scholarly journals Long-Term Validation and Governance Role in Contemporary Urban Tree Monitoring: A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5589
Author(s):  
Blaz Klobucar ◽  
Johan Östberg ◽  
Märit Jansson ◽  
Thomas Barfoed Randrup

Urban trees provide important ecosystem services, across ownership and governance structures, and tree inventories are an important tool enabling urban foresters and green space managers to monitor and perform the sustainable management of urban trees. For optimal management of urban trees, a better understanding is needed concerning how urban tree inventories can provide long-term monitoring overviews across administrative borders, and how inventory protocols should be adapted to address specific practitioner issues. In this review, 98 articles on urban tree inventories were examined, the primary focus being sampling design. A governance arrangement approach was applied to identify the policy-making arrangements behind the inventories. Stratification is commonly used in the sampling design, despite being problematic for long-term representativeness. Only 10% of the stratification sampling designs identified were considered as having long-term validity. The studies frequently relied on an individual sampling design aimed at a particular issue, as opposed to using an existing longitudinal sampling network. Although private trees can constitute over 50% of the urban tree population, 41% of the studies reviewed did not include private trees at all. Urban tree inventories focused primarily on tree data on a local scale. Users or private tree owners are commonly not included in these studies, and limited attention is paid to economic, cultural or social factors. A long-term validation of sampling methods in urban areas, and a multi-lateral approach to tree inventories, are needed to maintain long-term operational value for local managers in securing ecosystem service provisions for entire urban forests.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 4889
Author(s):  
Luisa Velasquez-Camacho ◽  
Adrián Cardil ◽  
Midhun Mohan ◽  
Maddi Etxegarai ◽  
Gabriel Anzaldi ◽  
...  

Urban trees and forests provide multiple ecosystem services (ES), including temperature regulation, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. Interest in ES has increased amongst policymakers, scientists, and citizens given the extent and growth of urbanized areas globally. However, the methods and techniques used to properly assess biodiversity and ES provided by vegetation in urban environments, at large scales, are insufficient. Individual tree identification and characterization are some of the most critical issues used to evaluate urban biodiversity and ES, given the complex spatial distribution of vegetation in urban areas and the scarcity or complete lack of systematized urban tree inventories at large scales, e.g., at the regional or national levels. This often limits our knowledge on their contributions toward shaping biodiversity and ES in urban areas worldwide. This paper provides an analysis of the state-of-the-art studies and was carried out based on a systematic review of 48 scientific papers published during the last five years (2016–2020), related to urban tree and greenery characterization, remote sensing techniques for tree identification, processing methods, and data analysis to classify and segment trees. In particular, we focused on urban tree and forest characterization using remotely sensed data and identified frontiers in scientific knowledge that may be expanded with new developments in the near future. We found advantages and limitations associated with both data sources and processing methods, from which we drew recommendations for further development of tree inventory and characterization in urban forestry science. Finally, a critical discussion on the current state of the methods, as well as on the challenges and directions for future research, is presented.


Author(s):  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Yuting Zhang ◽  
Jian Wang ◽  
Qianbing Wan ◽  
Lei Li

This clinical report describes a combined lateral-crestal approach to elevate the sinus floor when placing implants on a wide maxillary posterior ridge. The buccally enlarged osteotomy broadens vision of practitioners and facilitates access of instruments in the sinus. Compared to the traditional lateral approach of sinus lift, the proposed technique may offer a more conservative treatment modality. And a clinical study with sufficient subjects and long term follow up is needed to validate the potential and limitations of the proposed technique.


1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (4I) ◽  
pp. 327-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Lipsey

I am honoured to be invited to give this lecture before so distinguished an audience of development economists. For the last 21/2 years I have been director of a project financed by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and composed of a group of scholars from Canada, the United States, and Israel.I Our brief is to study the determinants of long term economic growth. Although our primary focus is on advanced industrial countries such as my own, some of us have come to the conclusion that there is more common ground between developed and developing countries than we might have first thought. I am, however, no expert on development economics so I must let you decide how much of what I say is applicable to economies such as your own. Today, I will discuss some of the grand themes that have arisen in my studies with our group. In the short time available, I can only allude to how these themes are rooted in our more detailed studies. In doing this, I must hasten to add that I speak for myself alone; our group has no corporate view other than the sum of our individual, and very individualistic, views.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 420
Author(s):  
Benas Šilinskas ◽  
Aistė Povilaitienė ◽  
Gintautas Urbaitis ◽  
Marius Aleinikovas ◽  
Iveta Varnagirytė-Kabašinskienė

This study performed a pilot evaluation of the wood quality—defined by a single parameter: dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOEdyn, N mm−2)—of small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata Mill.) trees in urban areas. A search of the literature revealed few studies which examined the specifics of tree wood development in urban areas. Little is known about the potential of wood from urban trees wood of their suitability for the timber industry. In this study, an acoustic velocity measuring system was used for wood quality assessment of small-leaved lime trees. The MOEdyn parameter was evaluated for small-leaved lime trees growing in two urban locations (along the streets, and in an urban park), with an additional sample of forest sites taken as the control. MOEdyn was also assessed for small-leaved lime trees visually assigned to different health classes. The obtained mean values of MOEdyn of 90–120-year old small-leaved lime trees in urban areas ranged between 2492.2 and 2715.8 N mm−2. For younger trees, the values of MOEdyn were lower in the urban areas than in the forest site. Otherwise, the results of the study showed that the small-leaved lime wood samples were of relatively good quality, even if the tree was classified as moderately damaged (which could cause a potential risk to the community). Two alternatives for urban tree management can be envisaged: (1) old trees could be left to grow to maintain the sustainability of an urban area until their natural death, or (2) the wood from selected moderately damaged trees could be used to create wood products, ensuring long-term carbon retention.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Lisdelys González-Rodríguez ◽  
Amauri Pereira de Oliveira ◽  
Lien Rodríguez-López ◽  
Jorge Rosas ◽  
David Contreras ◽  
...  

