Quality of urban forest carbon credits

Science.gov (United States)

Neelam C. Poudyala; Jacek P. Siry; J.M. Bowker

2011-01-01

While the urban forest is considered an eligible source of carbon offset credits, little is known about its market potential and the quality aspects of the credits. As credit suppliers increase in number and credit buyers become more interested in purchasing carbon credits, it is unclear whether and how urban forest carbon credits can perform relative to the other...

Reverting urban exotic pine forests to Macchia and indigenous ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Reverting urban exotic pine forests to Macchia and indigenous forest ... Harvesting operations were planned to make the transition from high open ... Key words: Strip-cutting, Cable yarding, Participatory planning, Shelterwood, Urban forests ...

Using urban forest assessment tools to model bird habitat potential

Science.gov (United States)

Susannah B. Lerman; Keith H. Nislow; David J. Nowak; Stephen DeStefano; David I. King; D. Todd. Jones-Farrand

2014-01-01

The alteration of forest cover and the replacement of native vegetation with buildings, roads, exotic vegetation, and other urban features pose one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. As more land becomes slated for urban development, identifying effective urban forest wildlife management tools becomes paramount to ensure the urban forest provides habitat...

Forecasting Urban Forest Ecosystem Structure, Function, and Vulnerability

Science.gov (United States)

James W. N. Steenberg; Andrew A. Millward; David J. Nowak; Pamela J. Robinson; Alexis Ellis

2016-01-01

The benefits derived from urban forest ecosystems are garnering increasing attention in ecological research and municipal planning. However, because of their location in heterogeneous and highly-altered urban landscapes, urban forests are vulnerable and commonly suffer disproportionate and varying levels of stress and disturbance. The objective of this study is to...

Using urban forest assessment tools to model bird habitat potential

Science.gov (United States)

Lerman, Susannah B.; Nislow, Keith H.; Nowak, David J.; DeStefano, Stephen; King, David I.; Jones-Farrand, D. Todd

2014-01-01

The alteration of forest cover and the replacement of native vegetation with buildings, roads, exotic vegetation, and other urban features pose one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. As more land becomes slated for urban development, identifying effective urban forest wildlife management tools becomes paramount to ensure the urban forest provides habitat to sustain bird and other wildlife populations. The primary goal of this study was to integrate wildlife suitability indices to an existing national urban forest assessment tool, i-Tree. We quantified available habitat characteristics of urban forests for ten northeastern U.S. cities, and summarized bird habitat relationships from the literature in terms of variables that were represented in the i-Tree datasets. With these data, we generated habitat suitability equations for nine bird species representing a range of life history traits and conservation status that predicts the habitat suitability based on i-Tree data. We applied these equations to the urban forest datasets to calculate the overall habitat suitability for each city and the habitat suitability for different types of land-use (e.g., residential, commercial, parkland) for each bird species. The proposed habitat models will help guide wildlife managers, urban planners, and landscape designers who require specific information such as desirable habitat conditions within an urban management project to help improve the suitability of urban forests for birds.

The role of urban forest to reduce rain acid in urban industrial areas

Science.gov (United States)

Slamet, B.; Agustiarni, Y.; Hidayati; Basyuni, M.

2018-03-01

Urban forest has many functions mainly on improving the quality of the urban environment. One of the functions is to increase pH and reduce dangerous chemical content. The aim of the research is to find out the role of vegetation density of urban forest around the industrial area in reducing the acid rain. The condition of land cover was classified into four classes which are dense, medium, sparse and open area. The water of the throughfall and stemflow was taken from each type of land cover except in the open area. Parameters measured in this study are water acidity (pH), anion content (SO4 2- and NO3 -), cation content (Ca2+, Mg2+, and NH4 +) and electrical conductivity (EC). The results indicated that urban forest vegetation was able to increase the pH of rain water from 5.42 which is in an open area without vegetation to be 7.13 and 7.32 in dense and moderate vegetation cover by throughfall mechanism, respectively. Rain water acidity also decreased through stemflow mechanism with a pH ranged from 5.92 - 6.43. Urban forest vegetation decreased sulfate content (SO42-) from 528.67 mg/l in open area to 44 - 118 mg/l by throughfall mechanism and ranged from 90 to 366.67 mg/l through stemflow mechanism. Urban forest vegetation significantly decreased the rainwater nitrate content from 27 mg/l to 0.03 - 0.70 mg/l through the mechanism of throughfall and between 1.53 - 8.82 mg/l through the stemflow mechanism. Urban forest vegetation also increased the concentration of cations (NH4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+) compared with open areas. Urban forest vegetation showed increased the electrical conductivity (EC) from 208.12 μmhos/cm to 344.67 - 902.17 μmhos/cm through the through fall mechanism and 937.67 - 1058.70 μmhos/cm through the stemflow mechanism. The study suggested that urban forests play a significant role in reducing rainwater acidity and improving the quality of rainwater that reached the soil surface.

Urban Forest Health Monitoring in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

David J. Nowak; Daniel Twardus; Robert Hoehn; Manfred Mielke; Jeffery T. Walton; Daniel E. Crane; Anne Cumming; Jack C. Stevens

2006-01-01

To better understand the urban forest resource and its numerous values, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service has initiated a pilot program to sample the urban tree population in Indiana, Wisconsin, and New Jersey and statewide urban street tree populations in Maryland, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts. Results from the pilot study in Indiana revealed that...

A framework for adapting urban forests to climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Leslie Brandt; Abigail Derby Lewis; Robert Fahey; Lydia Scott; Lindsay Darling; Chris Swanston

2016-01-01

Planting urban trees and expanding urban forest canopy cover are often considered key strategies for reducing climate change impacts in urban areas. However, urban trees and forests can also be vulnerable to climate change through shifts in tree habitat suitability, changes in pests and diseases, and changes in extreme weather events. We developed a three-step...

