Date of Thesis

Spring 2026

Description

Urban tree canopies play an important role in environmental quality, public health, and neighborhood livability, yet their distribution is highly uneven and often reflects historical patterns of inequality. In Brooklyn, long-term processes such as redlining, uneven development, and demographic change have contributed to persistent disparities in access to green space.

This thesis examines how urban tree canopy evolves across space and time in Brooklyn and how different restoration strategies affect long-run outcomes. The analysis uses demographic and canopy data from 1990-2020, considering race, income, employment, and educational attainment. Among these, education is the most consistent predictor of canopy coverage, with stronger explanatory power than race or income.

To study future dynamics, the thesis develops a spatial simulation model inspired by reaction–diffusion processes, where canopy evolves based on local conditions, neighboring effects, and municipal investment. Two restoration strategies are compared: rapid restoration, which immediately raises canopy to a 25\% target, and gradual restoration, which increases canopy incrementally over a 10-year period. Each strategy is implemented using three allocation methods: random selection, targeting the lowest-canopy areas, and a systematic sweep approach.

The results show that rapid restoration leads to the highest overall canopy levels after 10 years, with relatively small differences across allocation strategies. In contrast, gradual restoration results in lower overall canopy but greater sensitivity to how resources are allocated. In this case, more evenly distributed investment tends to produce higher overall canopy, while targeted approaches concentrate gains in lower-canopy areas.

Overall, the findings demonstrate that urban tree canopy distribution is shaped not only by environmental processes, but also by demographic structure and policy design. Restoration strategies that account for both spatial dynamics and underlying socioeconomic conditions can lead to more effective and more equitable long-run outcomes.

Keywords

tree canopies, inequity, reaction-diffusion equation, partial differential equations, environmental policy

Access Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Type

Bachelor of Science

Major

Applied Mathematical Sciences

Minor, Emphasis, or Concentration

Physics

First Advisor

Christina Hamlet

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