scholarly journals A forested urban park : what is the value of Allan Gardens to the City of Toronto?

Author(s):  
Senna Sabir

The purpose of this study was to conduct an assessment of Allan Gardens' urban forest and to investigate the value of environmental and aesthetic benefits it provides the City of Toronto. This project used the Street Tree Resource Analysis Tool for Urban Forest Managers (STRATUM) model to assess forest structure, function, and monetary value of benefits. Soil in Allan Gardens was also investigated to determine the growing conditions for park trees. Results indicate that Allan Gardens maintained 309 trees that provide $60,407 annually in net annual environmental and property value benefits to the City of Toronto. Soil conditions in the park were found to be highly variable, where some locations were highly compacted and may be restricting tree root growth. To sustain and enhance these benefits in the future, Toronto's urban forest requires dedicated management and maintenance that includes new plantings, but prioritized protection and maintenance of existing trees and soil.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senna Sabir

The purpose of this study was to conduct an assessment of Allan Gardens' urban forest and to investigate the value of environmental and aesthetic benefits it provides the City of Toronto. This project used the Street Tree Resource Analysis Tool for Urban Forest Managers (STRATUM) model to assess forest structure, function, and monetary value of benefits. Soil in Allan Gardens was also investigated to determine the growing conditions for park trees. Results indicate that Allan Gardens maintained 309 trees that provide $60,407 annually in net annual environmental and property value benefits to the City of Toronto. Soil conditions in the park were found to be highly variable, where some locations were highly compacted and may be restricting tree root growth. To sustain and enhance these benefits in the future, Toronto's urban forest requires dedicated management and maintenance that includes new plantings, but prioritized protection and maintenance of existing trees and soil.


2009 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
G H Stoffberg ◽  
M W van Rooyen ◽  
M J van der Linde ◽  
H T Groeneveld

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Sousa-Silva ◽  
Elyssa Cameron ◽  
Alain Paquette

As the climate continues to warm and the world becomes more urbanized, our reliance on trees and the benefits they provide is rapidly increasing. Many cities worldwide are planting trees to offset rising temperatures, trap pollutants, and enhance environmental and human health and well-being. To maximize the benefits of planting trees and avoid further increasing social inequities, a city needs to prioritize where to establish trees by first identifying those areas of greatest need. This work aims to demonstrate a spatially explicit approach for cities to determine these priority locations to achieve the greatest returns on specific benefits. Criteria for prioritization were developed in tandem with the City of Joliette, Canada, and based on nine indicators: surface temperature, tree density, vegetation cover, resilience, tree size and age, presence of species at risk, land use type, socioeconomic deprivation, and potential for active transportation. The City’s preferences were taken into account when assigning different weights to each indicator. The resulting tree planting priority maps can be used to target street tree plantings to locations where trees are needed most. This approach can be readily applied to other cities as these criteria can be adjusted to accommodate specific tree canopy goals and planning constraints. As cities are looking to expand tree canopy, we hope this work will assist in sustaining and growing their urban forest, enabling it to be more resilient and to keep providing multiple and sustained benefits where they are needed the most.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 209-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Escobedo ◽  
Damian C. Adams ◽  
Nilesh Timilsina

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyndal Plant ◽  
Dave Kendal

Municipalities are setting targets for increasing street tree species diversity to support resilience and enhance the supply of ecosystem services from the urban forest. Assessments of street tree composition and structure, and consequent vulnerability to the stresses of urban climate change, pests, and disease, offer guidance for such targets. However, assessing local resident preferences toward species diversity within streets is also important to achieving such targets. Much of the research on street tree preference to date has focused on resident preferences for individual street tree characteristics, without reference to collective/contextual characteristics such as species diversity. We inferred resident preferences for collective street tree features, including species richness, from nearby house sale prices in the city of Brisbane, Australia. While home-buyers were willing to pay a premium for houses on streets with mature and aged trees, their tolerance for mixtures of species was limited to no more than six species nearby. Tolerance also varied within the city with greater sensitivity to mixtures of species in locations of greater socio-economic advantage. These findings suggest that increased diversity will not automatically be accepted by the community. Municipalities need to be cautious in their approach to increasing tree species diversity at finer scales, like streetscapes, within the urban forest.


2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 359-365
Author(s):  
Joe McBride

A method combining numeric data collection with the preparation of street tree cross-sections and plans, based on surveys of 33 urban forests around the world, is reviewed. The combination can provide design professionals with graphic information on urban forest structure not collected by more traditional methods for urban forest inventories.


