IMPROVING PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WITH URBAN FOREST RESTORATION AND MANAGEMENT THROUGH DATA-COUPLED INTERACTIVE LANDSCAPE VISUALIZATIONS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: MCINTIRE-STENNIS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1018283
• Project Start Date: Nov 28, 2018
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2020
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
(N/A)
ANN ARBOR,MI 48109

Performing Department
Landscape Architecture

Non Technical Summary
Urban forests are widely recognized for their positive contributions to the environment, and aesthetic benefits for people, directly impacting the health and well-being of urban residents. Urban forests not only provide shade and cooling effects in summer and wind protection in winter, they also play an important role in a community's ability to respond and recover from extreme weather events. Decisions about what types of trees plant and their arrangement is an important step in the process of urban reforestation, and can play a large role in the success and sustainability of these initiatives.Despite the fact that many people agree on the importance of urban forests, tree cover in U.S. cities has been in decline (an estimated 7900 hectares or 4.0 million trees per year). In addition, while there are many efforts underway to establish new urban forests, more effort should be made to involve local residents in these efforts. In particular, there is a recognized need to provide opportunities for meaningful involvement by citizens in all steps of decisions and planning related to urban reforestation. This process will require an interactive and user-friendly decision-making process that can more effectively incorporate community needs with the protection of natural areas in urban centers.As it is important to identify the specific needs and goals of the community, opportunities for collaboration and engagement with community members to specify the goals that are important and meaningful to them must be a part of any urban forest planning and management initiative. However, existing processes to identify these goals can be costly and time consuming, and thus may not be appropriate in all settings. Our research seeks to improve public engagement for urban forest restoration and management through the use of a video game-based decision-support tool that provides a three-dimensional representation of forests and other urban greenspaces, and which also explicitly incorporates decision-relevant forest attributes. These attributes have been identified in previous work of ours and we aim to evaluate if they are relevant in other contexts with different stakeholders. We ultimately aim to supply insights to urban forest managers, and to interested individuals and organizations, to inform the long term social and ecological sustainability of urban forests.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

100%

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
124	6099	3111	100%

Knowledge Area
124 - Urban Forestry;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3111 - Landscape architecture;

