An Assessment of the Role Urban Trees Play in Modifying Weather in a City Park

Abstract:

Trees and weather affect many aspects of our local environment. To assess the role trees play in modifying microclimates, an investigation was developed to measure the size (height and DBH) of over 120 trees at a local city park in Dearborn, Michigan. In addition, PASCO weather station was used to determine how the trees modified selective weather parameters in two separate locations within the park. The GLOBE Observer App was used to collect and submit data. With the help of a professional forester, trees were identified by common and scientific names for future research. Furthermore, we collected weather data such as wind speed, temperature, dewpoint and relative humidity using two PASCO Weather Sensors. This allowed us to collect data on the same atmospheric parameters at two different sites, located in Levagood Park. Site 1 was located in an area centered among a group of trees, while Site 2 was located in an open short grass field with no trees surrounding the area. Everyday two people would go to their respective site, set up their devices and begin recording simultaneously for approximately 15 minutes. After 15 minutes they would end their recordings at the same time. The data would later be entered into an Excel spreadsheet to make graphs and compare the two data sets. After analyzing the data, multiple correlations were found between them. The data showed several similarities and differences between the two sites. This research was made in hopes of showing that the data collected can be used to prove trees cause variations to atmospheric conditions. Although the data was collected during the winter when tree leaves had already fallen, we hope to continue our research during the active growing season of 2020 to compare the effects of the trees with leaves to the data we collected in the winter without leaves.