Research

We're pleased to highlight events that may be of interest to those in the urban greening community. For a full list of events and, in some cases conference proceedings, please visit the Research Archive.

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By Rhiannon Smith

Missoula, MT (August 20, 2010)- The capacity of plants to act as a carbon sink could be on the decline. As global temperatures have risen in recent decades, the amount of atmospheric carbon being converted into plant biomass has increased in step. However, in a paper published today in Science, ecologists Maosheng Zhao and Steve Running at the University of Montana in Missoula report a surprising reversal of this trend over the last decade, despite its having been the warmest on record.

By Jonah Lehrer

New York, NY (August 19, 2010)- In the late 1990s, Frances Kuo, director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois, began interviewing female residents in the Robert Taylor Homes, a massive housing project on the South Side of Chicago. Kuo and her colleagues compared women randomly assigned to various apartments. Some had a view of nothing but concrete sprawl, the blacktop of parking lots and basketball courts. Others looked out on grassy courtyards filled with trees and flowerbeds.

West Lafayette, IN (August 19, 2010)- Controlling urban growth and increasing forested land are the most effective ways to decrease future water runoff and flooding, according to a Purdue University study

Seattle, WA (July 7, 2010)- Metro nature- including trees, parks, gardens, and natural areas- enhances quality of life in cities and towns. The experience of nature improves human health and well-being in many ways. Nearly 40 years of scientific studies document how.  But this extensive evidence has always been distributed within the publications of many social science disciplines, and can be difficult to access. Now that research has been compiled in a single website.

By Steve Bratkovich and Kathryn Fernholz

Minneapolis, MN (June 30, 2010)- Urban tree removals in the US range from an estimated 16 to 38 million green tons per year. Removals of this magnitude- due to pests, storms, construction, hazard trees, etc.- are increasing the interest and adoption of practices to convert urban "waste" wood to useful products.

Washington, DC (June 18, 2010)- During this economic recession, as individuals across the country grappled with financial instability, one might predict that the volunteer rate should decrease between 2008 and 2009. The data, however, tell a different story. In 2009, the volunteer rate actually increased to 26.8 percent, up from 26.4 percent in 2008. The number of volunteers also increased to 63.4 million, up from 61.8 million in 2008. This is the largest single year increase in the number of volunteers and the volunteer rate since 2003.

By Holly Hall
The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Washington, DC (June 9, 2010)- The economy struck another blow to charitable donations last year, causing contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals to decline by 3.2 percent, according to Giving USA, the annual tally of American philanthropy released this morning. The dip comes after the first year of the recession depressed giving by 2.4 percent in 2008. Giving USA said last year's drop was partly due to foundations, which decreased their giving by 8.6 percent. Corporate giving rose by 5.9 percent, although the report speculated that companies shifted their giving to goods and products and away from cash.

By Martin Jaffe, Moira Zellner, Emily Minor, et al

Chicago, IL (May 28, 2010)- This report explores the science of green infrastructure practices and evaluates existing and potential policies, regulations and administrative tactics that could be adopted in the State of Illinois to promote the widespread, appropriate use of green infrastructure stormwater management strategies and techniques.

Washington, DC (May 3, 2010)- Increasingly, corporations regard workplace volunteerism as a means to effect long-term social change and are offering their employees skilled volunteer opportunities, an annual survey from New York City-based Deloitte finds.

By Alan Mallach
Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings

Washington, DC (May 1, 2010)- The end of World War II heralded an era of urban disinvestment in the United States. Suburban flight, deindustrialization and automobile-oriented sprawl triggered massive population and job loss in the cities that had driven America's economic growth for the preceding century. While some cities began to rebound in the 1990s, others, including great cities like Detroit and Cleveland, have continued to decline. As their population has shrunk, lack of demand has created a new urban landscape dominated by vacant lots and abandoned buildings. At the same time, they contain assets important for the future of their states and the United States as a whole, including major universities, major centers of medical research, and rich traditions of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Washington, DC (March 25, 2010)- Smart growth strategies emphasize the reuse of land. An updated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report shows a continuing shift in development toward urban neighborhoods in the United States, despite a slow a real estate market.

By Grant Williams

Washington, DC (February 25, 2010)- The vast majority of nonprofit organizations that responded to a recent accounting survey said they coped with the bad economy in 2009 with all-around cost cutting.

By United Press International

Edgewater, MD (February 2, 2010)- U.S. scientists say they've found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have during the past 225 years. The Smithsonian Institution ecologists focused on the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland. Geoffrey Parker, who has tracked the trees' growth for 20 years, said the plots range in size with some as large as 2 acres. Parker's research is based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 26 miles east of Washington in Edgewater, Md.

Irvine, CA (January 19, 2010)- Some outside the green community believe that they have dispelled the notion that urban green spaces help counteract greenhouse gas emissions with new research that has found- in Southern California at least- that total emissions would be lower if lawns did not exist. In fact, few in the green arena have ever advocated for highly-manicured and maintenance-intensive lawns as a sustainability solution.

Phoenix, AZ (January 11, 2010)- The addition of 100,000 trees over a decade could reduce annual energy demands by about 14,000 megawatt-hours annually in the Phoenix area, according to the report. Planting shade trees around homes and buildings is more than just an aesthetic consideration, it is an effective way to reduce energy bills, too, according to a new report by Western Resource Advocates.

By Lynn Scarlett
Prepared for Environmental Defense Fund

Washington, DC (January 1, 2010)- As the 21st century opens, cities are restoring nature and its functions to the metropolis. Across the country, urban "greening" is gaining considerable momentum. Moreover, urban greening initiatives are often taking place within broader regional and increasingly ambitious ecosystem restoration efforts, where their success both depends upon and contributes to landscape-scale, non-urban conservation.

Athens, GA (January 1, 2010)- GA Tech did a study on converting underperforming commercial property inside Atlanta into parks, and its projected impact on property values. The general concept is this: many cities overbuilt commercial property, which are now at an all time low. These underperforming commercial properties are a drag on general property values and present future problems as physical deterioration and blight set in. It would be better for everyone in the long term to invest in buying up these properties, destroying them, and turning them into park land which will ultimately add value to the remaining properties. Done strategically, this could mean greater gains in property value in the long term for the business community and banks.

San Francisco, CA (December 10, 2009)- This report from Next 10 tracks the growth of green jobs in the Golden State over the last 14 years, and finds big growth and regional hotspots for different types of environmentally oriented careers.

By Curtis Hinman

Pullman, WA (November 1, 2009)- Washington State University and project partners implemented a flow monitoring project on a 3.35-hectare (8.27-acre) pilot project in western Washington (Meadow on the Hylebos) that incorporates low impact development (LID) stormwater management practices.