City of Tampa Urban Ecological Analysis

The City of Tampa and the University of South Florida completed an ecological assessment of the City’s urban forest in the mid-1990’s, examining the temporal change in canopy coverage between 1975-1996, the spatial variation in canopy coverage in 1996 and the estimated benefits provided by the urban forest. In 2006, USF partnered with the University of Florida and IFAS Extension Services to conduct a more thorough ecological assessment; quantify the change in overall canopy coverage 1996 to 2006; provide a three-dimensional description of the forest structure and composition; and estimate the economic and ecological values of the City of Tampa’s urban forest. Using very high resolution remote sensing techniques, the study identified over 21,000 acres of tree canopy; 29% of the City’s land area. Using data from over 200 field plots and peer-reviewed quantitative models developed by the USDA, the compensatory value of Tampa’s urban forest (i.e. replacement in the event of disaster) was nearly $1.5 billion. Ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and pollutant removal alone was estimated at over $7 million dollars annually. The results from this study were highly praised by Tampa City Council and led to a follow-up project City of Tampa Urban and Community Forestry Grant: Toward the Development of a Strategy for Urban Forest Sustainability
Sponsor: City of Tampa
Principal Investigator: Shawn Landry (PI) , Ruiliang Pu (Co-PI)
Start Date: December 2006
End Date: December 2008

Related Publications:

	City of Tampa Urban Ecological Analysis 1975-1996
	Author: Kyle Campbell and Shawn Landry Format: pdf Date: 1999
	Description: The Urban Ecological Analysis quantified how Tampa's tree canopy has changed over time, modeled the effects of the forest on the local ecology, and assessed the economic impact of the forest..

	City of Tampa Urban Ecological Analysis 2006-2007: Final Report to the City of Tampa, April 24, 2008.
	Author: Andreu, Michael G., Melissa H. Friedman, Shawn M. Landry and Robert J. Northrop Format: pdf File Size: 2000 kb Date: 2008
	Description: Through a collaborative effort that involved the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, and the Hillsborough County Extension, an extensive inventory of Tampa’s urban forest was undertaken and analyzed during 2007. The inventory provided baseline information on location, composition, structure, and health while the analysis determined ecological function and economic value..

	A Report on the City of Tampa’s Existing and Possible Urban Tree Canopy
	Author: Shawn M. Landry, Dr. Michael G. Andreu, Melissa H. Friedman and Robert J. Northrop Format: pdf Date: 2009
	Description: The analysis of Tampa’s existing and possible urban tree canopy was completed as a follow-up to the City of Tampa Urban Ecological Analysis conducted in 2006-2007. Our goal was to leverage the high resolution geospatial datasets developed during the Urban Ecological Analysis to compute UTC metrics at the parcel level and summarize this information both by land use and by spatial distribution..

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