Erin Hardman
Advanced Summer Research Scholar
Major: Geography
Mentor: Dana Habeeb
Increased heat and flooding are two climate change driven threats facing cities in Indiana. Urban forests (trees in cities) provide many benefits including heat mitigation. Buildings, asphalt, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces trap heat, creating a heat island, while areas of greenspace are cooler due to evapotranspiration. Previous research has shown a consistent and significant inequitable distribution of urban forest on public land. This project assesses the equity of urban forest distribution and quality through a social justice lens. Using Davey’s Indianapolis tree inventory as well as census block group data, we have found that there tend to be fewer trees where there are higher percentages of non-white people. There are also a few block groups that are at high risk for heat-related deaths because they have high poverty and people above the age of 65. In these same high-risk block groups, there are fewer trees and more non-white people. Our future work will examine more cities around Indiana and look at flood mitigation as well.
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