Health Equity

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Tee Jay Boudreau

Data Sources

Natural Environment Data

Trees promote health in many ways. They help clean the air, promote outdoor physical activity, improve quality of life, and protect the environment.

Purpose

To assess Rhode Island's progress towards advancing health equity, as part of Rhode Island Health Equity Measures.

Key Information

Measure

Tree Equity Score

Data Source

American Forests (data will be updated every 2 years)

Strata

Census Block Group and Municipality (only the urbanized areas as defined by the US Census Bureau)

What this measure means

The Tree Equity Score was developed by American Forests in 2020. It is a science-based approach to determine the tree canopy cover needed in a neighborhood to ensure the people living in urban areas benefit from everything trees provide. The score is based on:

Existing tree canopy cover
Population density
Income
Employment
Race
Age
Surface Temperature

Scores are calculated at the Census Block Group and Municipal level and normalized to generate a score between 0-100. The lower the score, the higher the need for tree interventions. For more on the Tree Equity Score methodology visit https://treeequityscore.org/methodology/.

Key Findings

Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Providence have the lowest percentage of tree canopy cover, each with less than 18% of landmass with tree canopy cover.
West Greenwich, Exeter, and Foster have the highest percentage of tree canopy cover, each with more than 84% of landmass with tree canopy cover.