City of Portland Urban Forest Analysis
The City of Portland wanted to quantify the environmental and economic significance trees provide in Heavy Industrial zones, so Dudek conducted an urban forest analysis to determine the potential benefits of increasing tree planting requirements in these zones.
Project Facts
- City of Portland, Parks & Recreation Department
- Portland, OR
- i-Tree Eco and i-Tree Planting modeling tools were used to quantify the annual economic and environmental benefits of urban trees
The Challenge
Tree planting requirements differ depending on how land is zoned, and Heavy Industrial zones typically have low tree canopy cover percentages. As such, the City was missing out on economic and environmental benefits associated with higher canopy cover percentages in its Heavy Industrial zones.
The Solution
Dudek conducted an urban forest analysis to identify how trees in the City’s Heavy Industrial zones affect pollution reduction, carbon storage and sequestration, stormwater runoff reduction, and Urban Heat Island reduction. Using modeling tools, like i-Tree Eco and i-Tree Planting, our urban foresters quantified metrics and cost savings that would result from enforcing higher tree planting requirements in these zones.
The Impact
By gathering environmental and economic data associated with trees in the Heavy Industrial Zones, we demonstrated that if the City changed its municipal codes and required more trees to be planted, they would experience more carbon sequestration and cleaner air. The analysis makes a case for updating the municipal code relating to tree planting guidelines and tree protection in Heavy Industrial Zones, ensuring that canopy cover in the City increases.
What We Did
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