Designing a Master's Program in Corporate Communication at an Urban University: A Case Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Margaret Jones

To assess how an urban university can take advantage of its setting to design a master's program in corporate communication, a 1987 study of the master's program in corporate communication at Duquesne University of Pittsburgh was conducted. Data were obtained through a survey of 590 local communication professionals, of whom 270 responded (a…

Assessing urban forest effects and values: Toronto's urban forest

Science.gov (United States)

David J. Nowak; Robert E. III Hoehn; Allison R. Bodine; Eric J. Greenfield; Alexis Ellis; Theodore A. Endreny; Yang Yang; Tian Zhou; Ruthanne. Henry

2013-01-01

An analysis of trees in Toronto, Ontario, reveals that this city has about 10.2 million trees with a tree and shrub canopy that covers approximately 26.6 percent of the city. The most common tree species are eastern white-cedar, sugar maple, and Norway maple. The urban forest currently stores an estimated 1.1 million metric tons of carbon valued at CAD$25.0 million. In...

Spatial heterogeneity and air pollution removal by an urban forest

Science.gov (United States)

Francisco J. Escobedo; David J. Nowak

2009-01-01

Estimates of air pollution removal by the urban forest have mostly been based on mean values of forest structure variables for an entire city. However, the urban forest is not uniformly distributed across a city because of biophysical and social factors. Consequently, air pollution removal function by urban vegetation should vary because of this spatial heterogeneity....

Temporal scaling behavior of forest and urban fires

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, J.; Song, W.; Zheng, H.; Telesca, L.

2009-04-01

It has been found that many natural systems are characterized by scaling behavior. In such systems natural factors dominate the event dynamics. Forest fires in different countries have been found to exhibit frequency-size power law over many orders of magnitude and with similar value of parameters. But in countries with high population density such as China and Japan, more than 95% of the forest fire disasters are caused by human activities. Furthermore, with the development of society, the wildland-urban interface (WUI) area is becoming more and more populated, and the forest fire is much connected with urban fire. Therefore exploring the scaling behavior of fires dominated by human-related factors is very challenging. The present paper explores the temporal scaling behavior of forest fires and urban fires in Japan with mathematical methods. Two factors, Allan factor (AF) and Fano factor (FF) are used to investigate time-scaling of fire systems. It is found that the FF for both forest fires and urban fires increases linearly in log-log scales, and this indicates that it behaves as a power-law for all the investigated timescales. From the AF plot a 7 days cycle is found, which indicates a weekly cycle. This may be caused by human activities which has a weekly periodicity because on weekends people usually have more outdoor activities, which may cause more hidden trouble of fire disasters. Our findings point out that although the human factors are the main cause, both the forest fires and urban fires exhibit time-scaling behavior. At the same time, the scaling exponents for urban fires are larger than forest fires, signifying a more intense clustering. The reason may be that fires are affected not only by weather condition, but also by human activities, which play a more important role for urban fires than forest fires and have a power law distribution and scaling behavior. Then some work is done to the relative humidity. Similar distribution law characterizes the

Geospatial methods provide timely and comprehensive urban forest information

Science.gov (United States)

Kathleen T. Ward; Gary R. Johnson

2007-01-01

Urban forests are unique and highly valued resources. However, trees in urban forests are often under greater stress than those in rural or undeveloped areas due to soil compaction, restricted growing spaces, high temperatures, and exposure to air and water pollution. In addition, conditions change more quickly in urban as opposed to rural and undeveloped settings....

Science in the city: Urban trees, forests, and people

Science.gov (United States)

Kathleen L. Wolf

2016-01-01

The article, intended for professional and manager audiences, is an overview of current research in urban forestry. Topics include tree science, forest risks, forest management and assessment, ecosystem services, and urban socio-ecological systems (including governance and stewardship).

Urbanization impacts on mammals across urban-forest edges and a predictive model of edge effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Villaseñor, Nélida R; Driscoll, Don A; Escobar, Martín A H; Gibbons, Philip; Lindenmayer, David B

2014-01-01

With accelerating rates of urbanization worldwide, a better understanding of ecological processes at the wildland-urban interface is critical to conserve biodiversity. We explored the effects of high and low-density housing developments on forest-dwelling mammals. Based on habitat characteristics, we expected a gradual decline in species abundance across forest-urban edges and an increased decline rate in higher contrast edges. We surveyed arboreal mammals in sites of high and low housing density along 600 m transects that spanned urban areas and areas turn on adjacent native forest. We also surveyed forest controls to test whether edge effects extended beyond our edge transects. We fitted models describing richness, total abundance and individual species abundance. Low-density housing developments provided suitable habitat for most arboreal mammals. In contrast, high-density housing developments had lower species richness, total abundance and individual species abundance, but supported the highest abundances of an urban adapter (Trichosurus vulpecula). We did not find the predicted gradual decline in species abundance. Of four species analysed, three exhibited no response to the proximity of urban boundaries, but spilled over into adjacent urban habitat to differing extents. One species (Petaurus australis) had an extended negative response to urban boundaries, suggesting that urban development has impacts beyond 300 m into adjacent forest. Our empirical work demonstrates that high-density housing developments have negative effects on both community and species level responses, except for one urban adapter. We developed a new predictive model of edge effects based on our results and the literature. To predict animal responses across edges, our framework integrates for first time: (1) habitat quality/preference, (2) species response with the proximity to the adjacent habitat, and (3) spillover extent/sensitivity to adjacent habitat boundaries. This framework will

