Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis Program
The Urban FIA Program builds upon FIA’s Nationwide Forest Inventory (NFI) to assess the status and trends of trees and forests in urban settings, including the services they provide, their health, and future risk from insects and disease. The Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis program fuses methods and infrastructure of the NFI with the expertise provided by i-Tree, a state of the art, peer reviewed software suite that provides seamless analysis of the NFI and Urban FIA along with tools for assessing the benefits of urban trees.
With more than 80% of the U.S. population living in urban areas, trees in and around cities are on the front line of service to people. Urban trees and natural spaces are critical to human health and well-being. A neighborhood's trees moderate air and water pollution, reduce heating and cooling costs, and provide shade and shelter from the hot summer sun. Healthy trees can provide wildlife habitat and improve real estate values. Research shows that trees improve mental health and strengthen social connections. Trees, parks, and other green spaces get people outside, helping to foster active living and neighborhood pride.
Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis has three parallel components:
- Urban Forest Data Collection, which utilizes permanent field-based sampling to monitor the status and change of the Nation’s urban forests.
- Urban National Landowner Survey (UNLS), which is a concerted national effort to examine the social dimensions of the urban forest, i.e., the private landowners who manage the urban forest and other urban green space. The UNLS is on a temporary hiatus. It will be restarted if and when funding becomes available.
- Urban Wood Flows, which aims to estimate the industrial and nonindustrial uses of urban wood.
Urban FIA Implementation Status Map
At full implementation all three components of the program will cover all urban areas across all states with additional focus in over 100 cities. The map below shows the status of Data Collection with the other two components currently more limited in scope.
Data and findings from the Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis program are made available to the public through various avenues including applications, such as My City’s Trees, published papers, and the Urban DataMart which offers downloadable data. You can find links to these resources in the “Data and Tools” tab.
Urban Field Plot Selection
Urban FIA plots are randomly selected across all landowners, cover types and land uses. Through use of the standard FIA plot selection grid and plot intensification practices, participating cities will have approximately 200 plots located across the city and additional plots in associated urban areas. Where an entire state is participating in Urban FIA, research plots are completed wherever the standard FIA plot selection grid overlaps with urban areas.
Urban FIA Plot Measurement
Once the research plots have been selected, private landowners are contacted to request permission to access the property to take the required measurements. Plot data collection time typically takes 1-3 hours but can take much longer when a lot of vegetation is present. Field staff try to complete the work during a single visit. Landowners need not be present during the data collection process and will NOT be asked to change any aspect of the vegetation or property in response to the data collected. Research plots are remeasured on a regular cycle (typically every 5-7 years) to assess change. Field staff will contact landowners prior to these remeasurements to request permission to access their property. .
The Urban FIA plot is a circular plot with a fixed radius of 48ft. A variety of data is collected across the entire plot including tree species, tree heights and diameters, tree health, the presence of other vegetation and other items related to ground cover and land use. The microplots are used to create a smaller sampling area on which to collect data about saplings and seedlings present.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance plays a central role in Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis data collection. The goal of the quality assurance process is to ensure that inventory data are scientifically sound and of known quality. Field-based quality assurance consists of two types of activities: quality control and quality assessment.
Quality control spans many operational techniques in data collection. These include protocol trainings for field crews, plot inspections, data error and completeness checks, identifying protocols in need of clarification, and data collection software bug reporting. Quality assessment evaluates data variability and compliance with established standards, and informs those standards. It is also used to identify quality control needs. The assessment procedure compares production plot data with an independent measurement of the same plot by a separate crew. Quality assessment data can address a variety of questions, such as: Is a large-diameter tree more likely to have a larger diameter measurement variation than a small-diameter tree?
Reporting
Data and findings from the Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis data collection program is provided to the public through various avenues including applications, such as My City’s Trees, published papers, and the Urban DataMart which offers downloadable data. You can find links to these resources in the “Data and Tools” tab.
Data Documentation
Data Download
| Data/Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Urban DataMart | Urban DataMart allows visitors to download raw urban data, as well as Urban FIADB User Guides. |
Data Analysis Tools
| Data/Tool Name | Description |
|---|---|
| My City's Trees | My City's Trees enables anyone to access Urban FIA data and produce custom analyses and reports. Currently, My City's Trees includes information for all targeted cities with a complete certified dataset. |
| i-Tree | i-Tree is a suite of software tools that provides forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools, within urban and non-urban forests that quantify forest structure and the environmental benefits that trees provide. |
Key Personnel
Urban FIA Lead
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Person
Mark Majewsky
Supervisory Forester
Regional FIA Program Managers
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Person
Burl Carraway
SRS FIA Program Manager -
Person
Charles H. (Hobie) Perry
Program Manager, NRS FIA -
Person
Sharon Stanton
PNW Research Station FIA Program Manager -
Person
Michael J. Wilson
Program Manager
National Research Program Leads
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Person
Renate Bush
Forest Inventory and Analysis National Program Lead -
Person
Phillip Rodbell
Natl. Prog. Lead - Urban Sustainability Research
Publications
- Christopher Edgar, David Nowak, Mark Majewsky, Tonya Lister, James Westfall, Nancy F. Sonti. 2021. Strategic National Urban Forest Inventory for the United States
Urban FIA Reporting
The below publications are an analysis of urban forest in specific areas of the United States. The information presented in these reports can be used to improve and augment support for urban forest management programs and infom policy and planning to improve environmental quality and human health.
- David J. Nowak, Peter D. Smith, Michael Merritt, John Giedraitis, Jeffrey T. Walton, Robert E. Hoehn, Jack C. Stevens, Daniel E. Crane, Mark Estes, Stephen Stetson, Charles Burditt, David Hitchcock, Wendee Holtcamp. 2005. Houston's Regional Forest
- David J. Nowak, Allison R. Bodine, Robert E. Hoehn, Christopher B. Edgar, Dudley R. Hartel, Tonya W. Lister, Thomas J. Brandeis. 2016. Austin's Urban Forest, 2014
Additional Documentation
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User Guide
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Guide
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Fact Sheet
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General
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User Guide