Access to community greenspace is a natural resource often unavailable in dense urban communities and areas of lower socioeconomic status. Environmental equity issues are prevalent in many urban areas in the United States, and increasing forested land connectivity through urban centers can alleviate these disparities. Benefits from increased tree cover include bolstering ecosystem services such as cleaner air and reduced overland stormflow. Forest fragmentation reduces a forest's ability to provide these benefits and decreases overall resiliency. In this study, we view one benefit of intact forests as providing essential ecosystem services that help mitigate social vulnerability in surrounding communities. Using Wake County, NC and Baltimore County, MD as case studies we compared forest fragmentation trends in areas of widely different total tree cover. We created a risk matrix to identify hotspots that are both high in social vulnerability and high in forest fragmentation. We quantified forest fragmentation based on class cohesion values for the 2019 National Land Cover Database and social vulnerability by the CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). Using GIS to uncover spatial connections between decreased ecosystem services and socioeconomic disadvantages is useful for focusing community aid and improving land management practices in the areas that need it most.
Results/Conclusions:
Wake County is a highly forested area, thus the relative risk of a census tract experiencing high fragmentation was lower than in Baltimore County where forest cover is patchier. 20% of Baltimore County census tracts fall within the “high risk” category while only 5% of Wake County census tracts are considered “high risk”. Baltimore high risk census tracts were located more regularly toward the center of the city of Baltimore, while the Wake high risk census tracts did not always fall within the city of Raleigh boundaries. Census tracts in more densely populated urban areas were more likely to have disconnected, isolated patches of forest land. These areas are also more likely to have high social vulnerability, a value that is based on a variety of socioeconomic variables including spatial factors such as housing density and crowding. Mapping hotspots of high land cover fragmentation and SVI can identify areas that could benefit from community improvement efforts.
