Sara Barron, a Ph D. student at the University of British Colombia, was awarded up to $240,000-$60,000 annually for up to four years-to study how urban planners can design or retrofit suburbs to create suburban forests that could reduce carbon footprints.
"If people live in denser neighborhoods, it has a whole host of benefits. For example, it leaves more land for natural environments which can mitigate the effects of climate change," says Barron, who has decided to focus her research on suburbs because of their large footprint.
Barron and her advisor argue that low-density communities-developments with very few trees-could reduce their carbon footprints by planting these suburban forests with trees that thrive in high-carbon environments and have the greatest bioenergy potential. Barron said that most urban trees only live for 10 years, so if trees at the end their cycle can be used to generate heat and power, a community's carbon footprint will be even smaller.