Perception of the Local Population toward Urban Forests in Municipality of Aerodrom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aneta Blazevska

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Background and Purpose: With the development of both society and economy, environmental issues have become a more popular topic. In recent decades both the role and perception of urban forests have changed regarding recreational and environmental aspects on both a local and global level. This coupled with urbanization places great importance on how people see and value the forests in an urban and peri-urban setting. Visitors are not a homogeneous category and hence have different needs and perceptions of urban and peri-urban green spaces. The study aims to understand the visitors` perception from municipality Aerodrom towards urban forests and their recreational use, benefits, preferences and perception regarding management activities of urban forests. Material and Methods: The method used for the research is qualitative with semi-structured questionnaire which was conducted face to face. Gathered data were analyzed by Excel and after that were presented in tables and graphs for better review of the results. The study area was municipality of Aerodrom which has the biggest space under urban forests per capita in Skopje. Results and Conclusion: Results have shown that all respondents have permanent residence in the municipality of Aerodrom, located in different settlements and with the length of stay mainly between 5 to 40 years. There is a dominance of female population and respondent’s age over 40 in the research. Results also showed that the average number of visit in urban forests by respondents during the week is three times. Regarding the meaning and association of term urban forests, results showed that majority of respondents have a clear and concise perception, and mainly this term for them is association on park and greenery, a nice decorated environment and place for walk. When it comes to the way how current situation with urban forest can be improved almost all of the respondents highlighted it can be through the following things

Remote sensing assessment of carbon storage by urban forest

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kanniah, K D; Kang, C S; Muhamad, N

2014-01-01

Urban forests play a crucial role in mitigating global warming by absorbing excessive CO 2 emissions due to transportation, industry and house hold activities in the urban environment. In this study we have assessed the role of trees in an urban forest, (Mutiara Rini) located within the Iskandar Development region in south Johor, Malaysia. We first estimated the above ground biomass/carbon stock of the trees using allometric equations and biometric data (diameter at breast height of trees) collected in the field. We used remotely sensed vegetation indices (VI) to develop an empirical relationship between VI and carbon stock. We used five different VIs derived from a very high resolution World View-2 satellite data. Results show that model by [1] and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index are correlated well (R 2 = 0.72) via a power model. We applied the model to the entire study area to obtain carbon stock of urban forest. The average carbon stock in the urban forest (mostly consisting of Dipterocarp species) is ∼70 t C ha −1 . Results of this study can be used by the Iskandar Regional Development Authority to better manage vegetation in the urban environment to establish a low carbon city in this region

Uncertainties in mapping forest carbon in urban ecosystems.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Gang; Ozelkan, Emre; Singh, Kunwar K; Zhou, Jun; Brown, Marilyn R; Meentemeyer, Ross K

2017-02-01

Spatially explicit urban forest carbon estimation provides a baseline map for understanding the variation in forest vertical structure, informing sustainable forest management and urban planning. While high-resolution remote sensing has proven promising for carbon mapping in highly fragmented urban landscapes, data cost and availability are the major obstacle prohibiting accurate, consistent, and repeated measurement of forest carbon pools in cities. This study aims to evaluate the uncertainties of forest carbon estimation in response to the combined impacts of remote sensing data resolution and neighborhood spatial patterns in Charlotte, North Carolina. The remote sensing data for carbon mapping were resampled to a range of resolutions, i.e., LiDAR point cloud density - 5.8, 4.6, 2.3, and 1.2 pt s/m 2 , aerial optical NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) imagery - 1, 5, 10, and 20 m. Urban spatial patterns were extracted to represent area, shape complexity, dispersion/interspersion, diversity, and connectivity of landscape patches across the residential neighborhoods with built-up densities from low, medium-low, medium-high, to high. Through statistical analyses, we found that changing remote sensing data resolution introduced noticeable uncertainties (variation) in forest carbon estimation at the neighborhood level. Higher uncertainties were caused by the change of LiDAR point density (causing 8.7-11.0% of variation) than changing NAIP image resolution (causing 6.2-8.6% of variation). For both LiDAR and NAIP, urban neighborhoods with a higher degree of anthropogenic disturbance unveiled a higher level of uncertainty in carbon mapping. However, LiDAR-based results were more likely to be affected by landscape patch connectivity, and the NAIP-based estimation was found to be significantly influenced by the complexity of patch shape. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The world’s urban forests history, composition, design, function and management

CERN Document Server

McBride, Joe R

2017-01-01

The purpose of this book is to examine urban forests in cities around the world. It will ask questions about the history, composition, structure, and management of trees in urban areas. Data for this book was collected in 33 cities across broad geographical areas known as biomes. Constraints and opportunities imposed on urban forest composition, design, and management by the ecological characteristics of these biomes will be examined. The book will also address the cultural and historical factors that influenced the characteristics of urban forests around the world.

Whose urban forest? The political ecology of foraging urban nontimber forest products

Science.gov (United States)

Patrick T. Hurley; Marla R. Emery; Rebecca McLain; Melissa Poe; Brian Grabbatin; Cari L. Goetcheus

2015-01-01

Drawing on case studies of foraging in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, we point to foraging landscapes and practices within diverse urban forest spaces. We examine these spaces in relation to U.S. conservation and development processes and the effects of management and governance on species valued by foragers. These case studies reveal the...

Urbanization Impacts on Mammals across Urban-Forest Edges and a Predictive Model of Edge Effects

OpenAIRE

Villaseñor, Nélida R.; Driscoll, Don A.; Escobar, Martín A. H.; Gibbons, Philip; Lindenmayer, David B.

