Geographers, ecologists, and other scholars are beginning to understand how the process of urbanization affects plant aggregations and how vegetation changes through time in an urban environment. Within the rapidly developing field of spatial analysis in ecology, little research has been conducted on urban vegetation change, or, more particularly, on change in urban forests. Trees affect microclimates and water balances in urban regions, provide aesthetic elements of the urban landscape, and furnish habitats for fauna. A mix of issues in biogeography and urban geography are examined in this project, which investigates changes in the distribution of vegetation, especially trees, in St. Paul, Minnesota for the period from 1850 to 1980. Combining archival and historical analyses with contemporary field work, the study will use a geographic information system (GIS) to store data on vegetation cover and to explain observed changes as a product of initial cover, land use, population density, and trends in the changes of the urban landscape. The development of general concepts and theories of urban forest dynamics depends on this kind of study, which will analyze the effects of changing land use on the structure of urban forests over a longer time period than has been examined previously. By studying the biophysical aspects of the urban environment, this research will contribute to the scientific basis of knowledge essential to planning for healthful and attractive urban environments and to our understanding of human-environmental relationships.
