##Introduction Charleston has been my home for my entire life, and I love being from there. The city has important cultural and historical value and is appreciated by locals and visiting tourists alike. Recently though as climate events become more common and more extreme and sea levels continue to rise, the city has become vulnerable to climate disaster. Hurricanes pose a huge threat to the city as does flooding. As the city continues to plan how to become more resilient to climate disasters, it will be crucial to access how the city can think about thinks like tree cover, shade, impervious surfaces, and urban heat as ways to mitigate disaster and bolster the city’s preparation and strength. It is crucial that vulnerable and marginalized communities which have been previously left out of these efforts are considered and the historical mistakes and inequities are addressed. Using a combination of several data sets published by the City of Charleston I will dive into some of these environmental concerns in the city and access patterns and outcomes which can inform what areas, problems, and patterns need to be addressed as the city begins building climate resilience. I am eager to consider this information not only because I am from Charleston and care deeply for the place, but also because climate resilience, sustainability, and nature-based solutions are where my interests lie. This is the kind of work I hope to engage in after graduation, problem solving in cities and applying specific place based, data driven urban solutions.
First, I want to address the perspective I bring and my experience growing up in Charleston. Over the twenty-one years I have lived in the city, I have only lived in three neighborhoods all in the West Ashley area of Charleston. The first one I lived in is names Riverland Terrace, followed by Country Club Two, and then the Crescent, which is where my family still lives today. I have included the tree map below for each of these neighborhoods to give an idea of what their environmental and social characteristics are. In Riverland Terrace, it’s clear that there is a high percentage of street tree cover, close to 70%, but there is very little sidewalk in the neighborhood. Riverland Terrace is the most diverse neighborhood of the three I have lived in with 6% Black compared to the other two neighborhoods which report no Black residents. It is also important to note that 7% of the population in Riverland Terrace is impoverished as well. ### Tree Map of Riverland Terrace
The second neighborhood I lived in was Country Club Two. It has less tree canopy cover than Riverland Terrace at 56%, which still means more than half of the streets are shaded by trees. Country Club Two has more sidewalks than Riverland Terrace and similar amounts of paved and imperious surface percentages.
Finally, the Crescent neighborhood where I currently live is also lucky to experience high rates of tree canopy coverage verging on 70% like Riverland Terrace. The tree map show that 10% of the neighborhood lives below the poverty line, which as someone who lives there, I don’t think is recorded accurately. I think this could be a result of the neighborhood bordering Folly Road and some of the residents of Folly Road being included in this calculation. Other percentage calculations such as percent paved and percent impervious for the neighborhood are also shown here.
Research into the impact of trees on community health and climate vulnerability is emergency and as Charleston moves forward, I believe that trees will be an essential way for the city to prepare itself for the future. According to the Urban Institute, “trees and other vegetation provide cooling benefits by creating shade and reducing surface temperatures. They mitigate urban heat islands, contribute to energy conservation, and improve air quality while storing carbon dioxide, a primary driver of climate change. Leaf canopies improve water quality by reducing rainwater runoff, and planting and maintaining trees can create jobs” (Urban Institute). Trees provide vital services to communities and in taking a closer look at what might be connected to low and high tree canopy cover, we can begin to understand what types of neighborhood characteristics developers and architects should prioritize moving forward. In the visualization below we see that speed limit is connected to street tree canopy cover. Streets that have a higher speed limit also are shown to typically have lower rates of street tree canopy cover. In increasing tree cover in Charleston perhaps the city could prioritize adding trees to highway dividers as a city initiative to help with this pattern.
## [1] "1" "15" "20" "23" "25" "30" "35" "40" "45" "50" "55" "65"Low amounts of tree canopy cover in neighborhoods can also have outcomes. Historically, Black communities have lived in neighborhoods which have less tree cover and are hotter. Below, I explore that pattern in Charleston. In the heat map it becomes clear that neighborhoods in Charleston with lower percentages of street tree cover and high percentages of Black residents are averaging hotter evening temperatures. The temperature measurements were taken on July 31, a hot summer day in Charleston and found by averaging the temperature recorded by an electronic monitor when moving through a route in each neighborhood. Communities which are hotter are further at risk for climate disaster as heat events are becoming more common and can pose serious health threats for a community. In bringing tree cover to more of the peninsula, we must ensure that it is distributed equitably so that all communities are prepared and resilient for climate disaster, not just white neighborhoods.