2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-84
Author(s):  
Anna Trembecka

Abstract Amendment to the Act on special rules of preparation and implementation of investment in public roads resulted in an accelerated mode of acquisition of land for the development of roads. The decision to authorize the execution of road investment issued on its basis has several effects, i.e. determines the location of a road, approves surveying division, approves construction design and also results in acquisition of a real property by virtue of law by the State Treasury or local government unit, among others. The conducted study revealed that over 3 years, in this mode, the city of Krakow has acquired 31 hectares of land intended for the implementation of road investments. Compensation is determined in separate proceedings based on an appraisal study estimating property value, often at a distant time after the loss of land by the owner. One reason for the lengthy compensation proceedings is challenging the proposed amount of compensation, unregulated legal status of the property as well as imprecise legislation. It is important to properly develop geodetic and legal documentation which accompanies the application for issuance of the decision and is also used in compensation proceedings.


Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justyna Jaworek-Jakubska ◽  
Maciej Filipiak ◽  
Adam Michalski ◽  
Anna Napierała-Filipiak

Knowledge about urban forests in Poland is still limited, as it is primarily based on aggregate, formal data relating to the general area, ignoring the spatial dimension and informal green areas. This article describes and analyses spatio-temporal changes in the actual urban forest resources in Wrocław in 1944–2017, which covers the first period of the city’s rebuilding after its destruction during World War II and its development during the nationalised, centrally-planned socialist economy, as well as the second period of intensive and only partly controlled growth under conditions of market economy. The study is based on current and historical orthophotomaps, which were confronted with cartographic data, as well as planning documents. We found that between 1944 and 2017, the percentage contribution of informal woodlands increased tenfold (from 0.5 to 4.9% of the present total area of the city). The area occupied by such forests has grown particularly during the most recent years of the city’s intensive development. However, the forests have been increasingly fragmented. During the first period, new forest areas were also created in the immediate vicinity of the city centre, while during the second one, only in its peripheral sections. The post-war plans regarding the urban green spaces (UGS), including the current plan, are very conservative in nature. On the one hand, this means no interference with the oldest, biggest, and most valuable forest complexes, but on the other hand, insufficient consideration of the intensive built-up area expansion on former agriculture areas. Only to a limited extent did the above-mentioned plans take into account the informal woodlands, which provide an opportunity for strengthening the functional connectivity of landscape.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-129
Author(s):  
Rani Aurora Barus ◽  
Siti Nurkholila Hafni ◽  
Dwiki Alfajar Andrea

Taman Hutan Kota PLN Medan is one of important part from the city, if the park managed properly it would give a good impact to increase the quality of public space which is lead to make a positive and better contribution to people's lives who lived in the busy city like Medan. However, in reality, Taman Hutan Kota PLN cannot make a good performance as its function as public space and urban forest. To increase the level of people's happiness and develop urban quality at Medan, it is necessary to redesign Taman Hutan Kota PLN. The redesign’s purpose is to fulfill the people’s needs and hopes to this park and make better, satisfying, and responsive facilities to the user.  Redesigning Taman Hutan Kota PLN will be based on people's preferences, perceptions, and perspectives. The preference, people's opinions, and documentation on the field will help us to discover what is the real reality and important resource for redesigning process so that the final result of the new Taman Hutan Kota PLN design can be a better park not only as public space and open green space but also as an alternative recreation facility for people in Medan.


2017 ◽  
Vol 168 (5) ◽  
pp. 252-260
Author(s):  
Christoph Fischer ◽  
Urs-Beat Brändli

State and development of forests close to settlements – results from the NFI For more than 30 years, the national forest inventory (NFI) has been reporting on the state and development of the Swiss forest and its services. Here, for the first time on the topic of “urban forest”, focusing on the forests in the Swiss lowlands, where all urban centers are located. Due to missing definitions we classified the forest according to household equivalents in the vicinity of NFI plots. The forest was classified as either close to settlements (urban) or far from settlements. Using indicators, we compared both categories in order to answer the following questions: 1) How common are forests close to settlements? 2) How do forests close to settlements and far from settlements differ? 3) Is there a potential for conflict of use? 4) Which developments could be observed in relation to forest perception in the last 20 years? 29% of the forest in the lowlands is close to settlements. Five out of ten indicators on forest provision do not differ between both forest categories. Differences occur in relation to the degree of mixture and forest structure. Furthermore, close to settlement forests have more forest roads, recreational facilities and a primary “recreation” function. Regardless of their primary function, forests close to settlements are more intensively used for recreation. Following the NFI model on nature provision for recreation, the forest area with high nature provision has increased in the last 20 years, for all forests. The results indicate that both forest categories are quite similar and are managed in a similar way. Due to the intensive recreational use of lowland forests close to settlements, a certain conflict potential between recreationalists and forest owners is given, posing a challenge for forest managers.


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