Featured Reseach Project (November - December 2001)

Suburban Ecosystem Management: The Perception of Urban Forests and Their Effects on People

Professor Terry Brown  
Professor Raymond DeYoung 

Project Overview

At present there are more people in the United States living in suburban settings than in the urban core. Sprawl and its related social and environmental impacts has become a major policy and planning challenge. One aspect of this challenge focuses on the role of urban forests in maintaining the health and well-being of human and biological communities. A team of researchers representing three disciplines within the School of Natural Resources and the Environment is studying the ecological and psychological usefulness of urban forests in the historic suburb of Riverside, Illinois.

Riverside, Illinois is a 1600 acre planned community of 8700 residents along the Des Plaines River west of Chicago. It is nationally and internationally recognized as one of the first planned suburban communities in the country, designed from 1868-1870 by Fredrick Law Olmstead, the founder of American landscape architecture. From its inception, the village of Riverside has been a natural experiment of the human-environment interface. The qualities of the village today reflect Olmstead's understanding of the power and potential of human-nature interaction. In designing Riverside, Olmstead maintained the rural character of the area, protected the terrestrial ecosystem along the Des Plaines River from development, and preserved two upland areas as recreational and restorative spaces for the residents. Streets were designed to follow the curve of the land and avoided harsh angles. Olmstead's prominent use of trees was a significant part of the original design and trees remain a major part of the Riverside ecosystem today. The original trees are gone but with their ongoing replacement by the Village, the dense urban forest of Riverside remains intact.

Project Goal & Objectives

The abundant use of trees in Olmstead's design of Riverside makes the suburb an excellent setting for studying the effect of an urban forest ecosystem on a community and its individual residents. Adjacent to Riverside is Berwyn, a working class community with conventional small rectangular lots. The two towns offer excellent contrasting sites of similar topography and ecological landscape, yet different average income, occupation and noticeably different aesthetic characters. Berwyn is being used as a comparison to Riverside in the study. Through the results of a written and photo survey sent to residents of both Riverside and Berwyn, the researchers will gain an understanding of the restorative effects of a mature urban forest on people's daily lives. The survey asks the residents of Riverside to participate in examining the role of the ecological landscape in their daily experience. In addition to the 2,500 written and photo surveys sent to Riverside and Berwyn, project members are conducting inventories of tree species, height, condition, and canopy area on the properties of Riverside residents. The inventory of trees on private property is being combined with an existing inventory of trees conducted on public areas in Riverside. In turn, the project will compare the survey of trees in Riverside to the characterization of urban forests in Cook and DuPage Counties published 1994.

The project will answer the following specific questions:

• Are the design elements of Riverside appreciated by a significant percentage of residents and to what degree do these residents develop an attachment to these elements?
• Do the residents exhibit positive psychological effects from interaction with a forested urban ecosystem?
• Finally, through comparison with a nearby but newer community, is a mature urban forest ecosystem, as is found in Riverside, more preferred and psychologically functional?

An increased understanding of the role of urban forests in people's lives will provide planners and managers of urban forests, policy-makers involved in urban ecosystem management, and advocates of community forestry with information to guide decision-making for new community development. The project will help practitioners to justify increased allocation from planning and management budgets toward the long-term development and upkeep of urban and community forests. In addition, by making comparisons to another nearby community that differs in its design, Riverside may provide a useful model of environmentally appropriate suburban planning and policy.

Research Team

Professor Terry Brown; Professor Raymond DeYoung; Tom Crow, USFS; Chris Cox; Greg DeVries; Grace Manubay; Clea Rome; Jennifer Smith; John Taylor

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