Lifestyle Behaviors, Consumption Patterns, and Land Management

Many urban neighborhoods are truly distressed: poverty, crime, poor education, and lack of work are daily problems. Although management of trees, rivers, and other natural features could be a part of improving the quality of life and residents’ morale, policy makers don't have the information they need to realize this potential. Northern Research Station (NRS) scientists are working to find the answers to many of the questions regarding the effect of urban greening on community and industrial development.

Selected Research Studies

Energy conservation
What impacts do trees have on building energy use, and how can they be optimally configured to reduce building energy use and consequent pollutant emissions from power plants? Trees affect energy use in all seasons, usually but not always saving energy. They do this by shading buildings, reducing wind, and modifying air temperatures, all factors being studied by NRS scientists.

Recreation planning
Whether planning for a national forest or a neighborhood tot lot, providing for the wide-ranging recreational needs of people is complex. Site users come from different age groups, different racial and ethnic groups, and represent varied income levels. To help designers, planners, and managers most effectively serve diverse patrons, we study people’s perceptions of and preferences for recreational areas, as well as how people value the use of these areas. Among our products are computer programs based on the recreational choices people make to help planners and managers make the most informed decisions concerning site design.

Forests for urban populations
This suite of research projects hopes to provide policy makers and managers useful information to guide the economic and ecological revitalization of urban areas, to build on their past natural and industrial heritage while fulfilling the promise of their natural and industrial future. Studies range from understanding the importance of recreation opportunities in the area to exploring the biological and social aspects of phyto-remediation as a pollution control technology.

Demographic change
Where people live, what type of house they live in, their age, income, family structure, and ethnicity are examples of characteristics that influence how people interact with the landscape. As a result, they are part of what we study when we examine demographic change. Equally important are people’s migration and settlement patterns.

Landscape change
Landscape change is closely linked with changes in land use and land cover. We are developing research methods and products to predict and describe trends and prospects for change in land use and land cover across urban and urbanizing areas. We help natural resource managers and policymakers use this information to guide urban development and open space management decisions, from inner cities to the metropolitan fringe and beyond.

Landscape design
Where people chose to live and work has important implications for landscape design. For instance, as families move into conservation communities on the urban fringe, what are the most appropriate, appealing, and conservation-minded site layouts? What attributes of the homes and landscapes convey the rural character of a place? On the other hand, what are appropriate landscape design considerations for industrialized neighborhoods that are reclaiming intermingled natural areas? What is the role of design in enhancing the ecological viability of an area? Our research seeks to answer these and other critical landscape design questions.