Green roof in Battery Park City, Manhattan, NY
Focus Questions
People:
How do humans and nature interact with one another in cities? People and nature interact with one another in unique ways in urban environments due to density and sociopolitical structures. Specifically, I am interested in how three areas - green space (broadly defined), restoration (wetlands and reforesting), and community-based stewardship (gardening, compositing, community science, etc.) - impact both the ecological integrity (function, biodiversity, and services) and social standings (health, justice, and equity, especially in terms of neighborhood income level) of urban systems.
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Place:
How does urban land-use/cover influence landscape ecosystem function? Internal urban ecosystem processes lead to greater landscape changes in a region through urban and suburban growth/sprawl, and from urban soil and water chemical signatures. Internally, I am interested in understanding how land-use/cover affects how soil, water, and flora/trees function, biodiversity is promoted or hindered, and in what pattern services are observed in urban ecosystems. I want to then understand what impacts these internal urban land-use/cover decisions have on the greater functionality of the landscape to truly define how urban ecosystems "fit" into a landscape matrix.
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Things:
How does green infrastructure and technology impact urban ecosystem function? I am particularly interested in exploring nature-based strategies like bioswales, vegetative buffers along riparian zones, street trees, green roofs, and other management techniques and infrastructure that contribute to urban conservation and restoration. I am interested in what effects they have at both the local urban system, and at the greater landscape level through scaling effect. In addition, I am interested in using urban spatial and environmental history to better assess urban conservation and restoration planning.
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My (very brief and very simplified) view on what is the idea of urban ecology. "Urban" represents people, and "ecology" represents nature, specifically interaction. So, "urban ecology" is an ultimate, extreme form of human-nature interaction in a condensed setting, encompassing both human and natural elements.
Representative Research
Cool Neighborhoods NYC:
Urban Street Tree Stress and Community Health
February 2020 - present
Urban Street Tree Stress and Community Health
February 2020 - present
I joined on a project with a fellow student in my master's cohort analyzing a dataset they previously collected on street tree health and stress levels in New York neighborhoods under the city's Cool Neighborhoods initiative. My contribution to the project is connecting our dataset to community health. My plan to to generate a model that predicts the likelihood of neighborhood asthma rate when considering the health and stress levels of its street trees. This project is in its developmental stages.
Urban, Wildlife, and Ecology
of Battery Park City
June - August 2019
of Battery Park City
June - August 2019
During the summer of 2019, I interned in the Horticulture Department of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), a New York state agency. During my tenure, I compiled a broad literature review of issues facing urban wildlife ecology (specifically: birds, bats, mammals, and pollinators). Specifically, I looked generally at the topic of of human-wildlife relations in urban settings through the lenses of design and stressors, mitigation, and policy (city, state, and federal). In addition, I looked into surveying techniques for each taxa that can be implemented by the agency to monitor their wildlife community, based on research and through recommendations from external agencies like the New York Audubon Society and American Museum of Natural History. I lastly gave recommendations on next steps to BPCA.
My write-up is being used by BPCA as part of a larger, overreaching management strategy to focus on the ecological integrity of their sites. |
Green Makes Green:
How Median Household Income Influences
Ecosystem (Dis)Services in a Green Space
in an Urban Setting
January 2017 - May 2018
How Median Household Income Influences
Ecosystem (Dis)Services in a Green Space
in an Urban Setting
January 2017 - May 2018
For my undergraduate honors thesis, I looked at the relationship between ecosystem (dis)-services of urban green space, and the median household income (MHI) of the neighborhoods they were located in, in New York City. I analyzed six sites, encompassing five of the six boroughs, that fell onto an income gradient. I looked at six broad categories for analysis: Accessibility, Aesthetics, Hydrological Services, Recreation, Safety, and Soil and Floristic Quality.
For my data, I surveyed each site and observed how people were utilizing each space. I used a qualitative ranking system to compare social variables such as litter, pavement quality, what facilities were present, active vs. passive use of the site, etc. in each site. In addition, I surveyed for common invasive plants, and took 3 topsoil samples from each site. I also obtained data on stewardship in each site from NYC Parks. For my analysis, I used GIS to quantify the percent impervious cover of each site, and to measure how far the site was from public transportation. I used flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FLAA) to analysis my soil samples for heavy metals (lead, nickel, copper, chromium). I then statistically analyzed all my data using principle component analysis (PCA) to see what variables held a greater effect in each site. My main conclusions were that people are using each space, no site was being adversely effected by disservices, and that the sites differed most in regards to infrastructure-based services. This is most likely due to NYC Parks management serving as a baseline for all sites, and differences in private funding. |