Stem and Leaf

This image of research is a based on the Green Blocks Initiative, a community-based network created as part of my research with urbanized ecosystems. The Green Blocks Initiative is a citizen-based, incremental block-by-block approach to achieving integrated and ecological neighborhoods throughout the Village of Oak Park. The use of urban ecology as a framework of assessment serves the purpose of establishing a baseline of a neighborhood block’s ecological footprint, and energy and material flows. This baseline can then be used to benchmark the impact of subsequent actions and policy. Research phases include scoping, inventory assessment, impact analysis and improvement analysis. The submitted image includes a stem-and-leaf statistical display superimposed over the image of an oak leaf within a boundaried area. The stem-and-leaf display is a graphical device that is used to represent quantitative data sets, similar to a histogram. This display represents the statistical aspects of the Green Blocks Initiative during the impact analysis phase, which characterizes and assesses the environmental effects using data obtained from the inventory assessment. The oak leaf is the adopted symbol of the Village of Oak Park, and is used to represent its neighborhoods within the system boundary of the village itself. Note: photo image of oak leaf is by Michael Iversen. Stem-and-leaf statistics are for conceptual images purposes only, and so not represent actual research.