Transportation Forestry as an Interdisciplinary Field for Urban Sustainability

Matthew Browning , Kathleen Wolf, Pamela Murray-Tuite, Lara Browning, Mashrur Chowdhury, Chien-Fei Chen, David Coyle, Angel M. Dzhambov, Chao Fan, Richard Hauer, Haneen Khreis, Abigail Mack, Olivia McAnirlin, Lauren Marshall, Ariane Middel, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Matthew Nicolette, Alessandro Rigolon, Jennifer Ogle, Alessandro Ossola, Nilesh Timilsina, Katie Thurson, David White, Kuiran Zhang, Ray Yeager

Trees and vegetation provide extensive societal benefits, as do transportation systems that connect people with essential needs and services. Yet transportation infrastructure also concentrates heat, pollution, and noise. Integrating forestry with transportation systems has myriad benefits, but most communities cannot realize these benefits due to challenges in communication and integration across professional disciplines. We propose Transportation Forestry as a new subfield to unlock the full potential of nature-based solutions within transportation systems, enabling extensive and equitable benefits for environmental quality, human health, and sustainability. We outline the necessary approaches to research, practice, and training for deliberately integrating trees and vegetation into transportation infrastructure.