Doctoral Dissertation Research: Connecting Pixels to People: Management Agents and Socioecological Determinants of Changes to Street Tree Distributions

行道树存在于路权模糊的公私空间中，代表了城市社会生态系统中高度管理的景观特征。虽然行道树是城市森林景观的重要组成部分，并提供宝贵的生态系统服务，但行道树的生物物理特征以及人类和非人类管理主体的行为导致了许多城市行道树的空间分布不均匀。对于公共路权中的社会、建筑和生物生态相互作用如何影响城市环境变化，我们的理解仍然存在知识缺口。在南佛罗里达大学地理系Jayajit Chakraborty教授的指导下，博士生Shawn Landry将调查城市居民区街道树木分布的社会生态决定因素，以了解家庭决策和多标量管理机构如何塑造城市森林变化和公共-私人空间内的环境。该研究解决了三个主要问题：最近行道树空间分布的变化是否可以用社会人口统计学家庭和社区特征来解释？哪些管理因子是最近街道树木分布变化的最强预测因子？这些因子的贡献与城市内社会生态模式的关系如何变化？家庭行道树管理决策在多大程度上与公共路权的建筑和生物生态材料特性相关？多方法实证分析将在佛罗里达州坦帕市及其周边的研究区域进行，该研究区域包括典型阳光带城市特征的单户住宅区域。城市遥感和土地覆盖变化分析，结合地理空间分析技术，将用于审查与最近街道树木分布变化有关的更广泛的社会人口格局。家庭调查和半结构化访谈技术结合生物物理生长条件评估将用于检查特定因素对街道树木分布的相对贡献以及家庭公共路权景观决策的社会空间决定因素。这项研究将扩展一个旨在捕捉人类生态系统复杂性的研究框架，以揭示城市森林变化中鲜为人知的方面，例如历史遗产如何影响与路权相关的适应性管理选择。本研究项目综合了城市林学、空间科学、环境公平和城市生态学的理论和方法，为以复杂的社会、建筑和生物生态相互作用为特征的空间相关的环境变化提供了新的见解。本研究的结果将为城市环境管理和与路权公私空间相关的政策决策提供信息和指导。研究结果将以对地方和全国城市森林从业人员有用的形式提出，并通过外联努力，例如与当地市政当局的居民、邻里协会、民选官员和公共机构进行介绍和专题讨论会。通过这些渠道，本项目将增加对影响城市森林可持续性因素的认识和理解，并广泛地将社会影响扩展到学术界之外。

Street trees exist within the blurred private-public space of the right-of-way and represent a highly managed landscape feature of urban socioecological systems. Although they are an important part of the urban forest landscape and provide valuable ecosystem services, the biophysical characteristics of the right-of-way and actions of human and non-human management agents have resulted in an uneven spatial distribution of street trees within many cities. There remains a knowledge gap in our understanding of how the social, built and bioecological interactions in the public right-of-way impact urban environmental change. Doctoral student Shawn Landry under the guidance of Professor Jayajit Chakraborty in the Department of Geography at the University of South Florida will investigate the socioecological determinants of street tree distributions in urban residential neighborhoods in order to understand how household decisions and multi-scalar management agents shape urban forest change and the environment within the public-private space of the right-of-way. The research addresses three primary questions: Are recent changes to the spatial distribution of street trees explained by socio-demographic household and neighborhood characteristics? Which management agents are the strongest predictors of recent changes to street tree distributions and how does the contribution of these agents vary in relationship to socioecological patterns within a city? To what extent are household street tree management decisions related to the built and bioecological material characteristics of the public right-of-way? Multi-method empirical analyses will be conducted in a study area in and around Tampa, Florida, that includes single-family residential areas characteristic of a typical Sunbelt city. Urban remote sensing and land cover change analysis, combined with geospatial analytical techniques will be used to examine broader socio-demographic patterns associated with recent changes to street tree distributions. Household survey and semi-structured interview techniques combined with assessment of biophysical growing conditions will be used to examine the relative contribution to street tree distributions by specific agents and the socio-spatial determinants of household public right-of-way landscape decisions. This study will extend a research framework designed to capture the complexity of human ecosystems to reveal poorly understood aspects of urban forest change, such as how historical legacies affect adaptive management options associated with the right-of-way. This research project synthesizes theory and methods from urban forestry, spatial sciences, environmental equity, and urban ecology to contribute new insights on environmental change associated with spaces characterized by complex social, built, and bioecological interactions. The findings from this study will inform and guide urban environmental management and policy decisions associated with the public-private space of the right-of-way. Research results will be presented in formats useful to local and national urban forest practitioners and through outreach efforts such as presentations and symposia with residents, neighborhood associations, elected officials and public agencies in the local municipalities. Through these channels, this project will increase knowledge and understanding of factors influencing urban forest sustainability and broadly extend societal impacts beyond the academic community.