scholarly journals Visiting the Forest with Kindergarten Children: Forest Suitability

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojca Nastran
Keyword(s):  
School Children ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Mixed Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Forest Planning ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
The City

By providing ecosystem services, urban forests contribute significantly to the well-being of urban populations. Urban forests, along with other urban green spaces, are often the closest natural environment in the city where a child can play. The majority of pre-school children spend a large part of the day in kindergarten, which means that forest visits should have a prominent place in the kindergarten curriculum. Therefore, this study focuses on making the forest more suitable and thus more accessible for visits with children. The first goal of the research is to identify teachers’ preferences for the forest environment they visit with a group of pre-school children. The second goal is to present a forest suitability model for a visit with kindergarten children based on the teachers’ preferences. Based on the research survey conducted among the teachers in Slovenian public kindergartens, we formed and evaluated the criteria for the construction of a model of forest suitability for a visit with children. As the most important requirement for visiting a forest, the teachers note its proximity. They prefer a mature, mixed forest, with a bit of undergrowth, dead wood, and a presence of water and a meadow. Based on the identified criteria, we used the multi-criteria evaluation method in the GIS-environment in order to build a model of urban forest suitability for a visit with kindergarten groups of children in the study area of the City of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The results are useful in urban forest planning and management to ensure better forest suitability and accessibility for visits by children. Suitability maps can be used as one of the spatial foundations necessary for an integrated urban forest planning with emphasis on social functions. The model can be adapted beyond Slovenia to different spatial and social requirements and contexts.

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 Ecosytem Services Assessment of Urban Forests of Adama City, Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hingabu Hordofa Koricho ◽  
Ararsa Derese Seboka ◽  
Shaoxian Song
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Azadirachta Indica ◽  
Eucalyptus Globulus ◽  
Carica Papaya ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Pollution Removal ◽  
The City

Abstract Background: The recent urban challenges due to climate change and urban environment deterioration requires proper planning and inventories of urban forests. In this paper, trees and shrub information were used to estimate leaf area/biomass, carbon storage, carbon sequestration, pollution removal, and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, hydrological and functional values of Adama city urban forest. This study was conducted to assess and quantify the ecosystem services of urban forests of Adama city, Central Ethiopia.Results: The result of i-tree Eco model has indicated that the tree species such as Azadirachta indica, Eucalyptus globulus, Carica papaya and Delonix regia sequester high percentage of carbon which is approximately 14.7%, 7.4%, 7.3% and 6.2% of all annually sequestered carbon respectively. Besides, urban forests of the city was estimated to store 116,000 tons of carbon; the most carbons were stored by the species such as Eucalyptus globulus, Azadirachta indica, Carica papaya and Delonix regia that stores approximately 22.1%, 12.3%, 9.5% and 4.2% of all stored carbon respectively. Trees in Adama urban forests were estimated to produce 19.93 thousand tons of oxygen per year. It was estimated that trees and shrubs remove 188.3 thousand tons of air pollution due to O3, CO, NO2, PM2.5 and SO2 per year. In the city, 35 percent of the urban forest's VOC emissions were from Eucalyptus cinerea and Eucalyptus globulus. Besides, the monetary value of Adama urban forest in terms of carbon storage, carbon sequestration, and pollution removal was estimated to 16,588,470 ETB/yr, 118,283 ETB /yr and 12,162,701,080. 9 ETB /yr respectively.Conclusion: Urban forest of Adama city has significant contribution in terms of enhancing woody species diversity and the regulation of urban environment of the study area. From the management and conservation perspectives, urban forests of the study area needs consolidated interventions in terms of tree planting in bare areas and management works. Hence, reliable commitment should be demanded form the key stakeholders such as government, urban foresters and city dwellers.

scholarly journals Visitors’ emotional expression in urban forest parks: What can we know about on-line facial images from the Social Networking Services?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoming Guan ◽  
Honxu Wei ◽  
Xingyuan He ◽  
Zhibin Ren ◽  
Xin Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Networking Services ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forest Parks ◽  
Facial Images

Urban forests can attract visitors by the function of well-being improvement, which can be evaluated by analyzing the big-data from the social networking services (SNS). In this study, 935 facial images of visitors to nine urban forest parks were screened and downloaded from check-in records in the SNS platform of Sina Micro-Blog at cities of Changchun, Harbin, and Shenyang in Northeast China. Images were recognized for facial expressions by FaceReaderTM to read out eight emotional expressions: neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, and contempt. The number of images by women was larger than that by men. Compared to images from Changchun, those from Shenyang harbored higher neutral degree, which showed a positive relationship with the distance of forest park from downtown. In Changchun, the angry, surprised, and disgusted degrees decreased with the increase of distance of forest park from downtown, while the happy and disgusted degrees showed the same trend in Shenyang. In forest parks at city center and remote-rural areas, the neutral degree was positively correlated with the angry, surprised and contempt degrees but negatively correlated with the happy and disgusted degrees. In the sub-urban area the correlation of neutral with both surprised and disgusted degrees disappeared. Our study can be referred to by urban planning to evaluate the perceived well-being in urban forests through analyzing facial expressions of images from SNS.

