scholarly journals THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE OF A HIGHLY URBANIZED NEOTROPICAL CITY: THE ROLE OF THE URBAN VEGETATION IN PRESERVING NATIVE BIODIVERSITY

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Carlos Castro Pena ◽  
Danilo Marques Magalhães ◽  
Ana Clara Mourão Moura ◽  
Robert John Young ◽  
Marcos Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Street Trees

We mapped and described the composition of the urban vegetation that comprises the green infrastructure of a highly urbanized Neotropical city, and discussed how it can be used to preserve and maintain urban biodiversity. Almost half of our study area is occupied by 12 types of arboreal and herbaceous vegetation, composed mostly of urban parks, gardens and street trees. Forty-one percent of the almost 90,000 street trees are composed of 10 species with only 4 native species. These results show that this urban landscape is highly heterogeneous and has a great potential for biodiversity conservation. However, management strategies are needed, such as better planning of the urban forestry. This study is the first step towards a better understanding of how this landscape influences local biodiversity, and can be used as a management tool to increase urban resilience and functionality.

scholarly journals Green Infrastructure Planning in Metropolitan Regions to Improve the Connectivity of Agricultural Landscapes and Food Security

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Yacamán Ochoa ◽  
Daniel Ferrer Jiménez ◽  
Rafael Mata Olmo
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Landscape Connectivity ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Metropolitan Regions

Green infrastructure (GI), as a concept and as a tool for environmental land-use planning at various scales, has burst onto the academic, political, and policy-making scenes in the last two decades. This tool, associated with strategic planning, offers integrated solutions for improving the ecological connectivity and urban resilience of open spaces, especially those affected by processes of urban sprawl, the abandonment of agriculture, and the territorial fragmentation of habitats and traditional agricultural landscapes. In spite of the advantages of GI, its design and implementation face a range of challenges and limitations. In this context, this paper has two objectives: Firstly, to address a critical review of recent literature on the subject, which, among other things, highlights the lack of references to the role of peri-urban agriculture in GI planning, and the positive contribution made by peri-urban agriculture to the local food supply and other regulatory and cultural services. Secondly, to propose a methodology to contribute to integrating practical GI planning in metropolitan regions to maximize the activation of traditional agricultural landscapes and the improvement of landscape connectivity in metropolitan regions for the reconnection of rural-urban relationships.

scholarly journals The concept of green infrastructure and urban landscape planning: a challenge for urban forestry planning in Belgrade, Serbia

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Vasiljević ◽  
B Radić ◽  
S Gavrilović ◽  
B Šljukić ◽  
M Medarević ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Landscape Planning ◽  
Urban Forestry

scholarly journals Species Home-Making in Ecosystems: Toward Place-Based Ecological Metrics of Belonging

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Cordell ◽  
Celia Bardwell-Jones ◽  
Rebecca Ostertag ◽  
Amanda Uowolo ◽  
Nicole DiManno
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Novel Species ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
A Site

Globalization has undeniably impacted the Earth’s ecosystems, but it has also influenced how we think about natural systems. Three fourths of the world’s forests are now altered by human activity, which challenges our concepts of native ecosystems. The dichotomies of pristine vs. disturbed as well as our view of native and non-native species, have blurred; allowing us to acknowledge new paradigms about how humans and nature interact. We now understand that the use of militaristic language to define the perceived role of a plant species is holding us back from the fact that novel systems (new combinations of all species) can often provide valuable ecosystem services (i.e., water, carbon, nutrients, cultural, and recreation) for creatures (including humans). In reality, ecosystems exist in a gradient from native to intensely managed – and “non-nativeness” is not always a sign of a species having negative effects. In fact, there are many contemporary examples of non-native species providing critical habitat for endangered species or preventing erosion in human-disturbed watersheds. For example, of the 8,000–10,000 non-native species introduced to Hawai‘i, less than 10% of these are self-sustaining and 90 of those pose a danger to native biota and are considered invasive. In this paper, we explore the native/non-native binary, the impacts of globalization and the political language of invasion through the lens of conservation biology and sociology with a tropical island perspective. This lens gives us the opportunity to offer a place-based approach toward the use of empirical observation of novel species interactions that may help in evaluating management strategies that support biodiversity and ecosystem services. Finally, we offer a first attempt at conceptualizing a site-specific approach to develop “metrics of belonging” within an ecosystem.