Keywords

ecosystem services

urban forests

community

visualization

planning

Goals / Objectives
Urban forests are increasingly recognized for their positive effect on environmental quality, e.g., air and water quality, and the health and wellbeing of city residents (Livesley, McPherson, & Calfapietra, 2016). Despite the importance of urban forests, however, cities still lack an adequate number and diversity of trees (Nowak & Greenfield, 2012) and as such there remains a continuous and pressing need to restore trees--and tree cover--to urban centers. However, most American cities lack the capacity to plan for and support reforestation efforts (Jones, Davis, & Bradford, 2013) . Further, existing urban forest management plans do little to reflect the sociocultural services and benefits, e.g., aesthetics, community cohesion, and recreation, appreciated by much of the public (Tyrvainen, Gustavsson, Konijnendijk, & Ode, 2006).Because of these deficiencies, there is increasing interest in eliciting greater public involvement in the management of urban forests (Janse & Konijnendijk, 2007). Upstream public engagement has been shown to cultivate more positive attitudes towards planning, restoration and management of urban forests (Zhang, Hussain, Deng, & Letson, 2007). Further, giving citizens a greater voice in forest restoration and planning may contribute to reduced public resistance and greater public engagement in this process (Baur, Tynon, Ries, & Rosenberger, 2016; Zhang et al., 2007) . While there are methods for engaging the public in complex multi-attribute decision-making (e.g., structured decision-making (Gregory et al., 2012)), these processes can be costly and time consuming, and thus may not be appropriate in all settings. As such there is a continuous need for participatory processes to better account for the public's interest in urban forests, and to support constructive collaboration between professionals and the public in the restoration and management of urban forests (Luyet, Schlaepfer, Parlange, & Buttler, 2012).Our research seeks to improve public engagement for urban forest restoration and management through the use of a video game-based decision-support tool that provides a three-dimensional representation of forests and other urban greenspaces, and which also explicitly incorporates decision-relevant forest attributes. This work builds on and extends the results of our previously funded McIntire Stennis project that successfully co-designed, evaluated, and deployed a fully-functioning prototype interactive 3D urban forest planning software package (land.info http://tiny.cc/u3d-dss).Research aims: The research described in this proposal has two key aims. First, we aim to advance the science behind interactive 3D landscape visualization decision support systems with the ultimate goal of 'scaling up' the land.info software we have developed for broader applicability across a number of contexts, and to increase real-world impact. Second, we aim to improve public engagement in urban forest restoration and management through the use of this interactive decision support system, as reflected in public attitudes, support for, and participation in urban forest management and restoration.Research objectives: 1) To use the land.info software to determine experimentally the optimal presentation format for forest attributes, e.g., in numeric vs symbolic format, to improve user (the public's) experience; 2) To test hypotheses related to the influence of the number and type of attributes (e.g., more intangible vs more easily quantified) presented to participants on their attitudes and intentions towards urban forest management and restoration.Research questions: RQ1: Do the attributes identified in a lengthy hyperlocal process 'scale up' to be relevant in other contexts; RQ2: What is the preferred format to represent these key forest attributes within the decision support system; RQ3: Does the inclusion of a greater number and diversity of forest performance metrics in the 3D landscape visualization decision-support system improve public attitudes towards urban forest management and restoration; RQ4: Will engagement with a visual forest planning interface increase public support for urban forests, and their restoration and management.Previous Work and Present OutlookOur previous McIntire-Stennis funded research project (Evaluating Ecosystem Service Tradeoffs in the Design, Planning & Management of Urban Forests, MS 2017-18) had the following research objectives: 1) To engage residents to identify landscape attributes of importance to them; and 2) To co-produce and evaluate in a real-world context a 3D visualization-based decision support system to support stakeholder decision making related to urban greening and green infrastructure. We achieved these objectives by conducting ten intensive community-based workshops with two distinct stakeholder groups. The results of our previous research were: 1) The identification of key attributes of multifunctional urban landscapes that were important to community members, e.g. both tangible urban ecosystem attributes like ease of maintenance, temperature regulation, or flood mitigation, as well as sociocultural attributes like community vitality, security, and pride in community; 2) The co-production (design, input, and testing) of what became "land.info", a 3D video game-based decision support system for urban forestry and green space design; and 3) Two fully operational plans for urban greenspace in Detroit's eastside, one of which is currently under construction. This is a key outcome from this research, as collaborative efforts to articulate and operationalize cultural attributes and services in environmental decision-making have been underrepresented in existing research and practice (Chan et al., 2012). Further, we have presented our model and findings to local practitioner and academic audiences, as well as nationally and internationally at landscape architecture, urban greenspace planning, and data visualization conferences. We feel we are in a strong position to build on our existing research and make a substantive contribution to the co-design and co-management of urban forests and will fill a considerable need for a hands-on decision-support tool to enhance public engagement for sustainable urban greenspaces.In the current study, we will be (1) refining the metrics used in the land.info decision support tool and empirically evaluating the best techniques to convey different types of information to a broader audience, and (2) using the land.info decision support tool to test hypotheses related to public attitudes and preferences in the context of urban forest restoration and management. The ultimate goals of this research are threefold: (1) Broaden public participation in the restoration and management of urban forests by identifying urban forest attributes and metrics that have greater utility for the public; (2) Understand public attitudes and preferences with respect to urban forest management and restoration; and (3) Incorporate these results into the land.info decision support tool to encourage broader public participation and input into forest restoration and management decisions. This latter goal has as its ultimate purpose to supply insights to urban forest managers, and to interested individuals and organizations, to inform the long term social and ecological sustainability of urban forests.

