In collaboration with City of Los Angeles’ Green New Deal to plant 100,000 trees, this project designed a reproducible GIS framework to guide equitable sidewalk tree placement based on pedestrian mobility patterns, implementing Dijkstra algorithm-based network analyses in ArcGIS. A multi-source data fusion was deployed to model pedestrian routes from residences to elementary schools and transit stops, identifying high-traffic street segments that would maximize environmental health benefits for vulnerable populations, particularly children and transit-dependent residents. A suite of ArcPy-powered spatial automation tools was developed to streamline the analytical process, scale it across neighborhoods, and support community parterners as a technical resource.
The project received feedback from partners and researchers of the USC Urban Trees Initiative and from attendees of the 2023 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit, during which it was presented as a Story Map. A case study map was published as part of (Kamel and Wilson 2023).
Kamel Boulos, M. N., & Wilson, J. P. (2023). Geospatial techniques for monitoring and mitigating climate change and its effects on human health. International Journal of Health Geographics, 22(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12942-023-00324-9.