scholarly journals Developing a Metropolitan-Wide Urban Forest Strategy for a Large, Expanding and Densifying Capital City: Lessons from Melbourne, Australia

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 809
Author(s):  
Martin Hartigan ◽  
James Fitzsimons ◽  
Maree Grenfell ◽  
Toby Kent
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Potential Habitat ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Shared Objective

Urban forests provide many ecosystem services, such as reducing heat, improving air quality, treatment of stormwater, carbon sequestration, as well as biodiversity benefits. These benefits have resulted in increasing demand for urban forests and strategies to maintain and enhance this natural infrastructure. In response to a broader resilience strategy for Melbourne, Australia, we outline how a metropolitan-wide urban forest strategy (Living Melbourne) was developed, encompassing multiple jurisdictions and all land tenures. To this end, we mapped tree cover within the Melbourne metropolitan area, modelled potential habitat for some bird species, and investigated the role of tree cover for urban heat island mitigation. We outline the consultation and governance frameworks used to develop the strategy, the vision, goals and actions recommended, including canopy and shrub cover targets for different parts of the metropolitan area. The metropolitan-wide urban forest strategy acts as an overarching framework to guide local government authorities and various stakeholders towards a shared objective of increasing tree cover in Melbourne and we discuss the outcomes and lessons from this approach.

scholarly journals Quantifying Tree Cover Loss in Urban Forests within Nairobi City Metropolitan Area from Earth Observation Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Francis Oloo ◽  
Godwin Murithi ◽  
Charlynne Jepkosgei
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Earth Observation ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Vegetation Health ◽  
Earth Observation Data

Urban forests contribute significantly to the ecological integrity of urban areas and the quality of life of urban dwellers through air quality control, energy conservation, improving urban hydrology, and regulation of land surface temperatures (LST). However, urban forests are under threat due to human activities, natural calamities, and bioinvasion continually decimating forest cover. Few studies have used fine-scaled Earth observation data to understand the dynamics of tree cover loss in urban forests and the sustainability of such forests in the face of increasing urban population. The aim of this work was to quantify the spatial and temporal changes in urban forest characteristics and to assess the potential drivers of such changes. We used data on tree cover, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and land cover change to quantify tree cover loss and changes in vegetation health in urban forests within the Nairobi metropolitan area in Kenya. We also used land cover data to visualize the potential link between tree cover loss and changes in land use characteristics. From approximately 6600 hectares (ha) of forest land, 720 ha have been lost between 2000 and 2019, representing about 11% loss in 20 years. In six of the urban forests, the trend of loss was positive, indicating a continuing disturbance of urban forests around Nairobi. Conversely, there was a negative trend in the annual mean NDVI values for each of the forests, indicating a potential deterioration of the vegetation health in the forests. A preliminary, visual inspection of high-resolution imagery in sample areas of tree cover loss showed that the main drivers of loss are the conversion of forest lands to residential areas and farmlands, implementation of big infrastructure projects that pass through the forests, and extraction of timber and other resources to support urban developments. The outcome of this study reveals the value of Earth observation data in monitoring urban forest resources.

scholarly journals Traces of urban forest in temperature and CO<sub>2</sub> signals in monsoon East Asia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keunmin Lee ◽  
Je-Woo Hong ◽  
Jeongwon Kim ◽  
Jinkyu Hong
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Forest Canopies ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Drought Period ◽  
Vegetation Activity ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Cities represent a key space for our sustainable trajectory in a changing environment, and our society is steadily embracing urban green space for its role in mitigating heatwaves and anthropogenic CO2 emissions. This study reports two-year surface fluxes of energy and CO2 measured via the eddy covariance method in an artificially constructed urban forest to examine the impact of urban forests on air temperature and net CO2 exchange. The urban forest site shows typical seasonal patterns of forest canopies with the seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon. Our analysis indicates that the urban forest reduces both the warming trend and urban heat island intensity compared to the adjacent high-rise urban areas and that photosynthetic carbon uptake is large despite relatively small tree density and leaf area index. During the significant drought period in the second year, gross primary production and evapotranspiration decreased, but their reduction was not as significant as those in natural forest canopies. We speculate that forest management practices, such as artificial irrigation and fertilization, enhance vegetation activity. We also stipulate that ecosystem respiration in urban forests is more pronounced than typical natural forests in a similar climate zone. This can be attributed to the substantial amount of soil organic carbon available due to intensive historical soil use and soil transplantation during forest construction, as well as relatively warmer temperatures in urban heat domes. Our observational study also indicates the need for caution in soil management for less CO2 emissions in urban areas.