Project Methods
Year 1: Oct 1 2018 - Sep 30 2019:Attribute identification, evaluation and operationalizationIn the first year we will: 1. Operationalize the forest attributes and metrics identified in our previous McIntire-Stennis project into the land.info decision support system for use in broader decision contexts. 2. Study 1a: Use an online survey to elicit public judgements and preferences regarding the preferred type and format of forest attributes, testing hypotheses related to preferences for symbolic vs numeric formats, and intangible (less easily quantified) vs tangible (easily quantified) attributes. Standard sociodemographic and social psychological data will serve as covariates. Study 1b: will use an online experimental survey to determine attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following using land.info and according to one of three experimental treatments: Treatment 1 (easily quantified attributes); Treatment 2 (less easily quantified attributes); and Treatment 3 (mix of these two types of attributes). Survey participants will interact with our 3D design tool (online), determine the composition of the restored forest (i.e., number and species of trees), and respond to a series of socio-demographic, social psychological survey questions. Question items will also assess their attitudes, beliefs and behavioral intentions related to urban forests, urban forest restoration, urban forest policy, and the design interface itself, these will serve as dependent variables. 3. Study 2: Use an online experimental survey format to determine attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following engagement with land.info which differs in the number of attributes presented to participants. Two treatments will be deployed; participants randomly assigned to Treatment 1 will base their design on a set of four attributes most commonly associated with urban forests (and which are typically represented by quantitative metrics, i.e., dollar cost or lbs of carbon sequestered). Those randomly assigned to Treatment 2 will base their design on an expansive set of seven attributes (the four attributes from Treatment 1, plus three additional 'intangible' attributes which are favored by the public, i.e., aesthetic and cultural considerations). The remainder of the procedure will follow that described in Study 1b.Year 2: Oct 1 2019 - Sep 30 2020:Reality check: Real-world application and evaluationStudy 3: Carry out a real-world application of the 3D landscape visualization decision support system. Three to five active urban forest restoration projects will be identified across the United States; involved citizens (i.e., those who advocate for and participate in urban forest restoration, or belong to an organization which performs the same) and urban forest managers from those communities will be recruited to use the 3D design interface as described in Study 1b. As a comparison, we will also recruit uninvolved citizens (i.e., who do not participate in urban forest restoration) from the same geographic area through an online survey platform.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:From October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020 the research team built on collaborative research conducted with two community-based organizations in Detroit (the Eastside Community Network and the Alliance for the Great Lakes). In this new round of research our focus is on advancing the science behind interactive 3D landscape visualization decision support systems with the ultimate goal of 'scaling up' the land.info software we have developed for broader applicability across a number of contexts, and to increase real-world impact. We aim to improve public engagement in urban forest restoration and management through the use of this interactive decision support system, as reflected in public attitudes, trust in and support for, and participation in urban forest management and restoration. Our target audience are communities and community-based organizations across the US that are involved in urban reforestation, urban forest restoration, and urban forest management. Our ultimate goal is to create a decision support system which can be used independently (i.e., without direct input from this research team) by these groups in support of their urban forest-related planning and ongoing management. By placing decision-making about the present and future form of urban forests into the hands of community-members, this tool will serve to empower urban communities which had previously been marginalized or excluded from decision-making related to urban forest restoration and management (as well as related tree-planting activities). This decision support system will also serve as a tool for outreach and education about urban forests. By incorporating user-friendly feedback about urban forest attributes that have been identified as important by communities, this tool will illustrate in 3-D virtual reality (i) the multiple functions of an urban forest, and (ii) how these functions are augmented or inhibited through urban forest management interventions and decisions within this 3-D virtual space. The insight from this virtual feedback can then inform the reforestation, restoration and management of forests in urban centers across the US. Changes/Problems:The project has been slightly delayed due to a key researcher leaving for a new job. A position is being advertised to replace this individual" What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Over the course of this phase of the project we have provided two graduate students with research experience related to systematic literature reviews, survey development and experimental design, data collection and statistical analysis, and development of the land.info software for public use and to inform urban forest management. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are not yet ready to disseminate the improved land.info software to communities of interest. This current phase of research is focused on ensuring that the software is user-friendly, clearly represents community-identified ecosystem services, can be operated independently, and reflects community-identified needs. We expect to be ready for dissemination of this research before the next reporting period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are currently writing up the results of this research in the form of a number of peer-reviewed academic publications. We will continue to further refine the 3D land.info design tool, identify and develop preferred visual metrics to represent key ecosystem services and benefits within the tool, and test hypotheses related to public attitudes towards and interest in urban forests, urban forest management, and associated ecosystem services. As noted, we are also currently developing a survey to investigate preferences for how favored ecosystem services are represented within the land.info 3-D forest interface. Specifically, we will be using a nationally-representative web-based survey to elicit public judgements and preferences regarding the preferred type and format of how these forest attributes (as ecosystem services) are presented to users, testing hypotheses related to preferences for symbolic vs numeric formats, intangible (less easily quantified) vs tangible (easily quantified) attributes, and overall number of attributes presented. This research will provide insight into how best to reflect how these services change (mainly an increase or decrease in the flow of these services) as different forest management decisions are made