Natural resources in an urbanizing world | Virginia Tech News

Wiseman said the subject of urban green and forest space is increasingly merging with social science conversations about inclusivity and access for underserved communities.

“Increasingly, we’re having students enter our program with interests in addressing questions of environmental justice and tree canopy equity for underserved and vulnerable populations,” said Wiseman. “For people in a city, urban forests are one of the primary mechanisms toward addressing environmental justice issues.”

Wiseman is not the only researcher looking to trees to enhance life in the city. In the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials, Daniel Hindman, Joe Loferski, and Brian Bond, the college’s associate dean for Extension, outreach, and engagement, are researching the potentials and capacities of low-carbon wood composites such as cross-laminated timber for sustainable solutions to building construction.

Virginia Water Resources Research Center Associate Director Daniel McLaughlin is conducting research with The Nature Conservancy and the City of Virginia Beach to explore how the urban forests of Virginia Beach can mitigate stormwater challenges while also providing ecosystem services to the booming coastal region.

“Urban forests serve a disproportionate role in services like water removal from storm events,” said McLaughlin. “It’s really important to realize that even small patches of forests within an otherwise urban landscape can provide important services to a community, and the response from citizens has been overwhelmingly supportive.”

A wide-scale vision of urban challenges

As Paris braces for the Summer Olympics, Robert Oliver is preparing to add one more data point to his research exploring large-scale events and how cities manage rapid urban change.

“My work has long been about mega events,” said Oliver, who teaches in the Department of Geography. “I look at things like the Olympics and say, ‘All right, what was the visioning plan for a city, how did it unfold, and what sticks around after the event is over.’”

Oliver, who teaches urban sustainability and human geography dynamics in cities, said large-scale events provide geographers the chance to explore an intersection of concepts, from political motivations to public space uses to resource allocation and land utilization.

“One of the central themes of my introduction to human geography course is human-environment interaction,” said Oliver, who said students taking that course come from a range of majors around Virginia Tech. “That interaction requires us to think about how humans adapt, modify, and depend on their environment, and how we can think about smarter solutions for the challenges of urban living.”