Hot Climate, Cool Shade: Community-Based Methods for Urban Forest Equity and Heat Health

In a growing number of cities around the world, urban forestry is receiving investment for its social and ecological benefits. As the planet warms, advancing urban forest equity by planting trees in marginalized neighborhoods is acknowledged as a climate health equity strategy to counter heat exposure, which disproportionately burdens under-resourced communities. However, significant barriers exist to growing robust urban forests, and tradeoffs of tree planting are often not considered. In drier climates, complex logistics of watering during a multi-year establishment period pose a challenge because street trees are typically unirrigated and funding for maintenance is generally insufficient, creating an expectation that community members will provide stewardship. This dissertation presents three mixed-methods studies. The first is an empirical investigation of the thermal benefits of trees on residential spaces, contributing insights about time-of-day indoor heat exposure by residents who have limited access to air conditioning. Varied theory-guided community methods are then tested to explore the potential of resident engagement in tree stewardship to advance urban forest equity and reduce heat risk. A second study explores behavior change strategies around resident volunteerism in tree stewardship, testing environmental health and public health interventions and correlating outcomes to the degree of engagement with a community organization. A third study presents an alternative approach which equips frontline community members by providing compensation, training, and a support network as they engage neighbor-to-neighbor around tree stewardship and heat mitigation. These studies serve to elucidate the suite of expectations that the co-production of the urban forest creates, parsing out how reasonable and realistic the assumptions made by these programs are or are not, and evaluating their effectiveness. The potential of tree planting to contribute to green gentrifi