scholarly journals Prioritizing Street Tree Planting Locations to Increase Benefits for All Citizens: Experience From Joliette, Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Sousa-Silva ◽  
Elyssa Cameron ◽  
Alain Paquette
Keyword(s):  
Urban Forest ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Species At Risk ◽  
Social Inequities ◽  
Street Tree ◽  
The City ◽  
Health And Well Being

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.

scholarly journals The Accuracy Validation of FireFACE Software in Analyzing Facial Expressions of Urban Forest Visitors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongxu Wei ◽  
Ping Liu
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Shenyang City ◽  
Validation Test ◽  
Tree Population ◽  
The Difference

The construction of sustainable urban forests follows the principle that well-being in people is promoted when exposed to tree population. Facial expression is the direct representation of inner emotion that can be used to assess real-time perception in urban forests. The emergence and change of facial expressions for forest visitors are in an implicit process. The reserved character of oriental races strengthens the requirement for the accuracy to recognize expressions through instrument rating. In this study, a dataset was established with 2,886 randomly photographed faces from visitors in a constructed urban forest park and a promenade at summertime in Shenyang City at Northeast China. Six experts were invited to choose 160 photos in total with 20 images representing one of eight typical expressions as angry, contempt, disgusted, happy, neutral, sad, scared, and surprised emotions. The FireFACE ver. 3.0 software was used to test hit-ratio validation as the accuracy (ac.) to match machine-recognized photos with those identified by experts. According to Kruskal-Wallis test on the difference from averaged scores in 20 recently published papers, contempt (ac.=0.40%, P=0.0038) and scared (ac.=25.23%, P=0.0018) expressions cannot pass the validation test. Therefore, the FireFACE can be used as an instrument to analyze facial expression from oriental people in urban forests but contempt and scared expressions cannot be identified.

scholarly journals Understanding the Spatial Distribution of Urban Forests in China Using Sentinel-2 Images with Google Earth Engine

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianwen Duan ◽  
Minghong Tan ◽  
Yuxuan Guo ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
Liangjie Xin
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Google Earth Engine ◽  
Sentinel 2

Urban forests are vitally important for sustainable urban development and the well-being of urban residents. However, there is, as yet, no country-level urban forest spatial dataset of sufficient quality for the scientific management of, and correlative studies on, urban forests in China. At present, China attaches great importance to the construction of urban forests, and it is necessary to map a high-resolution and high-accuracy dataset of urban forests in China. The open-access Sentinel images and the Google Earth Engine platform provide a significant opportunity for the realization of this work. This study used eight bands (B2–B8, B11) and three indices of Sentinel-2 in 2016 to map the urban forests of China using the Random Forest machine learning algorithms at the pixel scale with the support of Google Earth Engine (GEE). The 7317 sample points for training and testing were collected from field visits and very high resolution images from Google Earth. The overall accuracy, producer’s accuracy of urban forest, and user’s accuracy of urban forest assessed by independent validation samples in this study were 92.30%, 92.27%, and 92.18%, respectively. In 2016, the percentage of urban forest cover was 19.2%. Nearly half of the cities had an urban forest cover between 10% and 20%, and the average percentage of large cities whose urban populations were over 5 million was 24.8%. Cities with less than half of the average were mainly distributed in northern and western parts of China, which should be focused on in urban greening planning.

scholarly journals PEMENUHAN LUASAN HUTAN KOTA SEBAGAI PENCEGAH MASALAH LINGKUNGAN DI SURABAYA

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martika Dini Syaputri ◽  
Nany Suryawati
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Management And Development ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

AbstractEnvironmental problems in urban areas are a problem that never stops. That every community needs a healthy life, but this seems difficult to become a reality for urban communities because the population continues to increase every year so that land conversion occurs which results in increased air and water pollution. Therefore, the central government hopes that each region or region can provide RTH 30% of the city area. The purpose of this study is to analyze the enforcement of the City Forest Regulations in Surabaya and to find out the efforts of local governments in fulfilling urban forest land in urban areas. This study uses a normative juridical method. As part of RTH, the development of urban forests in Surabaya is very much needed by the community, therefore cooperation between the government and the community is needed in the management and development of urban forests. Fulfillment of urban forest areas in Surabaya can be done by maximizing the form of urban forest that has been regulated based on the City Forest Regulation, either in the form of channels, groups or scattered.Keywords: city forest; green open space; urbanAbstrakMasalah lingkungan hidup diwilayah perkotaan merupakan masalah yang tak kunjung berakhir. Bahwa setiap masyarakat membutuhkan hidup sehat, namun hal tersebut seolah sulit menjadi kenyataan bagi masyarakat perkotaan yang disebabkan karena jumlah penduduk yang tiap tahun meningkat sehingga terjadi pengalihfungsian lahan yang berakibat pada semakin meningkatnya pencemaran udara maupun pencemaran air. Oleh karena itu, pemerintah pusat mengharapkan bagi setiap wilayah atau daerah menyediakan RTH 30% dari luasan kota. Tujuan dilakukannya penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisa pemberlakuan Perda Hutan Kota di Surabaya serta mengetahui upaya pemerintah daerah dalam memenuhi lahan hutan kota pada wilayah perkotaan. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode yuridis normatif. Sebagai bagian dari RTH, pengembangan hutan kota di Surabaya sangat dibutuhkan oleh masyarakat oleh karenanya diperlukan kerjasama antara pemerintah dengan masyarakat dalam pengelolaan dan pengembangan hutan kota. Pemenuhan luasan hutan kota di Surabaya dapat dilakukan dengan mamaksimalkan bentuk dari hutan kota yang telah diatur berdasarkan pada Perda Hutan Kota, yakni dapat dengan bentuk jelaur, mengelompok maupun menyebar.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Urban Forest Status in Bandar Lampung City