2014-01-01

With accelerating rates of urbanization worldwide, a better understanding of ecological processes at the wildland-urban interface is critical to conserve biodiversity. We explored the effects of high and low-density housing developments on forest-dwelling mammals. Based on habitat characteristics, we expected a gradual decline in species abundance across forest-urban edges and an increased decline rate in higher contrast edges. We surveyed arboreal mammals in sites of high and low housing den...

Urban forests and social inequality in the Pacific Northwest

Science.gov (United States)

John R. Mills; Pat Cunningham; Geoffrey H. Donovan

2016-01-01

Research has shown there is a positive relationship between urban greenness and the well-being of cityresidents. But greenness is often unevenly distributed across a city, raising environmental justice issues.In 2011 and 2012 the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program installed ground plotsin the urbanized areas of Oregon and Washington. We analyze...

Urbanization impacts on mammals across urban-forest edges and a predictive model of edge effects.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nélida R Villaseñor

Full Text Available With accelerating rates of urbanization worldwide, a better understanding of ecological processes at the wildland-urban interface is critical to conserve biodiversity. We explored the effects of high and low-density housing developments on forest-dwelling mammals. Based on habitat characteristics, we expected a gradual decline in species abundance across forest-urban edges and an increased decline rate in higher contrast edges. We surveyed arboreal mammals in sites of high and low housing density along 600 m transects that spanned urban areas and areas turn on adjacent native forest. We also surveyed forest controls to test whether edge effects extended beyond our edge transects. We fitted models describing richness, total abundance and individual species abundance. Low-density housing developments provided suitable habitat for most arboreal mammals. In contrast, high-density housing developments had lower species richness, total abundance and individual species abundance, but supported the highest abundances of an urban adapter (Trichosurus vulpecula. We did not find the predicted gradual decline in species abundance. Of four species analysed, three exhibited no response to the proximity of urban boundaries, but spilled over into adjacent urban habitat to differing extents. One species (Petaurus australis had an extended negative response to urban boundaries, suggesting that urban development has impacts beyond 300 m into adjacent forest. Our empirical work demonstrates that high-density housing developments have negative effects on both community and species level responses, except for one urban adapter. We developed a new predictive model of edge effects based on our results and the literature. To predict animal responses across edges, our framework integrates for first time: (1 habitat quality/preference, (2 species response with the proximity to the adjacent habitat, and (3 spillover extent/sensitivity to adjacent habitat boundaries. This

The Cultural Ecology Protection and Management of Urban Forests in China

OpenAIRE

ZHANG, Ying; SONG, Weiming; CHEN, Ke; GUO, Chunjing

2013-01-01

Forests have economic, ecological, social and cultural functions. Forests Cultural ecology, the counterpart of forest ecology， is the integration of human spirit formed on the basis of natural forest and living systems. In recent years, China's urbanization rate has increased from 28% in 1993 to 45.68% in 2008, and ecological protection of urban forest has made great progress, but insufficient attention was paid to the forest cultural ecology protection and the relevant regulatory was not w...

Social and Policy Aspects of Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Forests of Belgrade

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana Živojinović

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background and Purpose: Climate change has an impact on economic and natural systems as well as human health. These impacts are particularly visible in urbanised areas. Urban forests, which are one of the main natural features of the cities, are threatened by climate change. Generally, the role of forests in combating climate change is widely recognised and its significance is recognised also in urban areas. However, appropriate responses to climate change are usually lacking in their management. Climate change adaptation in relation to urban forests has been studied less often in comparison to climate change mitigation. Adaptive capacity of forests to climate change consists of adaptive capacity of forests as an ecological system and adaptive capacity of related socio-economic factors. The latter determines the capacity of a system and its actors to implement planned actions. This paper studies social and policy aspects of adaptation processes in urban forests of Belgrade. Materials and Methods: For the purpose of this study content analysis of urban forest policy and management documents was applied. Furthermore, in-depth interviews with urban forest managers and Q-methodology surveys with urban forestry stakeholders were conducted. Triangulation of these data is used to assure validity of results. Results: The results show weak integration of climate change issues in urban forest policy and management documents, as well as weak responses by managers. A comprehensive and systematic approach to this challenge does not exist. Three perspectives towards climate change are distinguished: (I ‘sceptics’ - do not perceive climate change as a challenge, (II ‘general-awareness perspective’ - aware of climate change issues but without concrete concerns toward urban forests, (III ‘management-oriented perspective’ - highlights specific challenges related to urban forest management. Awareness of urban forest managers and stakeholders towards

ANALYSIS OF URBAN FOREST CARBON SEQUESTRATION CAPACITY: A CASE STUDY OF ZENGDU, SUIZHOU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Yu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Carbon-fixing and oxygen-releasing is an important content of forest ecosystem serving in city. Analysis of forest ecosystem carbon sequestration capacity can provide scientific reference for urban forest management strategies. Taking Zengdu of Suizhou as an example, CITYGREEN model was applied to calculate the carbon sequestration benefits of urban forest ecosystem in this paper. And the carbon sequestration potential of urban forest ecosystem following the returning of farmland to forest land is also evaluated. The results show that forest area, percent tree cover, and the structure of forest land were the major factors reflecting regional carbon sequestration capacity.

