{"id":2838,"date":"2021-03-05T13:47:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T18:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/?page_id=2838"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:28:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T17:28:02","slug":"smith-boston","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/internship-impacts\/smith-boston\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooling with Plants: Evaluating Ecosystem Services in Boston, MA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-1930 profile type-profile status-publish hentry\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/profile\/ian-smith\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\">\n\t\t\t<img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2019\/06\/Smith_Ian_headshot-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"Ian Smith headshot\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2019\/06\/Smith_Ian_headshot-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2019\/06\/Smith_Ian_headshot-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\t\t<\/figure>\n\n\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Ian Smith<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Research Scientist, BU Earth &#038; Environment | <br \/>\r\nGeospatial Modeling Specialist, Global Program on Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience at The World Bank<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n<p><strong>Project Partner: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.gov\/\">City of Boston<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridgema.gov\/Departments\/citycouncil\/citycouncilmembers\/quintonzondervan\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.quant-aq.com\"><span><\/span><\/a>, Fall 2020<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Summary: <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Urban greenspace mitigates extreme temperatures through shading and evaporative cooling; however, quantifying these ecosystem services in cities often relies on simple remote sensing measurements or tree inventories. Ian used an interdisciplinary framework combining a novel heat flux model that quantified the supply of cooling from vegetation with a vulnerability index capturing the residential demand for cooling. He utilized the framework to evaluate the impact of the planned redevelopment of Melnea Cass Boulevard on the balance of ecosystem service supply and demand. In forecasting changes in tree cover alongside variation in neighbourhood demand for ecosystem services, Ian identified regions with a mismatch in supply and demand for cooling where small-scale design changes would have a large impact on the provision of vegetative cooling. Ian presented his result to numerous city agencies and shared his findings through a written report.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Deliverables<\/strong>:<span> Presentation\/report on the supply\/demand framework, highlighting findings from the Melnea Cass pilot study (<a href=\"\/urban\/files\/2021\/03\/smith_melnea_cass_cooling_compressed.pdf\">link<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2840\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2840\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2021\/03\/boston_cooling_supply-636x494.jpg\" alt=\"A map of Boston, MA, showing the geographic distribution of vegetative cooling power.\" width=\"636\" height=\"494\" class=\"wp-image-2840 size-medium\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2021\/03\/boston_cooling_supply-636x494.jpg 636w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2021\/03\/boston_cooling_supply-768x597.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2021\/03\/boston_cooling_supply.jpg 991w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2840\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cooling power of vegetation (latent heat flux) in Boston, MA. Bluer areas indicate stronger cooling effect of vegetation, including street trees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project Partner: City of Boston, Fall 2020 Project Summary: Urban greenspace mitigates extreme temperatures through shading and evaporative cooling; however, quantifying these ecosystem services in cities often relies on simple remote sensing measurements or tree inventories. Ian used an interdisciplinary framework combining a novel heat flux model that quantified the supply of cooling from vegetation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16791,"featured_media":0,"parent":1881,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2838"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4101,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2838\/revisions\/4101"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}