Air and Water Quality

Urban forests have considerable effects on water and air quality. Trees and/or shrubs can help to absorb storm run-off and improve the quality of the water that makes its way to larger bodies of water. Trees also can improve air quality by reducing air temperatures and directly removing pollutants, and altering building energy use and consequent pollutant emissions from power plants. Northern Research Station (NRS) scientists are conducting research on the environmental effects of trees to help urban planners and residents configure urban vegetation to improve the quality of their air and water.

Selected Research Studies

Water quality
What are the effects of urbanization and urban forests on water flows and quality of local streams? Urbanization disrupts natural hydrological processes, mostly because of the vast expanses of paving created by streets and parking lots and channeling of streams. NRS scientists are researching the effects of these phenomena on stream organism productivity and health as well as the quality of storm water run-off.

Air quality and greenhouse gases
NRS scientists are investigating the effect of urban vegetation on local and regional air quality and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and what species composition and design will maximize air quality improvement and minimize concentrations of greenhouse gases.