We are pleased to be helping the Northern Kentucky Urban and Community Forestry Council (NKUCFC) with a tree canopy assessment for Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties.
Using National Agricultural Imagery Program remote sensing data combined with LiDAR data, we were able to create a high resolution tree canopy cover data set.
By combining these data with various GIS shapefiles, we can “cookie cut” and classify the shapes (municipalities, census tracts, watersheds, etc.) by existing and potential tree canopy.
These data become actionable intelligence when we do things like apply business analytics to show relative city size (size of rectangle) and relative tree canopy (depth of color) to identify post entail targets for canopy enhancement…
…Or when we combine these data with other data to target certain outcomes related to tree canopy enhancement.
For example, if we relate canopy cover to spatial marketing typology data (the same type of data used by companies to identify markets for everything from soft drinks to automobile tires), we can see relative canopy by market segment.
We can also relate these data to income data to look at environmental justice from an economic perspective and see the relationships between income and tree canopy in the study area.
We are early on in the process and appreciate NKUCFC’s partnership in this work. We also thank the Kentucky Division of Forestry and US Forest Service for funding the project.
The Consulting Group at SavATree is undertaking the project with partners The University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab and Doctoral Student Dexter Locke.