within this virtual space. Further nationally representative web-based surveys and survey-based experiments are also planned to determine attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following the use of land.info with different number and combinations of forest ecosystem services from each category of services included as feedback. The ultimate goal of this phase of the research is to optimize how information is presented to participants in order to ensure that the land.info tool is user-friendly and meets community needs in decision making, effectively represents changes in the flow of ecosystem services in response to forest management decisions in this virtual 3-D space, enhance positive attitudes towards urban forests, and increase intentions to engage in urban forest management activities. Over the next reporting periods we will return to working directly with communities, community-based organizations, and urban forest professionals in Detroit, MI and New Orleans, LA in the use of the land.info decision-support tool in on-the-ground decision-making regarding urban forest reforestation, restoration, and management in the face of climate change. We will be investigating the utility of the tool for independent use, developing training and educational materials associated with the tool, and measuring community perceptions of engagement, trust, legitimacy, and agency in the urban forest planning efforts that involve them.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We developed and deployed a nationally representative web-based survey of city dwellers to rank the importance of the ecosystem services that flow from urban forests. Using the categorization from the Millennium Ecosystem Services and as identified from an extensive literature review, we first asked study participants to rank ecosystem services within each category: Provisioning, Supporting, Regulating, and Cultural. We then also asked participants to provide an overall rank for the most important services from each category, an overall rank for the four categories of ecosystem services, and an assessment of howfamiliar they are with these categories of services. Participants were also asked to provide an overall affective (emotional) evaluation of the presence of urban forests within their community (from negative to positive). Overall, study participants had a positive attitude towards urban forests (Mean attitude: 5.92 (SD=1.93) out of a 7-point scale). A more detailed look at the ratings revealed that participants saw urban forests as acceptable (M=6.20, SD=1.36), calming (M=6.09, SD=1.31), beneficial (M=6.02, SD=1.42), and welcoming (M=6.01, SD=1.41). The most common activity associated with urban forests was walking (44% of respondents). From the category of Cultural ecosystem services, participants ranked Connection with Nature, Physical Health and Recreational Opportunities, and Well-being the highest among these services. From the category of Provisioning ecosystem services, participants ranked Shade provision, Regulating the local climate, and Carbon storage the highest among these services. From the category of Regulating ecosystem services, participants ranked Filtering air, Visual & Sound barrier, and Freshwater provisioning the highest among these services. From the category of Supporting ecosystem services, participants ranked Habitat, Pollinator services, and Biodiversity the highest among these services. In terms of disservices, participants identified Safety, Stinging Insects, and Falling tree limbs as problematic attributes of urban forests. The importance of each category of forest ecosystem service was also assessed (1-7 Likert Scale: Extremely Unimportant to Extremely Important). The ratings are below. Cultural ES: M=5.54; SD=1.71 Provisioning ES: M=5.10; SD=1.55 Regulating ES: M=5.64; SD=1.62 Supporting ES: M=5.70; SD=1.66 ANOVA revealed a significant overall difference among these groups. Post-hoc testing (6 comparisons, corrected p-value = 0.05/6 = 0.008) indicated significant pairwise comparisons between Provisioning and each of Cultural, Regulating and Supporting (all p<0.001). There were no significant differences between any other paired comparisons. Participants also rated their familiarity with these different categories of forest ecosystem services (1-7 Likert Scale: Extremely Unfamiliar to Extremely Familiar). The ratings are below. Cultural ES: M=5.59; SD=1.22 Provisioning ES: M=5.00; SD=1.40 Regulating ES: M=5.05; SD=1.38 Supporting ES: M=5.33; SD=1.39 ANOVA revealed a significant overall difference among these groups. Post-hoc testing (6 comparisons, corrected p-value = 0.05/6 = 0.008) indicated significant pairwise comparisons between Cultural and Provisioning, and Cultural and Regulating (all p<0.001). The difference in familiarity between Cultural and Supporting approached significance (p<0.008). There were no other significant pairwise comparisons. Overall, our results reveal that the urban public hold positive attitudes towards ecosystem services, and see these spaces as providing multiple services to them and their community. These results also reveal a need to inform the public of the importance of Provisioning ecosystem services, as this category was ranked significantly lower than the other categories of services that flow from urban forests. Similarly, educational materials should be directed at familiarizing the public with Provisioning, Regulating and Supporting services that flow from urban forests. Importantly, these results will also inform the next steps in our research program.As noted, we are currently developing a survey to investigate preferences for how these favored ecosystem services are represented within the land.info 3-D interface.Specifically, we will be eliciting public judgements and preferences regarding the preferred type and format of how these forest attributes are presented to users, testing hypotheses related to preferences for symbolic vs numeric formats, intangible (less easily quantified) vs tangible (easily quantified) attributes, and the overall number of attributes presented. This research will provide insight into how best to visually represent changes in services (mainly an increase or decrease in the flow of these services) as different forest management decisions are executed within this virtual space. Further surveys are planned to determine changes in public attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following the use of land.info with different number and combinations of forest ecosystem services from each category of services included as feedback.The ultimate goal of this phase of the research is to optimize how information is presented to participants in order to ensure that the land.info tool is user-friendly and meets community needs in decision making, enhance positive attitudes towards urban forests, improves trust in and legitimacy of urban forest management efforts, and increase intentions to engage in urban forest management activities.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Campbell-Arvai, V., & Lindquist, M. (2021). From the ground up: Using structured community engagement to identify objectives for urban green infrastructure planning. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 59, 127013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127013
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2021 Citation: Lindquist, M., & Campbell-Arvai, V. (2021). Co-designing vacant lots using interactive 3D visualizations - development and application of the Land.Info DSS. Landscape and Urban Planning.

