Trees, Health + Climate Change in Underserved Communities
Overview
In collaboration with Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO), Friends of Trees, Co-PI Dr. Vivek Shandas, and other community partners, this project is evaluating a 15-year community tree planting program in the Portland metro region that has planted more than 750,000 trees and shrubs and engaged thousands of people. The evaluation examines not only the health and climate impacts of tree planting efforts, but also impacts on community social cohesion, resilience, and civic/political engagement within different communities engaged in the process of planting and caring for trees. The overall goal of this project is to explore climate and health-related perceptions and impacts of neighborhood greening efforts within lower-income and communities of color surrounding the Jade District in East Portland.
All evaluation efforts are anchored in principles and processes of CBPR. Our goal is a collaborative evaluation that assesses impacts of greening efforts to date, and builds rapport and community capacity to sustain and assess continued/future efforts--recognizing resident knowledge and expertise as fundamental. As such, all evaluation processes are guided by and done in collaboration with a community advisory board (CAB). Our approach includes three domains of evaluation, which build on each other to address the fundamental goals of this project:
Characterization and assessment of changes to the biophysical landscape;
Understanding the implications of those changes on community physical, financial, and environmental features; and
Assessing impacts and implications of greening efforts on the social, physical, and mental health of affected communities.
This project uses a mixed-methods design that includes multiple participatory and non-participatory qualitative and quantitative methods, including focus groups, photovoice, survey, participatory GIS, land use regression, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) analysis.