Final Report Assessing Urban Tree Canopy in the City of Atlanta; A Baseline Canopy Study City of Atlanta Department of Planning and Community Development Arborist Division Spring 2014 Prepared by: Tony Giarrusso, Associate Director of the Center for GIS, Georgia Institute of Technology Sarah Smith, Research Scientist II, Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, Georgia Institute of Technology Acknowledgements Project Team: Principal Investigator: Anthony J. Giarrusso, Associate Director, Senior Research Scientist Center for Geographic Information Systems (CGIS) Georgia Institute of Technology 760 Spring Street, Suite 230 Atlanta, GA 30308 Office: 404-894-0127 [email protected] Co-Principal Investigator: Sarah M. Smith, Research Scientist II Center for Quality Growth & Regional Development (CQGRD) 760 Spring Street, Suite 213 Atlanta, GA 30308 Office: 404-385-5133 [email protected] Research Assistants: Amy Atz Gillam Campbell Alexandra Frackelton Anna Harkness Peter Hylton Kait Morano The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the City of Atlanta. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. The project team would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals for their assistance on this project. Kathryn A. Evans, Senior Administrative Analyst, Tree Conservation Commission, Department of Planning and Development, Arborist Division Chuck Schultz, Principle Planner, GIS, City of Atlanta Jim Kozak, Davey Resource Group, a Division of the Davey Tree Expert Company - Davey Trees Assessing Urban Tree Cover in the City of Atlanta A Baseline Canopy Study 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................. 4 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 7 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 10 1.1 Benefits of Urban Trees..................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 History of the Project ......................................................................................................................... 10 1.3 Research Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Report Organization .......................................................................................................................... 11 2. Project Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Establishing the Workflow ................................................................................................................. 13 2.3 Imagery Capture and Preparation ..................................................................................................... 13 2.4 Imagery Classification and Post Processing ..................................................................................... 14 2.5 Accuracy Assessment ....................................................................................................................... 15 2.6 Calculating Tree and Land Cover Statistics ...................................................................................... 16 3. Data Analysis and Findings .................................................................................................................... 17 3.1 City-wide Tree and Land Cover Totals .............................................................................................. 17 3.2 Other Geographies ............................................................................................................................ 20 3.3 Neighborhood Planning Units (NPU) ................................................................................................. 21 3.4 Council Districts ................................................................................................................................. 24 3.5 Neighborhoods .................................................................................................................................. 26 3.6 Zoning ................................................................................................................................................ 30 3.7 Parks.................................................................................................................................................. 36 3.8 Stream Buffers ................................................................................................................................... 39 3.9 Watersheds ....................................................................................................................................... 43 3.10 Sub-Watersheds .............................................................................................................................. 46 3.11 Comparing Atlanta with Other Cities ............................................................................................... 50 4. Targeted Tree Planting ........................................................................................................................... 51 4.1 Potential Planting Index ..................................................................................................................... 51 4.2 Using the Potential Planting Index .................................................................................................... 52 5. Recommendations and Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 55 5.1 Discussion of Results ........................................................................................................................ 55 5.2 Policy Recommendations .................................................................................................................. 56 5.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 57 Assessing Urban Tree Cover in the City of Atlanta A Baseline Canopy Study 3 Table of Contents 6. References .............................................................................................................................................. 58 Appendix A: Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 60 Appendix B: City-Wide Statistics ................................................................................................................. 64 Appendix C: Neighborhood Planning Units................................................................................................. 70 Appendix D: Council Districts ...................................................................................................................... 73 Appendix E: Neighborhoods ....................................................................................................................... 75 Appendix F: Zoning ..................................................................................................................................... 90 Appendix G: Parks .................................................................................................................................... 103 Appendix H: Watersheds and Sub-Watersheds ....................................................................................... 127 Appendix I: Comparison Cities for UTC Studies ....................................................................................... 133 List of Tables Table 1: Summary of Land Cover Classification Research and Methodologies ......................................... 12 Table 2: Classification Accuracy Assessment Report ................................................................................ 16 Table 3: 2008 City-wide Land Cover Statistics ........................................................................................... 18 Table 4: Tree Cover Statistics by NPU ....................................................................................................... 21 Table 5: Land Cover Summary Statistics by NPU ...................................................................................... 23 Table 6: Tree Cover by Council District ...................................................................................................... 24 Table 7: Land Cover Summary Statistics by Council District .....................................................................