UK Treescape Fellowship awarded to study Leeds' atmosphere

A UK Treescape Fellowship has been awarded to Dr Jim Parker, an academic based at Leeds Beckett University, who will be working closely with the University of Leeds and and Leeds City Council to carry out his research.

Urban treescapes can help regulate overheating and air pollution in cities. However, to reliably affect policy and ensure that the consequences of our actions are well understood, we need more data to quantify these effects. By supporting the collection of high quality data, Dr Parker's UK Treescape Fellowship will be a source of robust evidence to support and guide policymakers in the protection and expansion of urban treescapes throughout the UK.

In this fellowship, Dr Parker will use data from a large existing network of environmental sensors across the city of Leeds to understand in more detail the role that treescapes have on the atmosphere we live in. He will share his findings with key stakeholders that will influence the UK’s future treescapes.

Dr Parker will be working in collaboration with academics at the University of Leeds, saying:

The support of Cat Scott and Jim McQuaid has been really important in the development of this project and I’m excited to be working with them over the next year, and beyond hopefully!

By consolidating relationships between Leeds Beckett University, the University of Leeds and Leeds City Council, this fellowship will also help to demonstrate the role that anchor institutions can play in large urban areas and complex city-scale issues, and how these relationships can have a positive impact on the cities we live in.

Dr Parker highlights the value of the fellowship to the local area, as well as to our broader understanding of urban air quality resulting from city treescapes in the UK. Collaboration with Leeds City Council gives a clear pathway for results to be transformed into policies that benefit Leeds.

This Fellowship is a fantastic opportunity for me extend the scope of our work in the field of sustainable urban environments, being able to do this in Leeds is also great for the city.