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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

urban leaf area, summertime, household energy usage, Provo, Utah

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Geography

Abstract

The purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between urban leaf area, estimated through remote sensing, and household energy usage in the city of Provo, Utah. Anecdotal evidence indicates that trees provide cooling in the summer by shading homes, which reduces the need for air conditioning and the amount of electricity used. This study will attempt to determine this decrease of energy usage based on varying amounts of tree cover as measured by the Leaf Area Index (LAI) obtained from a satellite image. We expect that LAI and household energy consumption will be negatively correlated— as LAI increases, energy consumption decreases. The results of this study can be useful to city officials and energy production companies, who often sponsor urban tree-planting programs. This study is a confirmation of the methods and results of a previous study conducted by Jensen, et al. (2003).

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