it quick and easy to integrate and analyze data. StoryMaps displays the geospatial data and organizes the data to highlight points in complex illustrations.
TNC uses StoryMaps to communicate with stakeholders, policymakers, legislatures, and other stakeholders. The entire Natural Climate Solutions (NCS), California pathway report is available as a StoryMap. It makes it easy to access data and maps. It also provides an interactive user interface which shows potential opportunities for multi-sector NCS intervention in landscapes. TNC can also help to show urban afforestation opportunities and how it compares with other climate mitigation routes. This facilitates conversations with policymakers, state agencies, stakeholders, and others.
TNC used StoryMap to create a series regional roundtable discussions with grassroots and local organizations in California after the NCS pathway report was completed. This discussion promoted a bottom-up approach to understanding and overcoming the challenges of implementing nature-based solutions within the region. They brought together people from the urban, forest, as well as natural working land sectors to discuss their challenges and find solutions to climate change. TNC also held a roadshow, along with StoryMap, to show the potential of using nature in California to reduce climate change.
“Nature is our best ally in resolving climate change,” said Biswas. “StoryMaps helps us build the bridge to communicate science into action and take successful examples implemented locally to scale.”
This map shows the tree canopy coverage at census tract level in relation to the redlined areas in Los Angeles. As part of the Tree Equity Goal, the city has established a tree equity goal. Green New DealMayor Eric Garcetti will lead the directive. To adhere to the following key principles: Deliver environmental justice & equityBy increasing the tree canopy by half in the areas most in need by 2028.
This goal can be achieved by assisting City PlantsTNC scientists work in collaboration with a Los Angeles-based nonprofit called. They work together to create a greener future and encourage Angelenos to plant trees in the city. The organization uses TNC’s science, research, tools, AWS technology, and actionable StoryMapsTo help with an equitable tree-planting strategy for Los Angeles.
“I really like to see how we can use the best available science and information to help inform the decisions on the ground. City Plants is by no means alone in that journey, but we get to take the work of tree planting prioritization that TNC is helping to define through mapping and other innovative tools, and apply it directly here in Los Angeles,” said Rachel O’Leary, executive director at City Plants. “When we’re faced with huge, ominous, harrowing, scary ideas and issues like climate change, I see tree planting as a vehicle to overcome a lot of that anxiety and grow solutions together.”
TNC’s use of AWS Cloud Services has been crucial in allowing it to store data and conduct research. It also created actionable visualizations that allowed it to move forward with its mission. It is just one step to identify space for additional trees. Knowing where to strategically increase tree coverage and reduce shade inequity can be a great step. But, more sustainable funding mechanisms and larger grants are necessary. We must also ensure urban trees are maintained and scale our efforts beyond individual cities. “The globe has to reduce its temperature, which means we have to work on something big. We have to really work together,” Biswas said. “We have to think, ‘What are the lessons that our partners have learned here that can be applied to other cities?’ That’s the power of cloud computing—the exchange of human knowledge.”
AWS is proud of its support for innovation and nature-preserving organizations such as TNC and City Plants and will continue to work to ensure that future generations have a tree-rich, sustainable environment.
The original four-part AWS AWS originalClimate Next documentary seriesThis section features stories about communities and people around the world who are creating scalable solutions to climate change and driving innovation.
[ad_2]