Progress 11/28/18 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:From October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020 the research team built on collaborative research conducted with two community-based organizations in Detroit (the Eastside Community Network and the Alliance for the Great Lakes). In this new round of research our focus is on advancing the science behind interactive 3D landscape visualization decision support systems with the ultimate goal of 'scaling up' the land.info software we have developed for broader applicability across a number of contexts, and to increase real-world impact. We aim to improve public engagement in urban forest restoration and management through the use of this interactive decision support system, as reflected in public attitudes, trust in and support for, and participation in urban forest management and restoration. Our target audience are communities and communitybased organizations across the US that are involved in urban reforestation, urban forest restoration, and urban forest management. Our ultimate goal is to create a decision support system which can be used independently (i.e., without direct input from this research team) by these groups in support of their urban forest-related planning and ongoing management. By placing decision-making about the present and future form of urban forests into the hands of community members, this tool will serve to empower urban communities which had previously been marginalized or excluded from decision-making related to urban forest restoration and management (as well as related tree-planting activities). This decision support system will also serve as a tool for outreach and education about urban forests. By incorporating user-friendly feedback about urban forest attributes that have been identified as important by communities, this tool will illustrate in 3-D virtual reality (i) the multiple functions of an urban forest, and (ii) how these functions are augmented or inhibited through urban forest management interventions and decisions within this 3-D virtual space. The insight from this virtual feedback can then inform the reforestation, restoration and management of forests in urban centers across the US. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Over the course of this phase of the project we have provided two graduate students with research experience related to systematic literature reviews, survey development and experimental design, data collection and statistical analysis, and development of the land.info software for public use and to inform urban forest management. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are not yet ready to disseminate the improved land.info software to communities of interest. This current phase of research is focused on ensuring that the software is user-friendly, clearly represents community-identified ecosystem services, can be operated independently, and reflects community-identified needs. We expect to be ready for dissemination of this research before the next reporting period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are currently writing up the results of this research in the form of a number of peer-reviewed academic publications. We will continue to further refine the 3D land.info design tool, identify and develop preferred visual metrics to represent key ecosystem services and benefits within the tool, and test hypotheses related to public attitudes towards and interest in urban forests, urban forest management, and associated ecosystem services. As noted, we are also currently developing a survey to investigate preferences for how favored ecosystem services are represented within the land.info 3-D forest interface. Specifically, we will be using a nationally-representative web-based survey to elicit public judgements and preferences regarding the preferred type and format of how these forest attributes (as ecosystem services) are presented to users, testing hypotheses related to preferences for symbolic vs numeric formats, intangible (less easily quantified) vs tangible (easily quantified) attributes, and overall number of attributes presented. This research will provide insight into how best to reflect how these services change (mainly an increase or decrease in the flow of these services) as different forest management decisions are made within this virtual space. Further nationally representative web-based surveys and survey-based experiments are also planned to determine attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following the use of land.info with different numbers and combinations of forest ecosystem services from each category of services included as feedback. The ultimate goal of this phase of the research is to optimize how information is presented to participants in order to ensure that the land.info tool is user-friendly and meets community needs in decision making, effectively represents changes in the flow of ecosystem services in response to forest management decisions in this virtual 3-D space, enhances positive attitudes towards urban forests, and increases intentions to engage in urban forest management activities. Over the next reporting periods, we will return to working directly with communities, community-based organizations, and urban forest professionals in Detroit, MI, and New Orleans, LA in the use of the land.info decision-support tool in on-the ground decision-making regarding urban forest reforestation, restoration, and management in the face of climate change. We will be investigating the utility of the tool for independent use, developing training and educational materials associated with the tool, and measuring community perceptions of engagement, trust, legitimacy, and agency in the urban forest planning efforts that involve them.