Bridging gaps in urban forest management to achieve urban sustainability goals
department or school: Forestry, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Bassett, Corinne G.
issued: 2024-06-24T17:25:46Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Urban forests are recognized as a nature-based solution providing myriad ecosystem services addressing the sustainability challenges faced by cities. This dissertation investigates disconnects between the practice of urban forest management and urban sustainability goals set by cities. Chapter 2 frames the dissertation, using the economic phenomenon of the “tyranny of small decisions” and the case of urban forestry. I argue that where social and ecological characteristics vary at fine scales, the so-called small decisions in natural resource management, and the people who make them, are critical underpinnings for achieving large-scale sustainability goals and must be considered in policy. In Chapter 3, I interviewed urban foresters from municipalities in the US and Canada (N=20) to understand current best practices and challenges for aligning street-level management decision-making with ecosystem service goals adopted by their cities. While specific ecosystem service goals did not influence day-to-day decision making, most urban foresters followed a “more, bigger trees” paradigm as a proxy for increasing the ecosystem services provided by city trees overall. Urban forestry was also not found to be well integrated in municipal strategic planning. In Chapter 4, I conducted a multi-city expert elicitation of urban foresters in Vancouver, BC, Canada, Washington, D.C., US, and Honolulu, HI, US, to identify links between management actions and urban sustainability goals, in the context of a hypothetical streetscape. I found that certain direct actions were needed to advance every goal, while other direct actions present tradeoffs. Finally, Chapter 5 shares the findings of a research synthesis focus group that highlighted two critical elements required to circumvent the paradigm suggested by the tyranny of small decisions and achieve larger urban sustainability goals that rely on urban forests: 1) site-scale direct management actions by urban foresters can support larger-s…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/88506
note: BRIDGING GAPS IN URBAN FOREST MANAGEMENT TO ACHIEVE URBAN SUSTAINABILITY GOALS by Corinne G. Bassett B.A., Earth Sciences, The University of Pennsylvania, 2014 M.E.S., The University of Pennsylvania, 2015 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Forestry) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) June 2024 © Corinne G. Bassett, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Bridging gaps in urban forest management to achieve urban sustainability goals submitted by Corinne G. Bassett in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry Examining Committee: Dr. Susan D. Day, Professor, Forest Resources Management, UBC Co-supervisor Dr. Cecil C. Konijnendijk, Professor, Forest Resources Management, UBC Co-supervisor Dr. Kai M. A. Chan, Professor, Resources, Environment, & Sustainability, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Jeanine Rhemtulla, Associate Professor, Forest and Conservation Sciences, UBC University Examiner Dr. Maged Senbel, Associate Professor, Community and Regional Planning, UBC University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Dr. Lara Roman, Research Ecologist, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Urban forests are recognized as a nature-based solution providing myriad ecosystem services addressing the sustainability challenges faced by cities. This dissertation investigates disconnects between the practice of urban forest management and urban sustainability goals set by cities. Chapter 2 frames the dissertation, using the economic phenomenon of the “tyranny of small decisions” and the case of urban forestry. I argue that where social and ecological characteristics vary at fine scales, the so-called sma…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0444016
language: eng
degree discipline: Forestry
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Day, Susan D. (Susan Downing), 1963-
contributor: Konijnendijk, C. C. (Cecil C.)
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88506