CNH2-L: Toward a Theory of Urban Trees as Living Infrastructure

树木现在是美国城市景观中无处不在的组成部分。越来越多的城市树木被称为一种生活方式（即，绿色）基础设施，用于满足各种市政目标，以提供生态系统服务和应对气候变化的影响，对于美国和国外的许多城市来说，气候变化正在导致城市热岛效应的增加。然而，与通常由城市管理的传统灰色基础设施相比，使用树木作为基础设施的一种形式提出了新的挑战。这项研究解决了我们对城市树木的有效性和能力的理解中的主要知识差距，以提供市政植树，管理和决策以及社区互动结构内预期的服务。生活基础设施是生物体、环境、社会愿望和治理能力之间的社会-环境-技术反馈系统。在城市树木的情况下，他们的能力，以满足市政目标是不确定的，可能会有所不同的城市。这种不确定性的存在部分是因为缺乏定量信息和科学研究，无法充分模拟城市树木对当地环境的影响。与此同时，机构管理者成功管理城市树木的能力也不清楚。总的来说，城市可能有树木衍生功能的目标，这些目标与树木可以做什么的生物物理现实以及社区管理实践的现实和局限性无关。这项工作的更广泛影响包括学生和博士后在融合研究方面的培训，提供数据和调查结果，为市政决策提供信息，并通过社交媒体和其他外联机制向公众和其他利益攸关方通报城市生活基础设施的作用。这是一个试点项目，其总体目标是了解推动使用城市树木作为生活基础设施以提供生态系统服务的知识和制度因素。项目活动将评估市政机构实施和管理城市树木作为城市活基础设施以实现气候目标的能力。该项目解决了将城市树木视为生命基础设施的社会环境系统中的关键不确定性。它将研究美国各地现有的市政林业目标和计划如何变化，以及市政当局目前如何确定生活基础设施在气候减缓和适应中的作用。它还研究了当前的科学理解如何与这些目标保持一致，以及需要哪些信息来监测，建模和验证这些过程。该项目包括对美国20个城市现有的城市林业计划进行评估。将从不同学科的角度对数据进行评估：即，生态系统科学、群落生态学、生态水文学、文化地理学、工程学和景观设计学。这些数据将通过在以下三个重点研究城市进行的额外数据收集和利益相关者访谈得到补充：加州的洛杉矶、亚利桑那州的凤凰城和马里兰州的巴尔的摩。一揽子工作包括在三个重点城市中的每一个城市举行一次为期1至2天的全队综合会议，小组将在会上审查和讨论现有数据。随后将举办为期半天的研讨会，邀请当地利益攸关方参加。会议将侧重于解决研究问题，并进一步阐述生活基础设施的社会环境耦合理论。将设立一个技术咨询委员会，并将其对利益攸关方决策的投入纳入工作计划。这一努力将大大有助于更全面的生活基础设施理论，作为社会，环境和技术系统之间的接口，并作为新的城市生态系统的关键组成部分，可以在全国范围内显着变化。该项目的社会效益包括将我们的研究成果直接传播给城市土地管理和林业专业人员，以及为博士后和本科生提供新的跨学科培训机会。项目结果将直接满足市政当局及其植树计划的需求，这些计划往往以巨大的代价寻求扩大城市覆盖面和多样性，但缺乏可用的科学信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Trees are now ubiquitous components of urban landscapes in the United States. Increasingly urban trees are called upon as a form of living (i.e., green) infrastructure that is used to meet a variety of municipal goals to provide ecosystem services and combat the effects of climate change that, for many cities in the US and abroad, is causing an increase in the urban heat island effect. However, using trees as a form of infrastructure raises new challenges compared to traditional gray infrastructure typically managed by cities. This research addresses major knowledge gaps in our understanding of the effectiveness and capacity of urban trees to provide the services expected within the structure of municipal tree planting, stewardship and decision making and community interaction. Living infrastructure is a socio-environmental-technological system of feedbacks between organisms, the environment, societal desires, and governance capacity. In the case of urban trees, their capacity to meet municipal goals is uncertain and likely varies among cities. Part of this uncertainty exists because the ability to adequately model the effect of urban trees on their local environment suffers from a lack of quantitative information and scientific study. At the same time, the capacity of institutional managers to successfully steward urban trees is also unclear. Taken together, cities may have goals for tree-derived functions that are disconnected from both the biophysical realities of what trees can do and realities and limitations of community management practices. Broader impacts of the work include student and postdoc training in convergent research, providing data and findings to inform municipal decision making, and informing the public and other stakeholders of the role of living infrastructure in cities via social media and other outreach mechanisms. This is a pilot project with an overarching goal to understand the intellectual and institutional factors that have driven the movement to use urban trees as living infrastructure to produce ecosystem services. Project activities will evaluate the capacity of municipal institutions to implement and manage urban trees as living urban infrastructure to achieve climate goals. The project addresses key uncertainties in the socio-environmental system that considers urban trees as living infrastructure. It will examine how existing municipal forestry goals and plans vary throughout the United States, and how municipalities currently frame the role of living infrastructure in climate mitigation and adaptation. It also examines how current scientific understanding aligns with these goals and what information is needed for monitoring, modeling, and validation of these processes. the project includes the evaluation of existing municipal urban forestry plans from 20 cities throughout the United States. Data will be evaluated from the different disciplinary perspectives: i.e., ecosystem science, community ecology, ecohydrology, cultural geography, engineering, and landscape architecture. These data will be complemented with additional data collection and stakeholder interviews at three focal research cities: Los Angeles, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Baltimore, Maryland. Work packages include a whole-team 1- to 2-day synthesis meeting in each of the three focal cities where existing data will be examined and discussed by the group. This will be followed by a half day workshop that engages local stakeholders. Meetings will focus on addressing research questions and further elaborating the coupled socio-environmental theory of living infrastructure. A Technical Advisory Committee will be constituted and their input on stakeholder decision making will be incorporated into the work plan. This effort will substantially contribute to a more comprehensive theory of living infrastructure as an interface between social, environmental, and technological systems and as a key component of novel urban ecosystems that can vary dramatically at national scales. Societal benefits of the project include the direct dissemination of our research findings to urban land management and forestry professionals, and new interdisciplinary training opportunities for postdoctoral and undergraduate trainees. Project results will directly address the needs of municipalities and their tree planting programs, which often seek to expand urban cover and diversity at great expense, but with a paucity of available scientific information.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.