| The urban forest provides many environmental, economic, and social benefits. Evaluating several Toronto neighbourhood designs, it was determined that potential leaf area density (PLAD) is inversely proportional to residential density. Post war suburban, contemporary sub urban, and new urbanist neighbourhood types have residential densities of 12, 20, and 24 dwellings/hectare and PLADs of 1.7, 1.3, and 1.1 m2 leaf area/m2 land area, respectively. Since increasing residential density is typically associated with enhancing neighbourhood sustainability, an important challenge is to build higher density neighbourhoods that can also support a substantial tree canopy. Maximum estimated tree-related building energy savings were 3-5% for heating and 24-35% for cooling. For the neighbourhood types assessed, residential density was a greater determinant of neighbourhood-scale building energy savings than building construction. Leaf area and residential density are proposed as two main determinants of the benefits provided by the urban forest. |