Urban Vegetation and Air Pollution Mitigation: Some Issues from India

2016 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 1650001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avni ANAMIKA ◽  
Chaudhry PRADEEP
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Urban Greenery ◽  
Pollution Removal ◽  
Future Management

Urban greenery generates significant ecosystem services and contributes to improving environmental quality, quality of life, and sustainable urban development. Research on various aspects of urban forestry such as carbon sequestration, removing air pollutants, reducing noise, providing recreational amenity benefits is in infancy stage in India. This paper reviews some significant studies in the field of air pollution removal by urban vegetation in developed and developing countries including India. Some issues related to development and research in the field of urban greenery and future management strategies to be adopted in India have been discussed in the paper.

scholarly journals City Thresholds. The role of urban green infrastructures in Madrid

ZARCH ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 176-187
Author(s):  
Rocío Santo-Tomas Muro ◽  
Eva J. Rodríguez Romero
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Fringe ◽  
Planning Tool ◽  
Municipal Planning ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Green Areas ◽  
Urban Green Infrastructure ◽  
The City

This paper presents an exploration of the thresholds of the city, embodying the concept of Urban Green Infrastructure. In particular, it is a journey through the urban fringe of Madrid, where these green infrastructures, due to their form and history, achieve the sense of urban threshold and act as identity generators of the city. We examine the concept of peri-urban landscape in relation to nowadays challenges of sustainable development, as well as the benefits of Urban Green Infrastructures in the contour of the city. We then take a brief tour though the peripheral landscape of the city of Madrid, where we analyse metropolitan parks and historical green areas that comply its proximity image. After identifying the green infrastructures acting as thresholds in the city of Madrid, we focus on the south-east diagonal of the capital in order to reaffirm its importance in the construction of the image and identity of the city. We defend the importance of Urban Green Infrastructure to and from the city, suggesting the necessity of a supra-municipal planning tool to take change of the peri-urban landscape, usually perceived as subsidiary, to deem the proximity visions of the city as relevant for its design.

Growing the Urban Forest. From our Practitioners’ perspective to Field Initiatives

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Beatrice Andreucci ◽  
Naomi Zürcher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Urban Forest Management

<p>The Urban Forestry body of knowledge, incorporating the protection, preservation and care of trees, and their landscapes that enhance our urban areas, has been informed by research in soil science, horticulture, plant form/function/pathology, entomology, climate science, health care and the social sciences.</p><p>Such contributing research was represented in the COST Action FP1204 “GreenInUrbs” book - "The Urban Forest: Cultivating Green Infrastructure for People and the Environment" (Springer 2017).</p><p>But that Urban Forestry body of knowledge also reflects an evolved aggregation from the disciplines of forestry, landscape architecture and arboriculture.</p><p>Chapter 24 “Growing the Urban Forest: Our Practitioners’ Perspective” represented the professional disciplines of Maria Beatrice Andreucci, Landscape Architect, and Naomi Zürcher, Urban Forester/Consulting Arborist - two practitioners’ voices, applying their experiences in “growing” our Urban Forest to the entirety of the book’s submissions:</p><ul><li>scrutinizing the scientific findings’ applicability in project design and implementation as well as day-to-day management;</li> <li>analyzing the functionality of Urban Forest resource management: planning, design, maintenance;</li> <li>evaluating/presenting strategies for participatory stewardship from Third Sector and the informed community;</li> <li>describing/recommending viable, supportive good governance policies that can actually “grow” a healthy Urban Forest and deliver essential Ecosystem Services benefits.</li> </ul><p>All well and good, but chapters in books offering scientific findings, data and its outcomes are only as effective and influential as the actions they initiate. What is essential is actionable plans that make the findings and the data live.</p><p>Those critical actions and initiatives fall to the knowledgeable Practitioner. This presentation will offer outcomes of our Practitioners’ observations, described in the COST GreenInUrbs chapter, translating that experience into actionable projects invested in ecological design and sustainable management of the urban ecosystem:</p><p>1) Mapping multiple benefits of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI), promoting evidence-based landscape and urban design –Maria Beatrice Andreucci, International Federation of Landscape Architect (IFLA) Advisory Circle member, is providing IFLA practitioners and students, representing professional associations from five continents, with research-based evidence of ecological, environmental, social and economic benefits provided by UGI projects to:</p><ul><li>support informed decision-making and climate-adaptive design strategies at different scales (i.e. architecture, district, city, region, etc.) with metrics and other scientific findings;</li> <li>disseminate knowledge about useful valuation tools and methodologies tested on a large repository of international UGI case studies, with particular emphasis on the assessment of co-benefits and trade-offs, implied in sustainable transformations of the urban ecosystem.</li> </ul><p>2) Creating an i-Tree Eco-based Urban Forest Management Toolbox: Turning i-Tree outputs into Climate-Adaptive outcomes, offering management strategies for growing the Swiss Urban Forest –Naomi Zürcher, an affiliate i-Tree team member, is spearheading this Federally-funded climate change adaptation project in 8 Swiss cities. i-Tree Eco quantified assessment outputs of existing urban tree structure and function are utilized to:</p><ul><li>provide a connective understanding between the quantified values and managing for the protection, preservation and retention of mature urban trees;</li> <li>realize an Urban Forest Management Toolbox, developed by all project participants, comprised of creative planning, design and management strategies from an Ecosystem Services perspective, enabling Climate Change adaptations today for Swiss Cities of tomorrow.</li> </ul><div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> </div>

scholarly journals Quantifying Long-Term Urban Grassland Dynamics: Biotic Homogenization and Extinction Debts