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We developed and deployed a nationally representative web-based survey of city dwellers to rank the importance of the ecosystem services that flow from urban forests. Using the categorization from the Millennium Ecosystem Services and as identified from an extensive literature review, we first asked study participants to rank ecosystem services within each category: Provisioning, Supporting, Regulating, and Cultural. We then also asked participants to provide an overall rank for the most important services from each category, an overall rank for the four categories of ecosystem services, and an assessment of how familiar they are with these categories of services. Participants were also asked to provide an overall affective (emotional) evaluation of the presence of urban forests within their community (from negative to positive). Overall, study participants had a positive attitude towards urban forests (Mean attitude: 5.92 (SD=1.93) out of a 7-point scale). A more detailed look at the ratings revealed that participants saw urban forests as acceptable (M=6.20, SD=1.36), calming (M=6.09, SD=1.31), beneficial (M=6.02, SD=1.42), and welcoming (M=6.01, SD=1.41). The most common activity associated with urban forests was walking (44% of respondents). From the category of Cultural ecosystem services, participants ranked Connection with Nature, Physical Health and Recreational Opportunities, and Well-being are the highest among these services. From the category of Provisioning ecosystem services, participants ranked Shade provision, Regulating the local climate, and Carbon storage is the highest among these services. From the category of Regulating ecosystem services, participants ranked Filtering air, Visual & Sound barrier, and Freshwater provisioning the highest among these services. From the category of Supporting ecosystem services, participants ranked Habitat, Pollinator services, and Biodiversity the highest among these services. In terms of disservices, participants identified Safety, Stinging Insects, and Falling tree limbs as problematic attributes of urban forests. The importance of each category of forest ecosystem service was also assessed (1-7 Likert Scale: Extremely Unimportant to Extremely Important). The ratings are below. Cultural ES: M=5.54; SD=1.71 Provisioning ES: M=5.10; SD=1.55 Regulating ES: M=5.64; SD=1.62 Supporting ES: M=5.70; SD=1.66 ANOVA revealed a significant overall difference among these groups. Post-hoc testing (6 comparisons, corrected p-value = 0.05/6 = 0.008) indicated significant pairwise comparisons between Provisioning and each of Cultural, Regulating and Supporting (all p<0.001). There were no significant differences between any other paired comparisons. Participants also rated their familiarity with these different categories of forest ecosystem services (1-7 Likert Scale: Extremely Unfamiliar to Extremely Familiar). The ratings are below. Cultural ES: M=5.59; SD=1.22 Provisioning ES: M=5.00; SD=1.40 Regulating ES: M=5.05; SD=1.38 Supporting ES: M=5.33; SD=1.39 ANOVA revealed a significant overall difference among these groups. Post-hoc testing (6 comparisons, corrected p-value = 0.05/6 = 0.008) indicated significant pairwise comparisons between Cultural and Provisioning, and Cultural and Regulating (all p<0.001). The difference in familiarity between Cultural and Supporting approached significance (p<0.008). There were no other significant pairwise comparisons. Overall, our results reveal that the urban public hold positive attitudes towards ecosystem services, and see these spaces as providing multiple services to them and their community. These results also reveal a need to inform the public of the importance of Provisioning ecosystem services, as this category was ranked significantly lower than the other categories of services that flow from urban forests. Similarly, educational materials should be directed at familiarizing the public with Provisioning, Regulating, and Supporting services that flow from urban forests. Importantly, these results will also inform the next steps in our research program. As noted, we are currently developing a survey to investigate preferences for how these favored ecosystem services are represented within the land.info 3-D interface. Specifically, we will be eliciting public judgments and preferences regarding the preferred type and format of how these forest attributes are presented to users, testing hypotheses related to preferences for symbolic vs numeric formats, intangible (less easily quantified) vs tangible (easily quantified) attributes, and the overall number of attributes presented. This research will provide insight into how best to visually represent changes in services (mainly an increase ordecrease in the flow of these services) as different forest management decisions are executed within this virtual space. Further surveys are planned to determine changes in public attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following the use of land.info with different numbers and combinations of forest ecosystem services from each category of services included as feedback. The ultimate goal of this phase of the research is to optimize how information is presented to participants in order to ensure that the land.info tool is user-friendly and meets community needs in decision making, enhance positive attitudes towards urban forests, improves trust in and legitimacy of urban forest management efforts, and increase intentions to engage in urban forest management activities.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Lindquist, M., & Campbell-Arvai, V. (2021). Co-designing vacant lots using interactive 3D visualizations - Development and application of the Land.Info DSS. Landscape and Urban Planning, 210, 104082. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104082

