Can I use another climate zone for a Streets analysis?

Section for FAQs regarding i-Tree Streets (STRATUM)

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Can I use another climate zone for a Streets analysis?

Post by i-Tree Support » Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:58 pm

Benefit calculations are based on regionally specific tree growth measurements, hourly climate and air pollution concentration data, and building construction information. Because these factors can vary a great deal from region-to-region, users obtain more reliable results when using data from the climate zone where the tree resource is located.

Users doing a Streets analysis in a city that is near the border of several climate regions should consult the USFS community tree guides found under the Resources - Archives section https://www.itreetools.org/resources/archives.php for additional information on the regional reference city characteristics. The guides contain more information at the beginning that describe the characteristics of the reference cities which may help you select a region which matches with your study area characteristics.

Typically, tree species, precipitation, growing season length, and energy production type will differ. Also, the replacement value estimates can differ - for example the Northeast region (Brooklyn reference city) has higher replacement values than the Midwest (Minneapolis ref city) region.

See Selecting Reference Cities for i-Tree Streets for a more technical methodology of determining the best reference city match for your study area, based on heating and cooling degree days, climate and species, to use for your project http://www.itreetools.org/streets/resou ... %20AUF.pdf .

Please use this link to view the i-Tree Streets/STRATUM Climate Zone Map, which indicates available reference cities: http://www.itreetools.org/streets/image ... _zones.jpg
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