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Urban Forest Assessment
Urban forest assessment is a strategy that is used within broader management and planning operations that allows urban foresters to better understand and care for the forest resource at hand. It allows aspects of the forest, such as ecosystem services and benefits, species composition, canopy distribution, and health, to be monitored and predicted for current and future management needs. Data from urban forest assessments can prove to be useful in not only providing information for foresters but in quantifying benefits that can show members of the public the importance of preserving and protecting trees in urban forest settings. Urban forest assessments are becoming integral to trees in urban communities as they plan and care for their trees, an example being found within cities like Tallahassee, Florida that have incorporated assessment into their urban forest master plan. Within the United States, the USDA Forest Service has provided resources to inform foresters and community members about the importance of these assessments and the benefits to conducting them.

Urban forestry planning and management methods are key to creating and maintaining an urban forest that produces sustainable benefits for the surrounding community. Stakeholders, such as individual citizens, local volunteer groups, and political figures, can oftentimes be involved in the urban forest planning and management processes within municipalities. Urban forest assessments have the potential to increase urban forest economic, social, and cultural benefits to the community. Diverse stakeholder groups allow a comprehensive plan to develop with unique elements brought to attention by each group. Things included in an urban forest plan include land use, transportation, infrastructure, and green space because they all affect the urban forest structure. It will be determined per municipality why each of these is of certain importance and vice versa, as well as the proper actions to be taken to protect the urban forest function and role in the area.

An assessment must first be completed before any benefits are gained. There are generally two basic ways that urban forests are assessed. The bottom-up approach is a field inventory completed by crews on the ground. This process is detailed and can provide useful forest information needed for management decisions. The top-down approach utilizes aerial and satellite imagery to discern canopy cover, plantable space, and impervious surfaces at a low cost. There are different tools available to complete these assessments. i-Tree is a set of tools cooperatively created and maintained by the USDA Forest Service and other organizations. i-Tree Eco is commonly used for bottom-up approach assessment, and uses the field data collected by the user to quantify value and benefits of the trees. The i-Tree software also has tools helpful to top-down approaches. i-Tree Landscape uses National Land Cover Database (NLCD) along with other layers to provide information about canopy cover, plantable space, ecological benefits, and more. i-Tree Canopy allows the user to interpret aerial and satellite imagery to determine land cover on a smaller scale than landscape.