Regenerating Urban Forests: Using Participatory Modelling to Bridge Science, Equity, and Community

Axcelle's thesis and collaborative research with the Political Ecology and Urban Resilience Lab both focus on urban greenspace, urban heat, and environmental justice. As a broader research project, their team is interested in how inequitable tree canopy cover and urban heat impacts are produced through policy, practices, investment, and disinvestment decisions over time. In particular, they are trying to unravel how historical and contemporary urban development decisions perpetuate unequal distribution of environmental amenities and disamenities along demographic lines. Axcelle's graduate thesis research focuses on incorporating the community perspective into this work, using a constructivist approach to coalesce community knowledge about the factors that drive tree canopy production and the issues (costs and benefits) surrounding the perception of urban trees and tree canopy.