Lorien Nesbitt

University of British Columbia | UBC · Department of Forest Resources Management

With the majority of the world’s human population now living in cities, urban forests provide an increasingly important range of ecosystem services, from improved air quality and climate change adaptation to better public health outcomes and increased tourism revenues. The importance of these ecosystem services in urban environments, and the centra...

Urban vegetation, and in particular urban forests, provide a wide range of ecosystem services to urban societies and may thus be classified as environmental goods. Their status as goods suggests that urban societies’ interactions with urban vegetation should be subjected to equity analyses to determine the fairness of such interactions. However, de...

This research examines the distributional equity of urban vegetation in 10 US urbanized areas using very high resolution land cover data and census data. Urban vegetation is characterized three ways in the analysis (mixed vegetation, woody vegetation, and public parks), to reflect the variable ecosystem services provided by different types of urban...

Urban green equity, broadly defined as equitable access to and governance of urban forests, mediates urban residents’ ability to derive ecosystem services from urban forests. This article explores conceptions of, barriers to, and strategies for urban green equity as understood by urban forestry and related green practitioners in three multicultural...

This systematic literature review identifies and critiques methodological trends in green gentrification research (focusing on studies of vegetative greening) and provides suggestions for advancing this field. Findings reveal (1) research has largely focused on U.S. case studies; (2) early work employed qualitative methods but quantitative analyses...

Urban forest governance comprises the formal and informal rules, institutions, and processes that influence collective decision-making in urban forest management. As such, it shapes key processes and outcomes that are implicated in urban environmental justice, including whose priorities and values are reflected in urban forest management and how an...

Urban forests are characterized by relationships between people and trees, where urban trees provide benefits to people and people make decisions impacting trees. People’s perceptions of urban forests are related to the cognitive processes that underpin benefits received from trees, while also influencing support for or against trees and their mana...

Urban green spaces-including parks, trees, and other vegetated areas-are inequitably distributed in cities worldwide, as underserved groups, such as low-income and people of color, have significantly lower provisions of such resources. Motivated by the health benefits of green spaces, advocates and policymakers in several countries have sought to a...

Urban forests are gaining recognition as a nature-based solution to climate change and other social-environmental issues in cities. Yet, the integration of urban forests may conflict with other climate measures such as urban densification, which may create hostile growing conditions for trees and lead to tree decline or loss. While previous studies...

Green gentrification implicates urban greening as a driver of neighbourhood ‘upgrading’ and subsequent displacement. However, it is unclear whether the concept resonates with, or supports the work of, those responsible for much of the greening occurring in cities – urban green planners/practitioners. We interviewed 33 planners/practitioners in Cana...

As cities attempt to ameliorate urban green inequities, a potential challenge has emerged in the form of green gentrification. Although practitioners are central to urban greening and associated gentrification, there has yet to be an exploration of practitioner perspectives on the phenomenon. We fill this gap with an online survey of 51 urban green...

Background: Urban forests are increasingly recognized as important tools in climate change mitigation and adaptation, prompting many cities to set tree canopy cover targets. However, current gaps in knowledge include understanding relationships and the feasibility of maximizing benefits between urban greening and other climate actions, such as dens...

Background Urban forests can provide nature-based solutions (NBS) to complex climate-change challenges via the provision of ecosystem services such as shade and cooling that offset increased risks of chronic diseases and excess mortality. They also confer indirect health benefits by providing regulating ecosystem services that can facilitate climat...

This research analyzed six value-weight-elicitation techniques that are commonly used in participatory planning. It compared the techniques via measures of (1) accuracy (within-subjects user-derived assessments and quantitative weight comparisons) and (2) accessibility (time to complete, difficulty, and “boringness”). Visual sliders performed best...

This article assesses the distribution of urban vegetation in 31 Canadian cities to determine whether certain social-economic/demographic factors are associated with increased proximity to greenness. Using spatial lag models, Canadian census data, and urban ‘greenness fractions’ derived from Landsat imagery, we find diversity between cities in the...

As researchers have continued to expand the bounds of green gentrification scholarship, understanding of what green gentrification is and how to identify the phenomenon on the ground has grown obscured. In an attempt to bring clarity to this conversation, our research presents an urban green gentrification framework, based on findings from a scopin...

