Data for “Aligning urban forest management actions with urban sustainability goals: A multi-city expert elicitation”

We ask: How can urban foresters align their street tree management actions with specific urban sustainability goals? We conducted a structured expert elicitation of urban forest professionals in three cities: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, US; and Washington, DC, US. Participants assessed the impacts of forty direct management actions on five goals (1) canopy cover increase and tree risk reduction, (2) urban heat reduction, (3) people-nature relationships, (4) wildlife habitat, and (5) stormwater interception and infiltration.

While certain actions (e.g., in the mature tree maintenance phase) were selected as needed to advance every goal, experts identified numerous actions which aligned with one or several goals, but not all. Pre-planting actions, specifically site selection and species selection, presented the greatest opportunities to advance specific goals, suggesting that aligning this phase with city sustainability goals is critical. Participants were highly confident in being able to advance all goals through street tree management and were more confident in being able to advance the goals of increasing canopy cover while reducing tree risk and of mitigating urban heat, possibly because these goals more closely align with traditional canopy cover goal setting.

This research underscores the necessity of considering site-level actions to advance strategic sustainability goals, while also revealing the complexity of the task that professionals are charged with in making site-level decisions. Our findings further motivate the need for further research and tools to help support professionals in their decision-making.