Mapping Urban Tree Canopy Cover in Hawai‘i and the U.S. Caribbean

Geospatial urban tree canopy cover data is increasingly recognized as a critical dataset for urban land managers, providing a range of ecological services important to public health and quality of life, especially in communities disproportionately burdened by risks. In many cases, however, urban tree canopy data is outdated or insufficiently precise to identify individual trees, especially on islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. In this webinar, speakers will share results from U.S. Forest Service collaborative projects to map canopy cover in Hawai‘i, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands using LiDAR data. The final products include the first interactive, publicly accessible online viewer for canopy cover in Hawai‘i, and the first high-resolution tree canopy cover layer with building footprints in the Caribbean Islands. Please join us as we explore the tools, data, processes, and images that will serve as a baseline for urban forest planning and management on the islands for years to come.

Presented by: 

• Eric Rounds, RedCastle Resources, Inc.; 
• Nathan Pugh, USDA Forest Service Geospatial Technology and Application Center
• Koki Atcheson, Hawai‘i Division of Forestry and Wildlife