Urban Forest Revolution

Science.gov (United States)

Kucherova, Anastasia; Narvaez, Hana

2018-03-01

The tendency of the last 100 years shows the radical change of the proportion between urbanized areas and those dedicated to wild nature and agriculture. Whether we agree with it or not, cities are our future. Also it is confirmed by the annual reports of UNEP that cities are responsible for 75% of CO2 emissions. Among negative consequences of the uncontrolled urban sprawl on the ecology there are: greenhouse effect leading to global warming; increasingly growing number of people affected by respiratory diseases due to the smog; drastic reduction of the biodiversity. The environmental impact and the look of the city of the future is in the hands of the architects of today. At Stefano Boeri Architetti we are exploring one of the possible way of reducing the buildings' ecological footprint and improving the quality of air in cities. It is called "Vertical Foresting", an evolution of the revolutionary idea of bringing the trees to the sky, far beyond its first realization - it became a philosophy, a new lifestyle. But first of all, Vertical Forest is a big question mark, addressed to the global community, to the politicians and common people, asking each and every one living in our planet - what can you do for our common home?

The effects of habitat edges and trampling intensity on vegetation in urban forests

OpenAIRE

Hamberg, Leena

2009-01-01

Although changes in urban forest vegetation have been documented in previous Finnish studies, the reasons for these changes have not been studied explicitly. Especially, the consequences of forest fragmentation, i.e. the fact that forest edges receive more solar radiation, wind and air-borne nutrients than interiors have been ignored. In order to limit the change in urban forest vegetation we need to know why it occurs. Therefore, the effects of edges and recreational use of urban forests on ...

Identifying forest lands in urban areas in the Central Hardwood Region

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas W. Birch; Rachel Riemann Hershey; Philip Kern

1997-01-01

Forests in urban areas are an important component of urban and suburban environments. They provide places for recreation and environmental education, wildlife habitat for species adapted to living near humans, contribute to general human physical and psychological health. Knowing how much and what type of forest exists in urban areas provides critical baseline data for...

Chicago's urban forest ecosystem: results of the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project

Science.gov (United States)

Gregory E. McPherson; David J. Nowak; Rowan A. Rowntree

1994-01-01

Results of the 3-year Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project indicate that there are an estimated 50.8 million trees in the Chicago area of Cook and DuPage Counties; 66 percent of these trees rated in good or excellent condition. During 1991, trees in the Chicago area removed an estimated 6,145 tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing valued at $9.2 million...

Temporal dynamics of a subtropical urban forest in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2001-2010

Science.gov (United States)

J. M. Tucker Lima; C. L. Staudhammer; T. J. Brandeis; F. J. Escobedo; W. Zipperer

2013-01-01

Several studies report urban tree growth and mortality rates as well as species composition, structural dynamics, and other characteristics of urban forests in mostly temperate, inland urban areas. Temporal dynamics of urban forests in subtropical and tropical forest regions are, until now, little explored and represent a new and important direction for study and...

Resilient landscapes in Mediterranean urban areas: Understanding factors influencing forest trends.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomao, Antonio; Quatrini, Valerio; Corona, Piermaria; Ferrara, Agostino; Lafortezza, Raffaele; Salvati, Luca

2017-07-01

Urban and peri-urban forests are recognized as basic elements for Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), as they preserve and may increase environmental quality in urbanized contexts. For this reason, the amount of forest land per inhabitant is a pivotal efficiency indicator to be considered in the sustainable governance, land management, planning and design of metropolitan areas. The present study illustrates a multivariate analysis of per-capita forest area (PFA) in mainland Attica, the urban region surrounding Athens, Greece. Attica is considered a typical case of Mediterranean urbanization where planning has not regulated urban expansion and successive waves of spontaneous growth have occurred over time. In such a context, an analysis of factors that can affect landscape changes in terms of PFA may inform effective strategies for the sustainable management of socio-ecological local systems in light of the NBS perspective. A total of 26 indicators were collected per decade at the municipal scale in the study area with the aim to identify the factors most closely associated to the amount of PFA. Indicators of urban morphology and functions have been considered together with environmental and topographical variables. In Attica, PFA showed a progressive decrease between 1960 and 2010. In particular, PFA progressively declined (1980, 1990) along fringe areas surrounding Athens and in peri-urban districts experiencing dispersed expansion of residential settlements. Distance from core cities and from the seacoast, typical urban functions (e.g., multiple use of buildings and per capita built-up area) and percentage of agricultural land-use in each municipality are the variables most associated with high PFA. In recent years, some municipalities have shown an expansion of forest cover, mainly due to land abandonment and forest recolonization. Findings from this case study have allowed us to identify priorities for NBS at metropolitan level aimed at promoting more sustainable

Valuing Urban Forests: The Application of Contingent Valuation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Choice-Academy

1988-01-01

Jan 1, 1988 ... to elicit willingness to pay (WTP) values from the respondents as a measure of value for the conservation of forest trees ... gap often predisposed urban forests and green spaces to .... income, education gender and length of.

Ecological Structure of a Tropical Urban Forest in the Bang Kachao Peninsula, Bangkok

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Montathip Sommeechai

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Rapid urbanization has changed the structure and function of natural ecosystems, especially floodplain ecosystems in SE Asia. The ecological structure of vegetation stands and the usefulness of satellite images was investigated to characterize a disturbed tropical urban forest located in the Chao Phraya River lower floodplain, Thailand. Nine sample plots were established on the Bang Kachao Peninsula (BKP within 4 tropical forest types in an urban area: rehabilitation forest, home-garden agroforestry, mangrove and park. The tree habitats were beach forest, swamp forest, moist evergreen forest, dry evergreen forest, mangrove forest and abandoned orchard or home-garden. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI values obtained from Landsat 7 satellite images were correlated with plant structure from field surveys. NDVI had the highest relationship with stand factors for number of families, number of species, Shannon-Weiner index and total basal area. Linear regression predicted well the correlation between NDVI and stand factors for families and basal area. NDVI trends reflected urban tropical forest typing and biodiversity, being high in rehabilitation and mangrove forests, moderate in home-gardens and low in parks. We suggest that the application of NDVI for assessments can be useful for future planning, monitoring and management of the BKP and hence may contribute for increasing biodiversity and complexity of these urban forests.

