Lorien Nesbitt

Background

About Lorien Nesbitt

My work focuses on creating more liveable and equitable urban environments. During my career, I have developed a strong background in urban forestry, natural resource management, land use and climate change planning, local knowledge integration, and monitoring and evaluation. Over the past 10 years, I have had the privilege of working with a wide range of communities and organizations in Northern Canada, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Ecuador, helping local people achieve their environmental and sustainable development goals. In my position as Assistant Professor of Urban Forestry at the University of British Columbia, my research focuses on socio-ecological interactions in urban environments, with an emphasis on well-being, climate change, and environmental justice. I am currently examining (1) the relationship between greenness exposure and public health in urban environments, with a focus on adaptation to climate change-induced heat stress,(2) urban forest governance systems that promote resilience and equity, and (3) environmental justice in multicultural cities. My PhD research used a multi-method approach to develop and analyze the concept of urban green equity, defined as the fair governance and distribution of urban vegetation, including an examination of practitioner conceptions of urban green equity and a large-scale spatial analysis of distributional equity in North America.