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Agung Permada Yusuf ◽  
Arief Darmawan ◽  
Dian Iswandaru
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
City Government ◽  
Forest Ownership ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City ◽  
Forest Status ◽  
Made In

Urban forest is one form of green open space. Urban forests play an important role in maintaining the sustainability of ecological functions in a city. This role could only run optimally with the availability of urban forests. The purpose of this study is to analyze the status of land ownership and analyze the efforts that can be made in maintaining urban forests. This study used image analysis, interviews, and field observations. From the results of this study, the status of urban forests based on the Mayor of Bandar Lampung Decree in 2010 had different statuses at each location. The urban forest ownership does not exclusively belong to the government. Of the 5 locations, only 1 location owned by the Bandar Lampung City Government, with 1 location that is not recognized (problematic), 1 location did not have a certificate of rights yet, and 2 other locations were private locations. The best effort that could be made to maintain the existence of urban forests is to control urban forest land as ownership in the name of the City Government with the support of certain regulations that can be done. Keywords: land status, urban forest, Lampung

scholarly journals Cultural Practices Generated by Structural Biodiversity of Two Urban Forests in Johor Bahru, Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Amalina Mohd Fauzi ◽  
Azmiah Abd Ghafar
Keyword(s):  
Green Space ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Urban Forests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Green Space ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
Response Analysis ◽  
Urban Green

The use of urban green space is a determinant for urban inhabitant’s well-being. However, increasing urbanisation lessened the opportunity for urban inhabitants to engage with green space. This situation requires landscape planners to design an urban green space with maximum benefits that fulfil inhabitants’ needs for their well-being. Structural biodiversity is an essential element in generating the benefits and values interpreted through the activities at the urban green space. This paper aims to identify the cultural practices that influenced by structural biodiversity of two urban forests in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Multiple Response Analysis was used to analyse the data from on-site questionnaire surveys completed by 253 visitors of both urban forests. The result shows that a high-density urban forest offers an opportunity for visitors to get attached to nature and attract visitors to involve in sedentary and moderate activities. In contrast, a moderate density urban forest offers a less natural value that attracts visitors to take part in moderate and vigorous activities with less engagement with nature. This study would contribute to a better understanding of the structural biodiversity that influenced visitors’ cultural practices, where the present condition of the two urban forests has illustrated the current benefits that visitors obtained from the ecosystem.

scholarly journals Mapping and Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services: Capacity in Vilnius City

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Ieva Misiūnė ◽  
Darijus Veteikis
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mapping Method ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Additional Tool ◽  
The City

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits people gain from ecosystems, which are essential to human well-being. ES concept allows us to demonstrate more clearly the importance of nature, understand its benefits and justify its preservation. Knowledge on ecosystem’s capacity to provide services and the demand for these services allows us more effectively organize spatial planning, avoid conflicts and protect the ecosystems from degradation. This article reviews one of the ES assessment and mapping method called ES matrix model and presents its application to Vilnius case study. Using the method and expert knowledge twelve ES were assessed and mapped. The review of the method has shown that it can be applied at different scales and to evaluate several ES simultaneously. In previous studies, the method was applied to assess ES capacities both locally and at European level, often using expert knowledge for ES evaluation. Method application for the case study confirms that the results of the evaluation mainly depends on primary data, i.e. the scale and accuracy of the land used map and the sufficient sample of experts. The case study showed that the lowest concentration of evaluated services is in the center of Vilnius town and surrounding neighborhoods, and as the distance from the city center increases, the number of ES increases as well. An ES richness map, which shows how many different services exist in a given area, showed a low number of ES in the central and western part of the city (a maximum 6 out of 12 services rated). Additional research, however, is needed to assess the quality of the existing services. Such an assessment of the ES potential and the quality of the services can serve as an additional tool for territorial planning and efficient use of green urban spaces.

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