Challenges for tree officers to enhance the provision of regulating ecosystem services from urban forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, Helen J; Doick, Kieron J; Hudson, Malcolm D; Schreckenberg, Kate

2017-07-01

Urbanisation and a changing climate are leading to more frequent and severe flood, heat and air pollution episodes in Britain's cities. Interest in nature-based solutions to these urban problems is growing, with urban forests potentially able to provide a range of regulating ecosystem services such as stormwater attenuation, heat amelioration and air purification. The extent to which these benefits are realized is largely dependent on urban forest management objectives, the availability of funding, and the understanding of ecosystem service concepts within local governments, the primary delivery agents of urban forests. This study aims to establish the extent to which British local authorities actively manage their urban forests for regulating ecosystem services, and identify which resources local authorities most need in order to enhance provision of ecosystem services by Britain's urban forests. Interviews were carried out with staff responsible for tree management decisions in fifteen major local authorities from across Britain, selected on the basis of their urban nature and high population density. Local authorities have a reactive approach to urban forest management, driven by human health and safety concerns and complaints about tree disservices. There is relatively little focus on ensuring provision of regulating ecosystem services, despite awareness by tree officers of the key role that urban forests can play in alleviating chronic air pollution, flood risk and urban heat anomalies. However, this is expected to become a greater focus in future provided that existing constraints - lack of understanding of ecosystem services amongst key stakeholders, limited political support, funding constraints - can be overcome. Our findings suggest that the adoption of a proactive urban forest strategy, underpinned by quantified and valued urban forest-based ecosystem services provision data, and innovative private sector funding mechanisms, can facilitate a change to a

Producing edible landscapes in Seattle's urban forest

Science.gov (United States)

Rebecca McLain; Melissa Poe; Patrick T. Hurley; Joyce Lecompte-Mastenbrook; Marla R. Emery

2012-01-01

Over the next decades, green infrastructure initiatives such as tree planting campaigns, and ecological restoration will dramatically change the species composition, species distribution and structure of urban forests across the United States. These impending changes are accompanied by a demand for urban public spaces where people can engage in practices such as...

[Selection of distance thresholds of urban forest landscape connectivity in Shenyang City].

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chang-fu; Zhou, Bin; He, Xing-yuan; Chen, Wei

2010-10-01

By using the QuickBird remote sensing image interpretation data of urban forests in Shenyang City in 2006, and with the help of geographical information system, this paper analyzed the landscape patches of the urban forests in the area inside the third ring-road of Shenyang. Based on the habitat availability and the dispersal potential of animal and plant species, 8 distance thresholds (50, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1200 m) were selected to compute the integral index of connectivity, probability of connectivity, and important value of the landscape patches, and the computed values were used for analyzing and screening the distance thresholds of urban forest landscape connectivity in the City. The results showed that the appropriate distance thresholds of the urban forest landscape connectivity in Shenyang City in 2006 ranged from 100 to 400 m, with 200 m being most appropriate. It was suggested that the distance thresholds should be increased or decreased according to the performability of urban forest landscape connectivity and the different demands for landscape levels.

Mapping forest structure, species gradients and growth in an urban area using lidar and hyperspectral imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Huan

Urban forests play an important role in the urban ecosystem by providing a range of ecosystem services. Characterization of forest structure, species variation and growth in urban forests is critical for understanding the status, function and process of urban ecosystems, and helping maximize the benefits of urban ecosystems through management. The development of methods and applications to quantify urban forests using remote sensing data has lagged the study of natural forests due to the heterogeneity and complexity of urban ecosystems. In this dissertation, I quantify and map forest structure, species gradients and forest growth in an urban area using discrete-return lidar, airborne imaging spectroscopy and thermal infrared data. Specific objectives are: (1) to demonstrate the utility of leaf-off lidar originally collected for topographic mapping to characterize and map forest structure and associated uncertainties, including aboveground biomass, basal area, diameter, height and crown size; (2) to map species gradients using forest structural variables estimated from lidar and foliar functional traits, vegetation indices derived from AVIRIS hyperspectral imagery in conjunction with field-measured species data; and (3) to identify factors related to relative growth rates in aboveground biomass in the urban forests, and assess forest growth patterns across areas with varying degree of human interactions. The findings from this dissertation are: (1) leaf-off lidar originally acquired for topographic mapping provides a robust, potentially low-cost approach to quantify spatial patterns of forest structure and carbon stock in urban areas; (2) foliar functional traits and vegetation indices from hyperspectral data capture gradients of species distributions in the heterogeneous urban landscape; (3) species gradients, stand structure, foliar functional traits and temperature are strongly related to forest growth in the urban forests; and (4) high uncertainties in our

Austin's Urban Forest, 2014

Science.gov (United States)

David J. Nowak; Allison R. Bodine; Robert E. Hoehn; Christopher B. Edgar; Dudley R. Hartel; Tonya W. Lister; Thomas J. Brandeis

2016-01-01

An analysis of the urban forest in Austin, Texas, reveals that this area has an estimated 33.8 million trees with tree canopy that covers 30.8 percent of the city. The most common tree species are Ashe juniper, cedar elm, live oak, sugarberry, and Texas persimmon. Trees in Austin currently store about 1.9 million tons of carbon (7.0 million tons of carbon dioxide [CO...

