| Radio programs for the week of 21 August 2000 (fe00821 - fe00825) | For more
information: Ryan Jensen, Ph.D., Indiana State University faculty information |
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Made in the shade I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. It's a reasonable assumption that better shade in your yard would help keep you cooler. But new research takes that assumption a step farther, saying that a city's better regulation of trees helps keep a community's electricity bills lower. Ryan Jensen is a geography researcher who studied the tree canopies in Gainesville and Ocala (Ryan Jensen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana State University)... "What this particular study did is that it quantified the canopy cover in Gainesville and Ocala, Florida using the artificial neural networks and remote sensing imagery, and then correlated those canopy-cover estimates with average energy consumption per household in the two cities." Although his research was really about how to measure the density of a tree canopy, he found that where it was denser, electricity consumption was lower. "Gainesville has almost twice the canopy cover of Ocala, given in terms of leaf area index, which is meters squared of leaves per meters squared of ground. And this greater canopy cover correlates well... (as) Gainesville residents use quite a bit less energy per month than do Ocala residents." Jensen says a prominent reason for the difference in tree canopies between the two cities is that Gainesville has stricter rules than Ocala regarding tree removal. For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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 fe00822Tougher rules; lower electric bills I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. A geography researcher looking into a better way to count tree density has determined that tougher regulations on tree removal might lower a community's electric consumption. In measuring and comparing the tree canopies of Gainesville and Ocala, Ryan Jensen found more cover and less electric use in Gainesville (Ryan Jensen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana State University)... "Gainesville has a much stricter tree policy in terms of the number of trees required to remain in an area that has been developed, it has stricter policies on who can remove trees, plus it has stiffer penalties if you do remove trees." Gainesville's ordinances seek a specific balance of tree species... "Gainesville city is itself is trying to promote growth of long-leaf pine trees in its urban forests just as much as Oak trees, but when given their druthers, people will generally pick a nice big Live Oak over a long-leaf pine any day." But even with development, Gainesville's rules have promoted what Jensen calls urban forest... "A lot of the trees in town are Live Oak and Laurel Oak, and those have a higher leaf area index. And so because of the trees that are in Gainesville, it has a much higher leaf area index than if the area would have been left undeveloped." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00823 A tale of two cities Using an analytical computer technique called an artificial neural network, a geography researcher estimated and compared the tree canopies of nearby Florida cities Gainesville and Ocala. And when researcher Ryan Jensen found both a denser canopy and lower electric consumption in Gainesville, he knew he was on to something (Ryan Jensen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana State University)... "I picked these two cities because they're basically both on the central Florida ridge in north-central Florida. And they have similar population. In no way did I pick these two cities to pick on Ocala." Jensen's work creates canopy cover maps of communities. Something he hopes to continue... "I made a canopy cover map of Gainesville and Ocala and that's how I compared the two cities. In the future, I'd like to make a leaf area index map of Palatka, Florida and Lake City, Florida, and then take a look at their energy consumption rates." While his early research shows a correlation between dense tree cover and lower electric use in a community, he hopes futures research bears this out... "I'm not saying that the only cause for that discrepancy is because of the urban forest. I'm just saying that it could be one of the many. But I certainly believe it is a big cause of it." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00824 Measuring leaf density I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. A new method for measuring the density of a community's tree cover -- or canopy -- is drawing the attention of community planners. Geography researcher Ryan Jensen uses an artificial neural network to measure the canopy's density in terms of leaf area index. For example, he gives Gainesville an index of four point six (Ryan Jensen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana State University)... "And what that means is that any given spot that you go to, you're going to have four point six meters squared of leaves as you go up through the canopy, per meter squared of ground." And what does one do with information like that? Ask the city planners who've been after Jensen for more information on his measurement technique... "I've been surprised by how many people have been interested in it, because there are many cities and towns that are now looking into this same technology." The technology, says Jensen, might let communities lower their electric consumption and plan better urban forests... "They want to look at different parts of the city... maybe the city planner wants to say 'Okay, why in the northeast section of town, why do they have such a low canopy cover? Why is leaf area index so low up there?' And then maybe that person could correlate that low leaf area index with energy consumption values up there. And then develop plans to enhance or increase leaf area index up there." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00825 Planning urban forests I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. A new way of measuring the density of tree cover above you might help lead to better urban forests. That's a term used by geography researcher (and tree cover density measurer) Ryan Jensen, who says managed forests are a way of coping with development (Ryan Jensen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Indiana State University)... "Urban forest is simply a forest that's maintained in an urban area. For example, Gainesville or Ocala's is actively managed. Gainesville has a full-time city arborist that actively manages the forest in Gainesville." Jensen predicts the urban forests will become more important over time... "The world has seen a worldwide trend of rural people moving into urban environments and quality of life in urban environments is going to continue to be a huge thing. And urban forests have been shown to enhance quality of life." While his research showed dense tree canopies promoting lower electric bills, Jensen says others have found equal or greater benefits... "My study doesn't even begin to touch a lot of the other benefits of urban forests, such as they reduce pollutants, they filter the air, they generally decrease temperatures, they enhance residents' moods, they increase property values... there are all sorts of other benefits that I didn't even touch on in my study." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
