In the classroom, students made extensive use of the 50-year record of the Landsat program, focusing on recent imagery from the Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensors dating to mid- and late-summer 2019 and 2022.  They prepared this imagery into vegetation and temperature composites summarized at the city-wide, ward, and neighborhood levels to identify the changes in greenness and the associated impacts on the urban temperatures experienced across the city.  The latest statewide imagery from the National Agricultural Imagery Program dates to 2019, and The Nature Conservancy wanted to illustrate changes that have happened since then.  TNC brokered the acquisition of four-band Pléiades Neo imagery from Airbus, at a resolution of 0.3m/pixel, enabling the identification of individual tree loss from the municipal tree management and the calculation of high-resolution vegetation indices.

Following their initial exploration in class, students visited Newark on December 2nd to see first-hand the varied urban conditions and evidence of recent changes. They met with Dr. Johnny Quispe of The Nature Conservancy and together targeted several locations of observed loss and planned investments in new greenspace across Newark.  Their observations and the analysis stemming from this course will be compiled into a report to aid recommendations by The Nature Conservancy to Newark municipal officials to aid in the planning of improved and expanded urban canopy and green infrastructure to combat the impeding effects of climate-related changes on the city.