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1989
Author(s):  
Marié J. du Toit ◽  
D. Johan Kotze ◽  
Sarel S. Cilliers
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Vegetation Patterns ◽  
Time Lags ◽  
Vegetation Sampling ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sustainable Conservation ◽  
Long Term Studies

Sustainable urban nature conservation calls for a rethinking of conventional approaches. Traditionally, conservationists have not incorporated the history of the landscape in management strategies. This study shows that extant vegetation patterns are correlated to past landscapes indicating potential extinction debts. We calculated urban landscape measures for seven time periods (1938–2019) and correlated it to three vegetation sampling events (1995, 2012, 2019) using GLM models. We also tested whether urban vegetation was homogenizing. Our results indicated that urban vegetation in our study area is not currently homogenizing but that indigenous forb species richness is declining significantly. Furthermore, long-term studies are essential as the time lags identified for different vegetation sampling periods changed as well as the drivers best predicting these changes. Understanding these dynamics are critical to ensuring sustainable conservation of urban vegetation for future citizens.

A Literature Review of Resilience in Urban Forestry

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-196
Author(s):  
Emily Huff ◽  
Michelle Johnson ◽  
Lara Roman ◽  
Nancy Sonti ◽  
Clara Pregitzer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Urban Green Spaces ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Assessment Approach

Urban forests provide many benefits to residents and may also improve cities’ resilience, the overall capacity to recover from anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Resilience is often considered from an ecological, social, or social-ecological perspective. In this literature review, we synthesize past studies (n = 31) to explore resilience in urban forests and green spaces and to understand how social or ecological perspectives have been considered. We found studies that combine resilience and urban forests have been increasing over time. Definitions of both resilience and urban forests are highly variable, but generally the studies increasingly focus on a social-ecological systems approach. The most common theoretical framework applied to understanding urban forests and resilience is a risk and vulnerability assessment approach. Studies were spread across geographies, with some concentration near major research stations and universities with scientists who specialize in resilience and urban green spaces. As more attention is focused on the role of green infrastructure in contributing to urban resilience, we encourage the adoption of consistent definitions, theories, and indicators.

scholarly journals Urban Forestry in Brazilian Amazonia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Almeida Vieira ◽  
Thomas Panagopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Mangifera Indica ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Brazilian Amazonia ◽  
Frequent Species

Urban forests provide multiple benefits in improving people’s lives and can be an important tool for achieving the goal of carbon neutral cities. In this study, we analyzed the diversity of plant species from urban forests in cities in the Brazilian Amazonia, based on data from scientific articles, through a systematic literature review. Our analysis revealed that 530 taxa, of which 479 were identified at the species level and 51 at the genus level, covering 38,882 individuals were distributed in 29 cities. The three most frequent species were Ficus benjamina, Mangifera indica, and Licania tomentosa. Exotic species were more frequent than native. The three most frequent species had almost 42% of the inventoried individuals. The choice of species has been made mainly by the local population, without monitoring by the public authorities. Recommendations for sustainable management of urban forests in Amazonia include investing in training of management bodies, periodic inventories, and awareness actions about the benefits of urban green infrastructure and on the advantages of native species. Policies for the sustainable management of urban green areas are necessary. The municipal governments must continuously monitor indicators of urban ecosystem services and provide financial resources for maintaining and increasing those area rates per person.

Leaf Area Density as an urban forestry planning and management tool

2000 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Kenney
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Area Density ◽  
Leaf Area Density ◽  
Forestry Management ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Educational Applications

Many of the benefits that we derive from urban forests are directly or indirectly related to the leaf area of the forest. If we are to consider these multiple benefits at the level of the forest, the use of Leaf Area Density (LAD) provides some advantages over other often used measures. Since many factors in the urban landscape can limit leaf area, Potential Leaf Area Density (PLAD) can provide a measure of the upper limit to leaf area density. Using these two measures, urban forest planners and managers can integrate many of the issues associated with broader aspects of the structure and benefits of the forest under their jurisdiction. Some planning, policy, and educational applications of LAD and PLAD are discussed. Key words: urban forestry management and planning, leaf area density

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