Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
12-31-2025
Degree Name
Master of Science in Environmental Engineering - (M.S.)
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
First Advisor
Michel Boufadel
Second Advisor
Taha F. Marhaba
Third Advisor
Yuan Ding
Fourth Advisor
William Pennock
Abstract
Urban areas experience a multitude of environmental challenges, including flooding and air pollution. In response to these pressures, urban forests have emerged as an essential nature-based strategy to enhance resilience and reduce climate-related risks. The implementation and expansion of urban street trees further contribute to this effort by mitigating stormwater runoff and reducing atmospheric carbon emissions.
Fortunately, advances in environmental modeling have made it increasingly possible to quantify these ecosystem services using specialized software. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service's i-Tree suite exemplifies this progress. The software provides a comprehensive set of tools designed to quantify environmental services such as stormwater interception, carbon storage, and air-pollution removal. It also supports data-driven planning and management of urban forests.
However, the availability of tools such as i-Tree has not yet been translated into widespread implementation. Many municipalities across the United States, especially in New Jersey, still lack comprehensive assessments of their urban forests. This gap restricts the development of data-driven management and planning strategies. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) project, funded by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and awarded to the City of Newark, presents a unique opportunity to quantify the ecosystem services generated by the city's urban forest. As part of the RGGI project, Newark serves as the primary study area, and the analyses were conducted using the USDA Forest Service's i-Tree software suite. By quantifying stormwater, carbon, and energy-related benefits, the analysis aims to initiate a localized, quantitative foundation for understanding and managing Newark's street-tree network.To carry out the analyses, two key tools of the i-Tree suite are utilized: i-Tree Landscape and i-Tree Eco. i-Tree Landscape is first applied to conduct a preliminary assessment of Newark's existing urban forest canopy using USDA Forest Service parameters. Building on this foundation, i-Tree Eco is used to run two separate simulations to evaluate the ecosystem services provided by the RGGI -planted trees. The first simulation represents existing conditions using a combination of field-collected and geospatially extracted data, while the second modeled optimal conditions are based on parameters derived from scientific literature.
The primary objective is to quantify the stormwater-interception, carbon-storage, carbon-sequestration, and energy-saving benefits produced by the trees planted under RGGI in the city of Newark in 2024. Secondary objectives include evaluating the accuracy of Eco model outputs, assessing the efficiency of the data-extraction workflow, and identifying priority areas for future street-tree planting and policy enhancement.
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez Diaz, Anthony J., "Evaluating stormwater & carbon benefits of urban street trees" (2025). Theses. 3345.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/3345
