Research
I use remote sensing, field data, and machine learning to monitor environmental change across scales — from individual trees to statewide canopy, from kelp beds to oil slicks — and to ask who benefits from (or is left out of) the ecosystems we manage.
Urban Forests
California’s cities are home to millions of trees, but until recently there was no consistent, statewide picture of where they are, what species they are, or how canopy cover is changing. I build neural network models that use satellite and aerial imagery to map individual trees and canopy cover across urban California, and I study how tree species diversity and composition shape outcomes like urban heat.
This work spans mapping the distribution and use of California’s native trees in cities, detecting individual trees at scale from high-resolution multispectral imagery, showing that street tree diversity mitigates urban heat, and building an error-adjusted canopy time series to track canopy change — including losses from the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires.
Selected publications:
Pawlak, C. C., et al. (2026). Mapping California’s Urban Forest at Scale: An Error-Adjusted Canopy Time Series for Monitoring Change. Ecology. [Pre-print] https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.04.722774
Kenny, R., Johns, J., Pawlak, C., Fricker, A., Yost, J., & Ritter, M. (2026). Urban trees and structure loss in the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 121, 129470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2026.129470
Ventura, J., Pawlak, C., et al. (2024). Individual tree detection in large-scale urban environments using high-resolution multispectral imagery. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 130, 103848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2024.103848
Rendon, P., Love, N., Pawlak, C., Yost, J., Ritter, M., & Doremus, J. (2024). Street tree diversity and urban heat. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 91, 128180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.128180
Pawlak, C. C., Love, N. L. R., et al. (2023). California’s native trees and their use in the urban forest. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 89, 128125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.128125
Coastal Ecosystems
Along the California coast, I track how kelp forests and intertidal zones are responding to a changing climate, using CubeSats, drones, and unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor change at scales that ground surveys can’t cover alone. This has included documenting the persistence of bull kelp refugia amid a regional collapse, mapping emergent kelp canopy after an ecological regime shift, and building automated satellite methods to track giant kelp as far away as the Falkland Islands.
I’m currently applying similar remote sensing approaches to track oil slicks along the Santa Barbara coast. In 2025, I also served as a graduate mentor for the Oceans Group of NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) West.
Selected publications:
Cavanaugh, K. C., Cavanaugh, K. C., Pawlak, C. C., Bell, T. W., & Saccomanno, V. R. (2023). CubeSats show persistence of bull kelp refugia amidst a regional collapse in California. Remote Sensing of Environment, 290, 113521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2023.113521
Saccomanno, V. R., Bell, T., Pawlak, C., et al. (2022). Using unoccupied aerial vehicles to map and monitor changes in emergent kelp canopy after an ecological regime shift. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 9(1), 62–75. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.295
Houskeeper, H. F., Rosenthal, I. S., Cavanaugh, K. C., Pawlak, C., et al. (2022). Automated satellite remote sensing of giant kelp at the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). PLOS ONE, 17(1), e0257933. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257933
Equity & Human Well-Being
Mapping ecosystems is only half the question — the other half is who has access to the benefits they provide, from cleaner air to cooler streets. I’ve mapped environmental justice indicators across California schools, and my ongoing and in-prep work looks at how public versus private tree ownership shapes tree equity, and how urban forest composition affects air quality in Los Angeles neighborhoods. I’m also a contributing author on CAL FIRE’s statewide urban forest canopy plan.
Selected publications:
Vannucci, P. F., Kianmehr, A., Pawlak, C. C., Faiola, C. L., Wilson, J. P., & Berelson, W. M. (2025). The role of urban forest composition in modulating summertime air quality in Los Angeles. Science of The Total Environment, 1003, 180715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180715
Baiza, J., Pawlak, C., Baehr, A., Yost, J., Ritter, M., & Fricker, A. (2022). Mapping Social and Environmental Justice Across California Schools (Version V4) [dataset]. Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/7NNBJD
Love, N.L.R., Grady, E.L., Pawlak, C., et al. In prep. Patterns in the distribution of public vs. private urban trees: Implications for tree equity in one of the world’s largest urban forests. Target journal: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.
CAL FIRE Urban and Community Forestry & Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute. (2026). Greening the Golden State: Urban Forest Canopy Plan for California [Draft strategic plan]. Named collaborator and contributing author.