scholarly journals Traces of urban forest in temperature and CO<sub>2</sub> signals in monsoon East Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (23) ◽  
pp. 17833-17853
Author(s):  
Keunmin Lee ◽  
Je-Woo Hong ◽  
Jeongwon Kim ◽  
Sungsoo Jo ◽  
Jinkyu Hong
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Forest Canopies ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Drought Period ◽  
Vegetation Activity ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Cities represent a key space for a sustainable society in a changing environment, and our society is steadily embracing urban green space for its role in mitigating heat waves and anthropogenic CO2 emissions. This study reports 2 years of surface fluxes of energy and CO2 in an artificially constructed urban forest measured by the eddy covariance method to examine the impact of urban forests on air temperature and net CO2 exchange. The urban forest site shows typical seasonal patterns of forest canopies with the seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon. This study shows that the urban forest reduces both the warming trend and urban heat island intensity compared to the adjacent high-rise urban areas and that photosynthetic carbon uptake is large despite relatively small tree density and leaf area index. During the significant drought period in the second year, gross primary production and evapotranspiration decreased, but their reduction was not as significant as those in natural forest canopies. We speculate that forest management practices, such as artificial irrigation and fertilization, enhance vegetation activity. Further analysis reveals that ecosystem respiration in urban forests is more pronounced than for typical natural forests in a similar climate zone. This can be attributed to the substantial amount of soil organic carbon due to intensive historical soil use and soil transplantation during forest construction, as well as relatively warmer temperatures in urban heat domes. Our findings suggest the need for caution in soil management when aiming to reduce CO2 emissions in urban areas.

GIS-BASED SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND IN FUKUOKA METROPOLITAN AREA

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. I_1189-I_1194
Author(s):  
Yukun WANG ◽  
Akiko NISHIMURA ◽  
Yuji SUGIHARA ◽  
Guoyun ZHOU ◽  
Yukiko HISADA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Urban Heat Island ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Urban Heat

scholarly journals Assessing the Ecological Value of an Urban Forest Park: A Case Study of Sinhua Forest Park in Taiwan

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 806
Author(s):  
Wan-Yu Liu ◽  
Yo-Zheng Lin ◽  
Chi-Ming Hsieh
Keyword(s):  
Urban Forest ◽  
Contingent Valuation Method ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Tobit Regression ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Ecological Conservation

Urban forests offer multiple functions: they can balance negative effects from the environment and provide the public with a place for leisure and recreation. Hence, urban forests are crucial to urban ecology and have been widely studied. In addition, relevant study results were applied for policymaking in urban development and forest park management. This study evaluated the ecological value of the Sinhua Forest Park and examined whether the socioeconomic background of participants influences their willingness to pay (WTP) for ecological conservation. Questionnaires were distributed to visitors in the Sinhua Forest Park in Tainan, Taiwan, and the payment card format of the contingent valuation method was employed to evaluate the ecological value. The results showed that the visitors had an annual WTP of $22.01 per person. However, when samples with protest responses were excluded, the WTP rose to $24.58. By considering the total number of visitors of a year, the total ecological value was $1,426,964.14/year and reached $1,593,257.31/year after excluding the protest samples. This study also analyzed participants’ within-variable socioeconomic background (e.g., gender and education) and discovered that male participants who are aged 60 years or older, with an education level of senior/vocational high school, and those who visited green spaces two to three times per week presented a high WTP score on average. A Tobit regression model was employed for examination, and the results indicated that participants’ education and frequency of visiting green spaces significantly influenced their WTP for the ecological conservation of the Sinhua Forest Park.

scholarly journals Effects of Urban Forest Types and Traits on Soil Organic Carbon Stock in Beijing

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 394
Author(s):  
Xinhui Xu ◽  
Zhenkai Sun ◽  
Zezhou Hao ◽  
Qi Bian ◽  
Kaiyue Wei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Carbon Stock ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Predictor Variable ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Organic Carbon Stock

