Spathodea campanulata P. Beauv. tree failure parameters after an extreme weather event

Abstract

ABSTRACT Catastrophic windstorms attributed to climate change are expected to increase in the upcoming period, causing damage to trees, particularly in tropical climates where most damage arises during storms. In October 2019, the city of Viçosa (Minas Gerais, Brazil) was affected by heavy rain and winds of 82.4 km/h. It provoked extensive damage to the urban trees on the university campus, where individuals of the Spathodea campanulata were affected. The objective of this study was (1) to determine tree failure parameters – previous studies were used to assess the tree risk failure of the species and its diagnosis after an extreme climatic event – and (2) to classify the damage as: irreversible, intermediate and without damage according to the parameters on the evaluation form. An analysis was carried out considering whether the damage class parameters were observed, discarding the weights assigned to each one (originally applied by the methodology). Later these weights were used in the application of Fisher’s statistical tests and Pearson’s Chi-Square. The general analysis indicated that among 28 parameters used in the visual evaluation, nine were associated with the occurrence of irreversible damage to the trees. After the statistical analysis, the conclusions indicated that six of the parameters were significant.