Keywords
canopy cover
floristic inventory
GIS mapping
infrastructure setback
tropical university
How to Cite
Abstract
University campuses are managed urban landscapes whose trees can moderate heat, support biodiversity, and improve the quality of outdoor learning environments. Yet field-based evidence on campus tree composition, canopy structure, and infrastructure proximity remains limited in many Philippine higher education institutions. This study characterized the tree resource of West Visayas State University Main Campus through a complete field inventory, expert-assisted morphological identification, documented diagnostic-character comparison, crown measurements, GPS waypoint mapping, and GIS-based visualization. The inventory recorded 317 trees representing 34 species, including one unresolved taxon; Simpson's Index of Diversity was 0.866, but abundance was uneven, with Polyalthia longifolia accounting for 30.3% of all trees. Dissolved crown polygons estimated 20,300 m2 of canopy cover (20.66% of the 9.83-ha campus), while 50.56% of trees occurred less than 1 m from roads. These findings indicate that species richness alone should not be interpreted as ecological stability in a highly managed campus landscape: dominance by a few taxa, uneven canopy distribution, and close infrastructure setbacks create management vulnerabilities. The study provides a baseline for diversification, infrastructure-compatible planting, GIS-based monitoring, and future microclimate and tree-health assessment in tropical academic institutions.
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