Forests can affect soil organic carbon (SOC) quality and distribution through forest types and traits. However, much less is known about the influence of urban forests on SOC, especially in the effects of different forest types, such as coniferous and broadleaved forests. Our objectives were to assess the effects of urban forest types on the variability of SOC content (SOC concentration (SOCC) and SOC density (SOCD)) and determine the key forest traits influencing SOC. Data from 168 urban forest plots of coniferous or broadleaved forests located in the Beijing urban area were used to predict the effects of forest types and traits on SOC in three different soil layers, 0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–30 cm. The analysis of variance and multiple comparisons were used to test the differences in SOC between forest types or layers. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to explain the influence of forest traits on SOC and select the significant predictors. Our results showed that in urban forests, the SOCC and SOCD values of the coniferous forest group were both significantly higher than those of the broadleaved group. The SOCC of the surface soil was significantly higher than those of the following two deep layers. In PLSR models, 42.07% of the SOCC variance and 35.83% of the SOCD variance were explained by forest traits. Diameter at breast height was selected as the best predictor variable by comparing variable importance in projection (VIP) scores in the models. The results suggest that forest types and traits could be used as an optional approach to assess the organic carbon stock in urban forest soils. This study found substantial effects of urban forest types and traits on soil organic carbon sequestration, which provides important data support for urban forest planning and management.

scholarly journals Beijing Resident’s Preferences of Ecosystem Services of Urban Forests

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Han Zhi-Ying ◽  
Youn Yeo-Chang
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Quality Regulation ◽  
Water Provision ◽  
Air Quality Regulation

This paper aims to investigate the Beijing resident’s preferences over various options of urban forest management strategies. The literature investigation and expert Delphi method were conducted to classify the ecosystem services of urban forests into six categories: (1) fresh water provision, (2) noise reduction, (3) moderation of extreme events, (4) air quality regulation, (5) species diversity and wildlife habitat, and (6) recreation and spiritual experience. To elicit the relative preferences to ecosystem service (hereafter referred to as ES) of Beijing residents, we employed the choice experiment method. The data were collected by interviews with questionnaires conducted in October 2017, and a total of 483 valid questionnaires were analyzed. The subjects of this experiment were residents older than 19 years old who have lived in Beijing for more than 1 year and have visited any one of the urban forests located in Beijing more than once during 2016. The results were as follows: Firstly, the air quality regulation ES was considered as the most important service for Beijing residents in terms of their choices of urban forest. In addition, Beijing residents regarded the fresh water provision ES as the second most important ES. Beijing residents were willing to pay up to 1.84% of the average monthly income of Chinese households annually to expand urban forest ecosystems in order to improve air quality. Secondly, apartment owners were willing to pay more municipality tax for forest ESs than residents who did not own an apartment. Thirdly, residents were more willing to pay for urban forest ESs as their income increases. The results indicated that Beijing residents were willing to pay more tax in support of urban forestry for air quality improvement. This research suggests that urban environmental policy makers in Beijing should pay more attention to the regulation function of forests (especially improving air quality) when designing and managing urban forests.

scholarly journals Spatio-Temporal Changes of Urban Forests and Planning Evolution in a Highly Dynamical Urban Area: The Case Study of Wrocław, Poland

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justyna Jaworek-Jakubska ◽  
Maciej Filipiak ◽  
Adam Michalski ◽  
Anna Napierała-Filipiak
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Temporal Changes ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Socialist Economy ◽  
Urban Green Spaces ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The City

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.

scholarly journals The Urban Heat Island of the North-Central Texas Region and Its Relation to the 2011 Severe Texas Drought

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (11) ◽  
pp. 2418-2433 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. E. Winguth ◽  
B. Kelp
Keyword(s):  
Urban Heat Island ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Remotely Sensed ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Fort Worth ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Maximum Heat ◽  
Urban Heat

AbstractHourly surface temperature differences between Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, metropolitan and rural sites have been used to calculate the urban heat island from 2001 to 2011. The heat island peaked after sunset and was particularly strong during the drought and heat wave in July 2011, reaching a single-day instantaneous maximum value of 5.4°C and a monthly mean maximum of 3.4°C, as compared with the 2001–11 July average of 2.4°C. This severe drought caused faster warming of rural locations relative to the metropolitan area in the morning as a result of lower soil moisture content, which led to an average negative heat island in July 2011 of −2.3°C at 1100 central standard time. The ground-based assessment of canopy air temperature at screening level has been supported by a remotely sensed surface estimate from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Terra satellite, highlighting a dual-peak maximum heat island in the major city centers of Dallas and Fort Worth. Both ground-based and remotely sensed spatial analyses of the maximum heat island indicate a northwest shift, the result of southeast winds in July 2011 of ~2 m s−1 on average. There was an overall positive trend in the urban heat island of 0.14°C decade−1 in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area from 2001 to 2011, due to rapid urbanization. Superimposed on this trend are significant interannual and decadal variations that influence the urban climate.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document