Ultraviolet radiation is a highly energetic component of the solar spectrum that needs to be monitored because is harmful to life on Earth, especially in areas where the ozone layer has been depleted, like Chile. This work is the first to address the long-term (five-year) behaviour of ultraviolet erythemal radiation (UVER) in Santiago, Chile (33.5° S, 70.7° W, 500 m) using in situ measurements and empirical modelling. Observations indicate that to alert the people on the risks of UVER overexposure, it is necessary to use, in addition to the currently available UV index (UVI), three more erythema indices: standard erythemal doses (SEDs), minimum erythemal doses (MEDs), and sun exposure time (tery). The combination of UVI, SEDs, MEDs, and tery shows that in Santiago, individuals with skin types III and IV are exposed to harmfully high UVER doses for 46% of the time that UVI indicates is safe. Empirical models predicted hourly and daily values UVER in Santiago with great accuracy and can be applied to other Chilean urban areas with similar climate. This research inspires future advances in reconstructing large datasets to analyse the UVER in Central Chile, its trends, and its changes.


Trees ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Pretzsch ◽  
A. Moser-Reischl ◽  
M. A. Rahman ◽  
S. Pauleit ◽  
T. Rötzer

Abstract Key message A model for sustainable planning of urban tree stocks is proposed, incorporating growth, mortality, replacement rates and ecosystem service provision, providing a basis for planning of urban tree stocks. Abstract Many recent studies have improved the knowledge about urban trees, their structures, functions, and ecosystem services. We introduce a concept and model for the sustainable management of urban trees, analogous to the concept of sustainable forestry developed by Carl von Carlowitz and others. The main drivers of the model are species-specific tree diameter growth functions and mortality rates. Based on the initial tree stock and options for the annual replanting, the shift of the distribution of the number of trees per age class can be predicted with progressing time. Structural characteristics such as biomass and leaf area are derived from tree dimensions that can be related to functions such as carbon sequestration or cooling. To demonstrate the potential of the dynamic model, we first show how different initial stocks of trees can be quantitatively assessed by sustainability indicators compared to a target stock. Second, we derive proxy variables for ecosystem services (e.g. biomass for carbon sequestration, leaf area for deposition and shading) from a given distribution of the number of trees per age class. Third, we show by scenario analyses how selected ecosystem services and functions may be improved by combining complementary tree species. We exercise one aspect (cooling) of one ecosystem service (temperature mitigation) as an example. The approach integrates mosaic pieces of knowledge about urban trees, their structures, functions, and resulting ecosystem services. The presented model makes this knowledge available for a sustainable management of urban tree stocks. We discuss the potential and relevance of the developed concept and model for ecologically and economically sustainable planning and management, in view of progressing urbanization and environmental changes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 084596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongchang Sun ◽  
Xinwu Li ◽  
Wenxue Fu ◽  
Yingkui Li ◽  
Dongsheng Tang

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul H. Gobster

What does ecological restoration mean in an urban context? More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and in response to the dynamic patterns of urbanization, a growing number of ecologists, land managers, and volunteers are focusing their efforts in and around cities to restore remnants of natural diversity (Ingram 2008). Ecological restoration is still a quite youthful field, yet many scientists and practitioners hold a relatively fixed set of criteria for what defines a successful restoration project, irrespective of where sites are located. Among the criteria commonly stated, sites should be composed of indigenous species, have a structure and diversity characteristic of currently undisturbed or historically documented “reference” sites, and be maintained through ecological processes such as fire that ensure long-term sustainability with minimal human assistance (Ruiz-Jaén and Aide 2005; SER International 2004). Application of these criteria has led to many ecologically successful restorations, but some ecologists in the field have begun to question whether the same standards can be realistically applied to sites such as those within urban areas that have been radically altered by past human activity (e.g., Martínez and López-Barerra 2008) or are being influenced by novel conditions that result in unpredictable trajectories (Choi 2007). Perhaps more significantly, it is becoming increasingly recognized that the broader viability of restoration projects, especially those in urban areas, hinges on how socially successful they are in gaining public acceptance for restoration activities and practices, building constituencies to assist with implementation and maintenance, and addressing a broader set of sustainability goals that reach beyond the protection of native biodiversity (e.g., Choi et al. 2008; Hobbs 2007; Rosenzweig 2003).


2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manasi Kumar ◽  
Erica Burman

We welcome readers to the first special issue (11.1) of the Journal of Health Management. We hope the readers find the articles and various reviews enriching and provocative, both in terms of the range of ideas and critical approaches addressed. The key theme of this double issue concerns the political limits of mega-development projects such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The primary focus of the articles collected here is to provide an insightful, constructive and in-depth critique of the United Nations (UN) MDGs along with critical deliberations on their short- and long-term implications not only for health management but also for a wide range of issues around development and social change.


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