Integrating remote sensing and field-based models for the economic valuation of ecosystem services provided by Acer platanoides in Warsaw (Poland)

Urban forests provide vital ecosystem services (ES), and quantifying these benefits is essential for sustainable urban planning. The i-Tree Eco tool is widely used for such assessments, but its reliance on detailed field inventories limits citywide applications. Remote sensing offers spatial data, but cannot directly provide all the necessary model inputs. This study presents a framework combining remote sensing with field-based modelling for large-scale i-Tree Eco assessments. Applied to Acer platanoides in Warsaw, Poland, with data from 529 trees, econometric models predicted structural attributes from remotely sensed variables. Using these models and other remotely derived attributes, a citywide i-Tree Eco analysis was performed. The framework evaluated approximately 122,000 trees, which together remove 46 t of pollutants annually, sequester 2,440 t of carbon, and reduce stormwater runoff by 38,100 m³, with an estimated value of €787,000. This study introduces a novel, large-scale approach for the economic valuation of urban tree ES.