Impacts and adaptation for climate change in urban forests

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnston, M. [Saskatchewan Research Council, Saskatoon, SK (Canada)

2006-07-01

Changes to urban trees as a result of climate change were reviewed in order to aid urban forest managers in the development of adaptive climate change strategies. Various climate change models have predicted that winter and spring temperatures will increase. Higher amounts of precipitation are also anticipated. Higher temperatures will results in evapotranspiration, which will cause soil moisture levels to decline. Climatologists have also suggested that very hot days, winter storms and high rainfall events will increase in frequency. In addition, higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) will affect photosynthesis, with associated impacts on urban tree growth. Higher temperatures and longer growing seasons will allow insect populations to build up to higher levels, and warmer and dryer summers are likely to bring longer fire seasons and more severe fires. Urban trees under stress from drought and higher temperatures will be increasingly vulnerable to existing urban stressors such as air pollution and soil compaction. However, the ecological services provided by trees will become more valuable under future climate change regimes, particularly for shading and space cooling, as well as soil aeration and stabilization and the uptake of storm water. It was suggested that future tree growth may be enhanced on sites with adequate water and nutrients, but will probably decline in areas that are already marginal. It was recommended that urban forest managers assess the present vulnerability of trees to climate-related events in order to prepare for future change. Managers should also assess their capacity to implement various strategies through municipal and provincial partnerships. It was observed that decisions taken now about forest management will play out over several decades. It was concluded that maintaining a flexible and resilient urban forest management system is the best defence, as specific climate change impacts cannot be predicted. 18 refs., 4

Human and biophysical legacies shape contemporary urban forests: A literature synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Lara A. Roman; Hamil Pearsall; Theodore S. Eisenman; Tenley M. Conway; Robert T. Fahey; Shawn Landry; Jess Vogt; Natalie S. van Doorn; J. Morgan Grove; Dexter H. Locke; Adrina C. Bardekjian; John J. Battles; Mary L. Cadenasso; Cecil C. Konijnendijk van den Bosch; Meghan Avolio; Adam Berland; G. Darrel Jenerette; Sarah K. Mincey; Diane E. Pataki; Christina Staudhammer

2018-01-01

Understanding how urban forests developed their current patterns of tree canopy cover, species composition, and diversity requires an appreciation of historical legacy effects. However, analyses of current urban forest characteristics are often limited to contemporary socioeconomic factors, overlooking the role of history. The institutions, human communities, and...

Restoration treatments in urban park forests drive long-term changes in vegetation trajectories.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Lea R; Handel, Steven N

2016-04-01

Municipalities are turning to ecological restoration of urban forests as a measure to improve air quality, ameliorate urban heat island effects, improve storm water infiltration, and provide other social and ecological benefits. However, community dynamics following urban forest restoration treatments are poorly documented. This study examines the long-term effects of ecological restoration undertaken in New York City, New York, USA, to restore native forest in urban park natural areas invaded by woody non-native plants that are regional problems. In 2009 and 2010, we sampled vegetation in 30 invaded sites in three large public parks that were restored 1988-1993, and 30 sites in three large parks that were similarly invaded but had not been restored. Data from these matched plots reveal that the restoration treatment achieved its central goals. After 15-20 years, invasive species removal followed by native tree planting resulted in persistent structural and compositional shifts, significantly lower invasive species abundance, a more complex forest structure, and greater native tree recruitment. Together, these findings indicate that successional trajectories of vegetation dynamics have diverged between restored forests and invaded forests that were not restored. In addition, the data suggest that future composition of these urban forest patches will be novel assemblages. Restored and untreated sites shared a suite of shade-intolerant, quickly-growing tree species that colonize disturbed sites, indicating that restoration treatments created sites hospitable for germination and growth of species adapted to high light conditions and disturbed soils. These findings yield an urban perspective on the use of succession theory in ecological restoration. Models of ecological restoration developed in more pristine environments must be modified for use in cities. By anticipating both urban disturbances and ecological succession, management of urban forest patches can be

Analysis of Urban Forest Needs as Anthropogenic (CO2) Gas Absorbent in Semarang City

Science.gov (United States)

Febriani, Anisa Putri; Retnaningsih Soeprobowati, Tri; Maryono

2018-02-01

Green open space in cities in significant needs to maintenance environment quality. On of the critical function is to absorb increasing number of gas CO2. Therefore, developing urban forest in cities is very importance. The objective of the study is to determine the area of urban forest as CO2 gas anthropogenic absorb which is formed from fuel, diesel fuel, liquid petroleum gas. The study consists of (1) Analyzing the number of CO2 gas emission by calculating the needs of petroleum and gas based on the number of population, (2) Analyzing the power of gas absorption, (3) Measuring the air concentration of CO2 gas ambient based on daily traffic activities. This study shown that from year 2013 to year 2017, the increasing of urban forest is not so significant. For year 2013 the green open space in Semarang City are 373.67 hectares (7.5 percent from Semarang City area), consists of 239 parks, 11 public cemeteries, production forests, community forests, and urban forests, however the area of urban forest is not increase. The study assess that Antidesmabunius is one of the green species which high absorb capacity planted for Semarang. This trees produce 31,31 ton annually. This study proposed to fostering Antidesmabunius as one principle threes in Semarang urban forest.

