Project Background
When it comes to the climate and broader benefits of vegetation, trees seem to get all of the attention. Yet shrubs play an important role in our urban ecosystems and their climate impacts tend to be underestimated. Shrubs are perennial, woody plants with multiple stems. They are often hardier than trees and can sequester more carbon over shorter timeframes1 . Shrubs also provide vital ground-level shelter for birds, flowers for pollinators, and food sources for birds and small animals.
The University of Waterloo is looking for an analysis of the existing number and health of its campus shrubs, the climate and broader impacts of those shrubs and the potential to increase its use of shrubs. This work supports the campus Ecomap project that aims to assess the biodiversity and evaluate ecosystem health of our campus greenspaces.
This work also relates to UN Sustainable Development Goals 11, 13, and 15.
Project Examples
- Assessing information already available for the campus on iNaturalist or other sources.
- Conducting a shrub inventory of the University of Waterloo main campus that includes total shrub cluster counts, species diversity assessments, health assessments and size.
- Recording the geographical coordinates of each inventoried shrub in a spreadsheet for inclusion in the campus EcoMap.
- Using aerial imagery (GIS lidar, NIR imagery, air photos or other) to assess the total shrub canopy coverage for the campus.
- Conducting a literature review to identify and apply best practices for quantifying the annual carbon sequestered by existing shrubs now and in the future (eg every five years until 2050).
- Conducting a literature review to identify and apply best practices for qualitatively and quantitatively assessing the non-carbon sequestering benefits of campus shrubs.
- Researching innovative ways of financing the maintenance and planting of shrubs on campus.
- Identifying any additional maintenance practices can support the health of the existing shrubs on campus.
- Identifying areas on campus that would benefit from greater shrub coverage and make recommendations for species selection.
- Making further recommendations as appropriate.
1 Götmark, F., Götmark, E., & Jensen, A. M. (2016). Why Be a Shrub? A Basic Model and Hypotheses for the Adaptive Values of a Common Growth Form. Frontiers in plant science, 7, 1095.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.01095