Interpreting output of Urban Cooling Model

[lptomasso]

Hi, I have finally run what I believe is a successful series of input scenarios to show the effect of temperature changes in response to urban street tree planting. These scenarios project into the future expected changes in tree growth canopy and planting width.

My question is on interpreting results. I have consulted the user’s guide at Urban Cooling — InVEST® documentation and the previous post of Sept 2020 on interpreting cooling index & heat mitigation index. The user’s guide does not sufficiently describe what my output means in terms of average temperature variation: between existing scenario and projected one? or between areas within the city I’m modeling? My average cooling capacity rises linearly, while the tem_v and tmp_an fall linearly, albeit very slightly. This makes sense with an expanding percentage of urban tree canopy.

Can you help with correct interpretation please? Thank you!

[swolny]

Hi @lptomasso -

The model output will only represent the cooling and heat mitigation for the single scenario that you provided as input. Values in the spatial results represent variation within the city you’re modeling, for that scenario. In post-processing, you can calculate the difference between scenarios, but the model does not do this for us.

~ Stacie

[lptomasso]

Thank you for this helpful reply, Stacie!