Analyzing the efficacy of subtropical urban forests in offsetting carbon emissions from cities

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of using urban forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions in subtropical cities. Tree data were collected from 229 random plots in the highly urbanized Miami-Dade County, FL, and from 93 plots in the less developed Gainesville, FL, area. The UFORE software program (now i-Tree Eco) was used to determine total carbon storage and annual carbon sequestration by trees as well as reduced CO₂ emissions due to energy conservation. Approximately 37 million trees were present in Miami-Dade County and 4.5 million in Gainesville, and total carbon storage values were 5.5 million and 1.7 million t CO₂e, respectively. (Note that the city names in Table 5 seem to be incorrectly labeled.) The annual carbon sequestration rates of the urban forests of Miami-Dade and Gainesville represent 1.8% and 3.4% of each area’s respective greenhouse gas emissions.