Diverse actions can address climate change in urban forest management while recognizing the fundamentally interconnected nature of human health and well-being. The Urban Forest Climate and Health Adaptation Menu is a flexible resource that synthesizes a wide range of peer-reviewed research, evidence-based reports, and emerging best practices on climate change adaptation, urban forest management, and human health impacts.
Managing the health of urban forests for residents
The Urban Forest Climate and Health Adaptation Menu provides options and resources for the interrelated problems facing municipal land managers as they consider how natural resource decisions impact the health of their cities’ residents. While urban forests face an unpredictable set of climate change threats, intensified and unique to the setting, they also provide some of the most vital opportunities to improve the lives and well-being of U.S. urban residents, who account for roughly 80% of the nation’s population. This Menu builds on the foundation of existing climate adaptation menus and the Adaptation Workbook to provide nine general strategies, each with specific approaches and tactics that managers can review, select, and adjust for their particular circumstances.
Further, urban forests provide a wide array of benefits that help mitigate the effects of climate change, improve human health, and reduce emissions, which include:
- Reducing safety hazards and risks from extreme events such as storms and flooding
- Making cities more walkable/bikeable, reducing transit demands
- Reducing air temperatures and, commensurately, energy demands
- Improving air quality and carbon storage provided by trees and ecosystems
- Easing stress and mental fatigue as well as reducing related mental illness and physical ailments
- Improving air and water quality
Download the abbreviated (one page) menu of strategies and approaches
Demonstration project: Providence, RI: Climate & Health Adaptation on a Neighborhood Scale
As public and private urban forest managers work in partnership to build a more equitable and robust urban forest, the Providence Parks Department and the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program aim to engage residents and neighborhood stakeholders in developing and implementing community-driven tree planting and stewardship solutions focused on climate adaptation and human health in Upper and Lower South Providence, two low-canopy and low-income neighborhoods disproportionately burdened by the impacts of climate change and environmental justice. Learn more about this project and how they used the Urban and Health Menu in their urban forest planning.
Featured Resources
- Use the interactive Climate & Health Action Guide website, created by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science and American Forests for Vibrant Cities Lab, to help plan and organize urban forestry projects.
- To explore and learn about how urban forest resources and municipal decisions play out on a human scale, check out American Forests’ Tree Equity Score Tool.
- Visit the Climate Change Response Network’s Urban Forests page to find resources about vulnerability and adaptation.
In Partnership
This publication was produced by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Scienceand the Climate Change Response Framework
Funding for this product was generously provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation as part of a broader investment to optimize urban forests for climate and public health outcomes, the Forest Service Research & Development, through the Northern Research Station, and American Forests.
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Case study: Climate & Health Adaptation on a Neighborhood Scale
The Providence Parks Department and the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program aim to engage residents and neighborhood stakeholders in developing and implementing community-driven tree planting and stewardship solutions.
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Vulnerability assessments for forested ecosystems
Understand climate vulnerability for regional forested areas