Progress 11/28/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:From October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019 the research team built on collaborative research conducted with two community-based organizations in Detroit (the Eastside Community Network and the Alliance for the Great Lakes). In this new round of research our focus is on advancing the science behind interactive 3D landscape visualization decision support systems with the ultimate goal of 'scaling up' the land.info software we have developed for broader applicability across a number of contexts, and to increase real-world impact. We aim to improve public engagement in urban forest restoration and management through the use of this interactive decision support system, as reflected in public attitudes, trust in and support for, and participation in urban forest management and restoration. Our target audience are communities and community-based organizations across the US that are involved in urban reforestation, urban forest restoration, and urban forest management. Our ultimate goal is to create a decision support system which can be used independently (i.e., without direct input from this research team) by these groups in support of their urban forest-related planning and ongoing management. By placing decision-making about the present and future form of urban forests into the hands of community-members, this tool will serve to empower urban communities which had previously been marginalized or excluded from decision-making related to urban forest restoration and management (as well as related tree-planting activities). This decision support system will also serve as a tool for outreach and education about urban forests. By incorporating user-friendly feedback about urban forest attributes that have been identified as important by communities, this tool will illustrate in 3-D virtual reality (i) the multiple functions of an urban forest, and (ii) how these functions are augmented or inhibited through urban forest management interventions and decisions within this 3-D virtual space. The insight from this virtual feedback can then inform the reforestation, restoration and management of forests in urban centers across the US. Changes/Problems:We expected Cultural Ecosystem Services to be most important to participants, and Supporting the least important. This original hypothesis emerged from a review of the literature, which indicated that less tangible services (i.e., those that may be experienced only indirectly by participants) would be considered the least important to them. However, participants assessed only Provisioning services as being the least important relative to the other categories. This result does not significantly impact our 3-D land.info modeling work for the next stages of research; we may instead scrap the 4 categories of services and instead include those individual services which were ranked highest by participants. However, this information does suggest that the public is not fully aware of the capacity of urban forests to provision foods and materials. Similarly, the greater familiarity of the public with Cultural ecosystem services (and less familiarity with the other categories) speaks to the need for public outreach to inform the public (and others) about the multifunctionality of urban forests (one of the primary goals of this research program). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Over the course of this phase of the project we have provided two graduate students with research experience related to systematic literature reviews, survey development and experimental design, data collection and statistical analysis, and development of the land.info software for public use and to inform urban forest management How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We are not yet ready to disseminate the improved land.info software to communities of interest. This current phase of research is focused on ensuring that the software is user-friendly, clearly represents community-identified ecosystem services, can be operated independently, and reflects community-identified needs. We expect to be ready for dissemination of this research before the next reporting period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are currently writing up the results of this research in the form of a number of peer-reviewed academic publications. We will continue to further refine the 3D land.info design tool, identify and develop preferred visual metrics to represent key ecosystem services and benefits within the tool, and test hypotheses related to public attitudes towards and interest in urban forests, urban forest management, and associated ecosystem services. As noted, we are also currently developing a survey to investigate preferences for how favored ecosystem services are represented within the land.info 3-D forest interface. Specifically, we will be using a nationally-representative web-based survey to elicit public judgements and preferences regarding the preferred type and format of how these forest attributes (as ecosystem services) are presented to users, testing hypotheses related to preferences for symbolic vs numeric formats, intangible (less easily quantified) vs tangible (easily quantified) attributes, and overall number of attributes presented. This research will provide insight into how best to reflect how these services change (mainly an increase or decrease in the flow of these services) as different forest management decisions are made within this virtual space. Further nationally representative web-based surveys and survey-based experiments are also planned to determine attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following the use of land.info with different number and combinations of forest ecosystem services from each category of services included as feedback. The ultimate goal of this phase of the research is to optimize how information is presented to participants in order to ensure that the land.info tool is user-friendly and meets community needs in decision making, effectively represents changes in the flow of ecosystem services in response to forest management decisions in this virtual 3-D space, enhance positive attitudes towards urban forests, and increase intentions to engage in urban forest management activities. Over the next reporting periods we will return to working directly with communities, community-based organizations, and urban forest professionals in Detroit, MI and New Orleans, LA in the use of the land.info decision-support tool in on-the-ground decision-making regarding urban forest reforestation, restoration, and management in the face of climate change. We will be investigating the utility of the tool for independent use, developing training and educational materials associated with the tool, and measuring community perceptions of engagement, trust, legitimacy, and agency in the urban forest planning efforts that involve them.