• CCSI Home
• Initiatives
• Application
• Contact
• More sustainability@claremont

2008 Initiatives

• Claremont Colleges Tree Canopy
• Solar Technologies for the Claremont Colleges
• Scripps College Food and Sustainability Community Project

2007 Initiatives

• Greening the Office Supply Stream
• Urban Ecosystem Analysis Using GIS:
  • Introduction
  • Major Findings
  • Tree Inventory
  • Web Maps
  • Recommendations
  • GIS Data
  • Final Report
  • Presentation slides
  • Resources
  • Team Members
• 5-College Environmental Audit

Campus Trees

Introduction

Urban Ecosystem Analysis Using GIS

Why Conduct an Urban Ecosystem Analysis?

An Urban Ecosystem Analysis (UEA) is a methodology for establishing the environmental and economic benefits of trees within an Area of Interest.  Trees provide communities with many valuable services that can be measured in terms of quantifiable benefits that include:

• Stormwater Runoff Reduction – trees reduce the infrastructure needed to manage stormwater and reduce the need for landscape irrigation.
• Improved Air and Water Quality – trees absorb and filter air pollution plus they filter surface water and prevent erosion.
• Carbon Storage and Sequestration – trees absorb carbon dioxide thereby lowering the rate of global warming.
• Reduced Summer Energy Use – trees provide building shade and help to mitigate the heat island effect and in so doing, reduce air conditioning use, electricity costs, and air pollution from the generation of electricity.

An UEA also provides a baseline of an area’s urban forest resources that can be used to help community leaders better manage these resources and to extract additional benefits from increased tree coverage.

Additionally, trees provide benefits that, while more difficult to quantify, include improved scenic values and improved human health and well being.