Biodiversity of Significant Trees in Norfolk, VA by Census Tract
Team Virginia Modeling, Analysis, & Simulation Center (VMASC)
Created as part of the Hampton Roads Datathon 2022: Analyzing, Promoting, and Protecting Biodiversity in Hampton Roads from September 9-16, 2022 and hosted by CivicLab Norfolk.
Trees serve an important role in providing protection from the natural elements, such as providing cooler spots to rest during the hot portions of the day and helping to stay out of direct sunlight to reduce the risk of sunburn. Exposure to high temperatures and high humidity can lead to heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. A contributing risk factor to the occurrence of heat exhaustion is a high heat index of 91 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Trees provide assistant in this instances by providing shade and lowering the perceived air temperature.
For the datathon, we explore the benefits provided by trees identified as significant within the city of Norfolk within the Hampton Roads area. Additionally, we also look at the locations of newly planted tress as part of the City of Norfolk's tree planting program that plants trees on city owned property. Data and categorization of significant trees in Norfolk, VA are collected by volunteers with the Norfolk Master Gardeners. Visualizations and analyses are conducted at the census tract level within the city to provide insights into the geographical distribution of tree across the city. Our solution is divided into three sections: (i) visualization of significant and planting tree program trees by census tract in Norfolk, VA, (ii) a simulation exploring the effects of heat exposure and the role of Norfolk's significant trees on pedestrians, and (iii) analytics highlighting the breakdown of trees within each census tract and highlighting the findings from the simulation runs.
Simulation of Heat Exposures by Census Tract in Norfolk, VA
We utilized a simulation model of exposures to simulate the effects of people traveling through Norfolk, VA on a hot day and exploring the effects of the Significant Trees on the overall perceived heat within the census tracts. To this end, the Significant Trees were incorporated into the simulation in the form of exposures which serve to lower the perceived temperature of any person under their canopies by 15 degrees fahrenheit while within their shade. Two scenarios were tested. The first assumed that people are traveling from their workplaces to non-home locations and then back to work. The second assumed that people are traveling from their home to non-home locations and then back to home. Both scenarios were run for two settings: (i) using the current set of Significant Trees, and (ii) using the set of future trees based on the information from the City of Norfolk's Tree Planting Program. This resulted in a total of four generated test cases.
Significant Tree Descriptions by Census Tract and Analytics of Simulation Outcomes
We conduct two types of analyses on the data. The first is a descriptive statistics reprentation of the Significant Trees within Norfolk, VA at the census tract level. The second is an assessment of the simulation outcomes for the four tested scenarios. The provided tables can be filtered and sorted as desired. The assessment of the simulation outcomes provides the total distance traveled be each simulated person, the total distance traveled while under shade, and the percent of the time that each person spent under shade while walking.
The code and data for this project is available in a publicly accessible repository.
Our Team:
Dr. Ross Gore, Ph.D. is a Research Associate Professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) at Old Dominion University (ODU). His current work focuses on data science and predictive analytics. He can be found on Twitter as @rossgore.
Dr. Christopher J. Lynch, Ph.D. leads the Data Analytics Working Group at VMASC of Old Dominion University. His current work focuses on Data Science, Analytics, and Health Informatics. His Twitter handle is @Chris_Lynch_ODU
Kevin O'Brien is a Software Developer Specialist (Analyst) in the Capabilities Laboratory at VMASC of Old Dominion University.
Virginia Zamponi works in the Capabilities Laboratory under Kevin O'Brien at VMASC and is a Modeling and Simulation student within the CMSE Department of Old Dominion University.
Erik Jensen is a Graduate Research Assistant at VMASC and a Graduate Student in the Computational Modeling and Simulation Engineering (CMSE) Department of Old Dominion University.
Brandon Feldhaus is a Full Stack Developer in the Capabilities Laboratory at VMASC of Old Dominion University.
