Estimating the Ecosystem Benefits of Urban Forestry

估算城市林业的生态系统效益

• 批准号: 1238526
• 负责人: Laurie Geller
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: National Academy of Sciences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-05-01 至 2013-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1238526&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Estimating; Ecosystem; Benefits; Urban; Forestry

It has long been recognized that increasing the tree canopy in an urban area can provide a variety of benefits to the environment and to people. Our ability to quantify these benefits is improving, due to new scientific research, modeling tools, and advances mapping and monitoring technologies. But many uncertainties and challenges remain in developing rigorous and widely accepted methods for estimating such benefits. The National Academy of Sciences will organize a workshop to examine current capabilities to characterize and quantify the benefits (that is, ecosystem services) provided by trees and forest canopy cover within a metropolitan area, including air pollution mitigation, water pollution mitigation, carbon sequestration, urban heat island mitigation, reduced energy demand from shading of buildings, possibly also including the direct benefits to public health and well-being. Some related discussion topics may include gaps in understanding and ability to model, measure and monitor such services; current capabilities for assigning quantitative economicvalue to these services; strategies to sustain long-term canopy cover in a way that maximizes benefits and minimizes costs and potential ?dis-benefits (for example, increased pollen load, risk of fire and storm damages, water requirements); and opportunities for enhancing coordination among federal agencies, academic researchers, and other stakeholders working on all these issues. The workshop will be organized by a planning group with expertise in a range of relevant disciplines. It will include a mix of plenary presentations, panel discussion sessions and small breakout sessions, to encourage debate and interaction among all participants. A summary report will be made freely available through the National Academy Press website, and dissemination activities will be conducted to ensure that the results are widely distributed.It is expected that these discussions will help shape the future research agenda among numerous parties working on this topic, such as researchers within the Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, NASA remote sensing programs, Center for Disease Control public health programs, Department of Energy energy efficiency programs, state and local forestry and land management organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations and academic researchers. The workshop may also help inform decisions that are currently being made by municipal leaders weighing investments in expanding urban tree canopies based on the benefits they will provide, and by state and regional officials attempting to include tree planting as an official measure in air quality and water qualitycontrol and climate change action plans. This workshop will provide a neutral forum for convening a wide diversity of relevant stakeholders for sharing of information and perspectives. It will also provide an opportunity for communication across different realms of research that traditionally focus on justone type of ecosystem service (such as forest impacts on air pollution, water pollution, or carbon uptake) encouraging more integrated approaches that cut across different realms.

人们早就认识到，增加城市地区的树冠可以为环境和人类带来多种好处。由于新的科学研究、建模工具以及先进的测绘和监测技术，我们量化这些效益的能力正在提高。但在开发严格且广泛接受的方法来估计此类效益方面仍然存在许多不确定性和挑战。美国国家科学院将组织一次研讨会，审查目前描述和量化大都市地区树木和森林冠层覆盖所提供的效益（即生态系统服务）的能力，包括减轻空气污染、减轻水污染、碳封存、缓解城市热岛效应，减少建筑物遮阳的能源需求，可能还包括对公共健康和福祉的直接好处。一些相关的讨论主题可能包括对此类服务进行建模、测量和监控的理解和能力方面的差距；当前为这些服务分配定量经济价值的能力；以最大化效益、最小化成本和潜在不利效益（例如，花粉量增加、火灾和风暴破坏风险、需水量）的方式维持长期树冠覆盖的策略；以及加强联邦机构、学术研究人员和其他致力于所有这些问题的利益相关者之间协调的机会。该研讨会将由具有一系列相关学科专业知识的规划小组组织。它将包括全体会议报告、小组讨论会议和小型分组会议，以鼓励所有参与者之间的辩论和互动。摘要报告将通过国家科学院出版社网站免费提供，并将开展传播活动，以确保结果得到广泛传播。预计这些讨论将有助于在从事该主题的众多各方之间制定未来的研究议程，例如林务局、环境保护局、国家公园管理局、NASA 遥感项目、疾病控制中心公共卫生项目、能源部能源效率项目、州和地方林业和土地管理组织以及非-政府组织和学术研究人员。该研讨会还可能有助于为目前正在做出的决策提供信息，市政领导人根据扩大城市树冠带来的效益权衡投资，以及州和地区官员试图将植树作为空气质量和水的官方措施质量控制和气候变化行动计划。该研讨会将提供一个中立的论坛，召集广泛的相关利益相关者分享信息和观点。它还将为不同研究领域之间的交流提供机会，这些研究传统上只关注单一类型的生态系统服务（例如森林对空气污染、水污染或碳吸收的影响），鼓励跨不同领域的更综合的方法。