Measuring Social Inequality of Urban Tree Canopy in St. Paul, MN: exploring race and income effects

Abstract

Urban tree canopy is one of the many amenities of green infrastructure and understanding the distribution of urban trees is important to understand who is receiving these benefits. Social inequality, by income and race, can have an effect on the distribution of urban trees. UTC coverage is affected by income levels and racial composition in the lowest-income level, especially when focusing on densely populated areas. Currently, UTC fine-scale data is not available for all cities in the United States and an analysis of the UTC distribution for St. Paul, MN has not been conducted; thus this research sought to analyze different metrics that can help this city progress towards being a more equitable city. The results of the disparity ratios by both UTC per capita and UTC area percentage showed that UTC per capita is the most statistically significant way of studying UTC distribution and possible inequalities. This can be used as a metric by cities like St. Paul to measure UTC inequality.