There is substantial evidence detailing the ecological and social benefits provided through urban greening. However, research in the field of urban green equity has revealed that these benefits are not enjoyed equitably by all residents; existing disparities in the distribution, accessibility, and experience of urban greening disproportionately aff...

Background Growing evidence suggests that exposure to green space is associated with improved childhood health and development, but the influence of different green space types remains relatively unexplored. In the present study, we investigated the association between early-life residential exposure to vegetation and early childhood development an...

Background Emerging studies have associated low greenspace and high air pollution exposure with risk of child attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Population-based studies are limited, however, and joint effects are rarely evaluated. We investigated associations of ADHD incidence with greenspace, air pollution, and noise in a population...

Urban forests are increasingly recognized and integrated into cities’ climate policies as a nature-based solution to climate change. However, the integration of urban forests may conflict with other climate measures. Densification of urban areas, a common approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet other goals, can create hostile growing c...

The sustainable provision of urban forest benefits can be threatened by the occurrence of sudden, major disturbance events, such as forest fires, insect outbreaks, and extreme weather events, which are considered to be “pulse” disturbance events from a socio-ecological systems perspective. Sound urban forestry programs are needed to prepare for the...

Forest ecosystem resilience is of considerable interest worldwide, particularly given the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and recent instances of zoonotic diseases linked to deforestation and forest loss. Novel, digital-based technologies are also increasingly ubiquitous. We provide a more comprehensive understanding of how these new technologie...

Background Several studies have assessed the relationship between exposure to natural environments (NEs) and childhood mental health and development. In most cases, a positive association has been found, but results are inconsistent, and the strength of association is unclear. This inconsistency may reflect the heterogeneity in measurements used to...

While being major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, cities also suffer some of the most severe climate change impacts. Urban forests have gained increasing recognition as nature-based solutions to climate change via the various benefits they provide, such as carbon sequestration and temperature regulation. Many cities have developed climate change and...

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is a complex, multicultural, and growing metropolis that has been shaped by multiple Indigenous and immigrant cultures. Its recent history presents a microcosm of the many opportunities and challenges faced by cities around the world: colonialism and Indigenous marginalization, multiple waves of immigration, mai...

Urban forests are increasingly acknowledged as sources of multiple benefits and central to climate resilience and human well-being. Given these diverse and significant benefits, it is important to govern urban forests so as to ensure that all residents have equitable access and enjoyment. Understanding urban forest preferences, and including them i...

Sustainable Development Goals: Their Impacts on Forests and People - edited by Pia Katila December 2019

Urban forestry and arboriculture are male-dominated industries. Although women have experienced current and historical marginalization in these industries, recent years have seen more young women embrace opportunities and pursue careers in these fields. In order to understand and enhance women’s participation in urban forestry and arboriculture, th...

Introduction Deficiencies in childhood development is a major global issue and inequalities are large. The influence of environmental exposures on childhood development is currently insufficiently explored. This project will analyse the impact of various modifiable early life environmental exposures on different dimensions of childhood development....

Forest planners employ various techniques to mitigate the visible effects of harvesting, including by manipulating the shape of harvest blocks. Shape is a common indicator of preference in aesthetic evaluations of landscape and harvest block design. However, the majority of perception-based research in the field of landscape aesthetics has focused...

Urban vegetation provides a suite of ecosystem services to urban residents, from regulating microclimate to supporting good physical health. As more and more people make cities their home, urban vegetation is becoming a key part of urban residents’ well-being. Urban green equity is a central aspect of the distribution of and governance over urban v...

Do urban residents experience societal benefits derived from urban forests equitably? We conducted a broad-scale spatial analysis of the relationship between urban greenery and socioeconomic factors in the Portland metropolitan area. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was derived from National Agriculture Imagery Program images to map urban...

Today, the majority of the world’s population lives in urbanized areas, with a trend toward increasing urbanization and density in cities. As pressure on finite urban forest resources intensifies, appreciation of the benefits that they provide to residents and visitors is growing. In Canada, the urban forest includes a variety of vegetation and l...