- April 22, 2026, 3:30 pm US/Central
- Tatjana Washington, University of Chicago
- Samantha Pancock
Urban forests provide critical ecosystem services, from stormwater runoff mitigation and heat island mitigation to biodiversity support and public health benefits, yet their structural composition varies enormously across and within cities. Understanding this variation is essential for evidence-based urban forest management.
This study applies a multi-scale principal components analysis (PCA) framework to census-tract-level urban forest inventory data across five U.S. cities: Washington DC, New York City, Columbus (OH), Minneapolis (MN), and Seattle (WA), representing a combined sample of 3,084 tracts. Preliminary global PCA results suggests that canopy extent and treediversity represent a shared dimension of urban forest quality. Marked structural differences across cities further indicate that no single management benchmark is universally applicable. Spatially constrained PCA (sPCA) and geographically weighted PCA (GWPCA) (in progress) will characterize the degree to which these structural gradients are spatially clustered and identify neighborhoods where local forest composition diverges from citywide patterns. Findings will inform targeted urban reforestation priorities and support planners in identifying underserved areas where strategic investment.