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Moving forward, we will be using the land.info decision support tool to test hypotheses related to public attitudes and preferences in the context of urban forest reforestation, restoration, and management. The ultimate goals of this research are threefold: (1) Broaden public participation in the restoration and management of urban forests by identifying urban forest attributes and metrics that have greatest utility and appeal for the public; (2) Understand public attitudes and preferences with respect to urban forest management and restoration; and (3) Incorporate these results into the land.info decision support tool to support public participation and input into forest restoration and management decisions - particularly for communities which have traditionally been excluded or marginalized in these efforts. This latter goal has as an additional purpose to supply insights to urban forest managers, and to interested individuals and community-based organizations, to inform the long term social and ecological sustainability of urban forests. Communities and community-based organizations across the United States will directly benefit from this research as it democratizes tree planting and urban forest management and restoration efforts. The land.info tool will empower communities with greater control over forest-related landuse decision-making within their neighborhoods, and ensure that the flow of services and benefits from urban forests reflects their self-identified needs. Urban forest managers will also benefit; use of the decision support tool will increase awareness among this group of the multifunctionality of urban forests and urban trees. Further, the legitimacy and long-term sustainability of urban forest efforts will be substantively improved through the meaningful upstream inclusion of communities into related decision-making and management processes. We developed and deployed a nationally representative web-based survey of city dwellers to rank the importance of the ecosystem services that flow from urban forests. Using the categorization from the Millennium Ecosystem Services and as identified from an extensive literature review, we first asked study participants to rank ecosystem services within each category: Provisioning, Supporting, Regulating, and Cultural. We then also asked participants to provide an overall rank for the most important services from each category, an overall rank for the four categories of ecosystem services, and an assessment of how familiar they are with these categories of services. Participants were also asked to provide an overall affective (emotional) evaluation of the presence of urban forests within their community (from negative to positive). Overall, study participants had a positive attitude towards urban forests (Mean attitude: 5.92 (SD=1.93) out of a 7-point scale). A more detailed look at the ratings revealed that participants saw urban forests as acceptable (M=6.20, SD=1.36), calming (M=6.09, SD=1.31), beneficial (M=6.02, SD=1.42), and welcoming (M=6.01, SD=1.41). The most common activity associated with urban forests was walking (44% of respondents). From the category of Cultural ecosystem services, participants ranked Connection with Nature, Physical Health and Recreational Opportunities, and Well-being the highest among these services. From the category of Provisioning ecosystem services, participants ranked Shade provision, Regulating the local climate, and Carbon storage the highest among these services. From the category of Regulating ecosystem services, participants ranked Filtering air, Visual & Sound barrier, and Freshwater provisioning the highest among these services. From the category of Supporting ecosystem services, participants ranked Habitat, Pollinator services, and Biodiversity the highest among these services. In terms of disservices, participants identified Safety, Stinging Insects, and Falling tree limbs as problematic attributes of urban forests. The importance of each category of forest ecosystem service was also assessed (1-7 Likert Scale: Extremely Unimportant to Extremely Important). The ratings are below. Cultural ES: M=5.54; SD=1.71 Provisioning ES: M=5.10; SD=1.55 Regulating ES: M=5.64; SD=1.62 Supporting ES: M=5.70; SD=1.66 ANOVA revealed a significant overall difference among these groups. Post-hoc testing (6 comparisons, corrected p-value = 0.05/6 = 0.008) indicated significant pairwise comparisons between Provisioning and each of Cultural, Regulating and Supporting (all p<0.001). There were no significant differences between any other paired comparisons. Participants also rated their familiarity with these different categories of forest ecosystem services (1-7 Likert Scale: Extremely Unfamiliar to Extremely Familiar). The ratings are below. Cultural ES: M=5.59; SD=1.22 Provisioning ES: M=5.00; SD=1.40 Regulating ES: M=5.05; SD=1.38 Supporting ES: M=5.33; SD=1.39 ANOVA revealed a significant overall difference among these groups. Post-hoc testing (6 comparisons, corrected p-value = 0.05/6 = 0.008) indicated significant pairwise comparisons between Cultural and Provisioning, and Cultural and Regulating (all p<0.001). The difference in familiarity between Cultural and Supporting approached significance (p<0.008). There were no other significant pairwise comparisons. Overall, our results reveal that the urban public hold positive attitudes towards ecosystem services, and see these spaces as providing multiple services to them and their community. These results also reveal a need to inform the public of the importance of Provisioning ecosystem services, as this category was ranked significantly lower than the other categories of services that flow from urban forests. Similarly, educational materials should be directed at familiarizing the public with Provisioning, Regulating and Supporting services that flow from urban forests. Importantly, these results will also inform the next steps in our research program.As noted, we are currently developing a survey to investigate preferences for how these favored ecosystem services are represented within the land.info 3-D interface.Specifically, we will be eliciting public judgements and preferences regarding the preferred type and format of how these forest attributes are presented to users, testing hypotheses related to preferences for symbolic vs numeric formats, intangible (less easily quantified) vs tangible (easily quantified) attributes, and the overall number of attributes presented. This research will provide insight into how best to visually represent changes in services (mainly an increase or decrease in the flow of these services) as different forest management decisions are executed within this virtual space. Further surveys are planned to determine changes in public attitudes towards urban forests and urban forest restoration following the use of land.info with different number and combinations of forest ecosystem services from each category of services included as feedback.The ultimate goal of this phase of the research is to optimize how information is presented to participants in order to ensure that the land.info tool is user-friendly and meets community needs in decision making, enhance positive attitudes towards urban forests, improves trust in and legitimacy of urban forest management efforts, and increase intentions to engage in urban forest management activities.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: Lindquist, M., Campbell-Arvai, V., Sylte, S., & Deaton, F. (2018). Land.info: Supporting Community Designed Green Infrastructure Using Video Game Technology. Invited presentation, 2018 Regional Stormwater Summit, Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, USA.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lindquist, M., Campbell-Arvai, V., Sylte, S., & Deaton, F. (2019). Co-designing Resilience: Engaging Residents in the Design and Application of a Video Game based
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Decision Support System. Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Annual Conference. Sacramento, USA. Campbell-Arvai, V. & M. Lindquist (in prep) From the ground up: Using structured community engagement to identify objectives for urban green infrastructure planning. Environmental Management.