Urban Trees Case Study

Urban trees provide a wide range of environmental, ecological, social, cultural and economic benefits. However, as natural objects, they are constantly under stress, and living in an unnatural habitat, which will primarily affect the tree crown. In this study, the Diameter at Breast Height (DBH), Crown Live Ratio (LCR), Crown Dieback (CDBK), Crown Transparency (CT), and Crown Chlorosis (CC) of trees at University of Toronto – St. George campus were assessed by field measurements and Google Street View images. The study shows that the average of DBH and LCR measurements of trees planted in constricted and non-constricted areas are considerably different, which might be due to more space in non-constricted areas, which allows the roots to spread …show more content…
In order to obtain accurate measurements, each group (two students) chose one species and assessed the mentioned indices on four individual trees in both constricted and non-constricted rooting areas (Figure …show more content…
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Table 2 illustrates that there is a moderate correlation between constricted and non-constricted areas of DBH data, which is statistically significant at the 0.01 level (Tb = 0.366, p = 0.000). Moreover, a weak correlation is observed for LCR (Tb = 0.198, p = 0.017), which shows that there is a weak correlation between the average of LCR for constricted and non-constricted areas. Whereas, there are no correlation for CDBK, CT, and CC with Tb = 0.107, p = 0.207, Tb = -0.062, p = 0.445, and Tb = 0.084, p = 0.346,