Drivers of vegetation variation at different spatial scales in residential urban areas in the city of Orlando.

Abstract

This research will not only explore what are the variables that are influencing the vegetation variation in urban areas and the strength of the relationship between them at different scales, i.e. residential, neighborhood and city, but also the degree in which these variables limit or facilitates the resident's access to the benefits (ecosystem services) provided by the vegetation cover. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the drivers that influence the variation of the green infrastructure in residential areas within the City of Orlando, Florida using a social-ecological approach. The following overarching question will be answered: What drivers, in the form of socio-economic, demographic and institutional variables, are influencing and determining vegetation variation and vegetation coverage in urban residential areas, and how are these factors influencing the access to the ecosystem services by the residents?. A working hypothesis is that the socio-economic and demographic factors, in the form of household income will be the most significative variable that influence the vegetation variation. The presence of two variants of the Social Stratification Theory: the "luxury effect" where household income is positively correlated with plant diversity and abundance, and "access to power" where members of socioeconomic and/or demographic groups attract more public investment; along with the Ecology of Prestige Theory where the desire to gain acceptance in a neighborhood influence households' land management decisions, are the relevant processes that explain the expected results regarding the drivers of vegetation variation. The <strong>Chapter 2</strong> <em>"Spatial and temporal variations in canopy cover and ecosystem services in neighborhoods of the City of Orlando";</em> was focused on studying temporal and spatial variation in tree cover and ecosystem services among neighborhoods of the City of Orlando. The main goal of the chapter was to determine the land and canopy cover (and its associated ecosystem services) from 80 neighborhoods of Orlando as well as canopy change over 10 years to analyze the potential role of socio-economic and demographic profiles on the variation in urban forest variables. The main goal of <strong>Chapter 3</strong> <em>"Drivers influencing street trees diversity, composition and abundance in the City of Orlando"</em> was to analyze data from the street trees inventory of 74 neighborhoods from the City of Orlando as a case study to determine the potential role of "bottom-up" vs & "top-down" factors that influence the diversity, abundance, and composition of the trees. The main goal of <strong>Chapter 4</strong> <em>"Influence of bottom-up and top-down factors on the biodiversity, composition and abundance of vegetation in urban residential yards in Orlando, Florida"</em> was to understand the factors that may affect the composition of vegetation of urban yards and could be operating jointly to influence the green infrastructure of the City of Orlando.