Vegetation indicators of transformation in the urban forest ecosystems of "Kuzminki-Lyublino" Park

Science.gov (United States)

Buyvolova, Anna; Trifonova, Tatiana; Bykova, Elena

2017-04-01

Forest ecosystems in the city are at the same time a component of its natural environment and part of urban developmental planning. It imposes upon urban forests a large functional load, both environmental (formation of environment, air purification, noise pollution reducing, etc.) and social (recreational, educational) which defines the special attitude to their management and study. It is not a simple task to preserve maximum accessibility to the forest ecosystems of the large metropolises with a minimum of change. The urban forest vegetates in naturally formed soil, it has all the elements of a morphological structure (canopy layers), represented by natural species of the zonal vegetation. Sometimes it is impossible for a specialist to distinguish between an urban forest and a rural one. However, the urban forests are changing, being under the threat of various negative influences of the city, of which pollution is arguably the most significant. This article presents some indicators of structural changes to the plant communities, which is a response of forest ecosystems to an anthropogenic impact. It is shown that the indicators of the transformation of natural ecosystems in the city can be a reduction of the projective cover of moss layer, until its complete absence (in the pine forest), increasing the role of Acer negundo (adventive species) in the undergrowth, high variability of floristic indicators of the ground herbaceous vegetation, and a change in the spatial arrangement of adventive species. The assessment of the impact of the urban environment on the state of vegetation in the "Kuzminki-Lyublino" Natural-Historical Park was conducted in two key areas least affected by anthropogenic impacts under different plant communities represented by complex pine and birch forests and in similar forest types in the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve. The selection of pine forests as a model is due to the fact that, according to some scientists, pine (Pinus

Greener cities: U.S. Forest Service software package helps cities manage their urban treescape

Science.gov (United States)

Jim Kling; Greg Featured: McPherson

2008-01-01

Urban forests don't get the recognition that natural forests do. They don't encompass sweeping vistas and magnificent views and they don't provide critical habitat to endangered species. Nevertheless, they are vital. More than 90 percent of all Californians live, work, and play in urban forests. Trees in the urban landscape provide vital ecosystem...

Human influences on forest ecosystems: the southern wildland-urban interface assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Edward A. Macie; L. Annie Hermansen; [Editors

2002-01-01

This publication provides a review of critical wildland-urban interface issues, challenges, and needs for the Southern United States. Chapter topics include population and demographic trends; economic and tax issues; land use planning and policy; urban effects on forest ecosystems; challenges for forest resource management and conservation; social consequences of...

A framework for developing urban forest ecosystem services and goods indicators

Science.gov (United States)

Cynnamon Dobbs; Francisco J. Escobedo; Wayne C. Zipperer

2011-01-01

The social and ecological processes impacting on urban forests have been studied at multiple temporal and spatial scales in order to help us quantify, monitor, and value the ecosystem services that benefit people. Few studies have comprehensively analyzed the full suite of ecosystem services, goods (ESG), and ecosystem disservices provided by an urban forest....

Using AVIRIS data and multiple-masking techniques to map urban forest trees species

Science.gov (United States)

Q. Xiao; S.L. Ustin; E.G. McPherson

2004-01-01

Tree type and species information are critical parameters for urban forest management, benefit cost analysis and urban planning. However, traditionally, these parameters have been derived based on limited field samples in urban forest management practice. In this study we used high-resolution Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data and multiple-...

Assessing Urban Forest Structure, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Benefits on Vacant Land

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gunwoo Kim

2016-07-01

Full Text Available An urban forest assessment is essential for developing a baseline from which to measure changes and trends. The most precise way to assess urban forests is to measure and record every tree on a site, but although this may work well for relatively small populations (e.g., street trees, small parks, it is prohibitively expensive for large tree populations. Thus, random sampling offers a cost-effective way to assess urban forest structure and the associated ecosystem services for large-scale assessments. The methodology applied to assess ecosystem services in this study can also be used to assess the ecosystem services provided by vacant land in other urban contexts and improve urban forest policies, planning, and the management of vacant land. The study’s findings support the inclusion of trees on vacant land and contribute to a new vision of vacant land as a valuable ecological resource by demonstrating how green infrastructure can be used to enhance ecosystem health and promote a better quality of life for city residents.

Urbanization in China drives soil acidification of Pinus massoniana forests

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Juan; Zhang, Wei; Mo, Jiangming; Wang, Shizhong; Liu, Juxiu; Chen, Hao

2015-09-01

Soil acidification instead of alkalization has become a new environmental issue caused by urbanization. However, it remains unclear the characters and main contributors of this acidification. We investigated the effects of an urbanization gradient on soil acidity of Pinus massoniana forests in Pearl River Delta, South China. The soil pH of pine forests at 20-cm depth had significantly positive linear correlations with the distance from the urban core of Guangzhou. Soil pH reduced by 0.44 unit at the 0-10 cm layer in urbanized areas compared to that in non-urbanized areas. Nitrogen deposition, mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation were key factors influencing soil acidification based on a principal component analysis. Nitrogen deposition showed significant linear relationships with soil pH at the 0-10 cm (for ammonium N (-N), P greatly contributed to a significant soil acidification occurred in the urbanized environment.

Discerning fragmentation dynamics of tropical forest and wetland during reforestation, urban sprawl, and policy shifts.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiong Gao

Full Text Available Despite the overall trend of worldwide deforestation over recent decades, reforestation has also been found and is expected in developing countries undergoing fast urbanization and agriculture abandonment. The consequences of reforestation on landscape patterns are seldom addressed in the literature, despite their importance in evaluating biodiversity and ecosystem functions. By analyzing long-term land cover changes in Puerto Rico, a rapidly reforested (6 to 42% during 1940-2000 and urbanized tropical island, we detected significantly different patterns of fragmentation and underlying mechanisms among forests, urban areas, and wetlands. Forest fragmentation is often associated with deforestation. However, we also found significant fragmentation during reforestation. Urban sprawl and suburb development have a dominant impact on forest fragmentation. Reforestation mostly occurs along forest edges, while significant deforestation occurs in forest interiors. The deforestation process has a much stronger impact on forest fragmentation than the reforestation process due to their different spatial configurations. In contrast, despite the strong interference of coastal urbanization, wetland aggregation has occurred due to the effective implementation of laws/regulations for wetland protection. The peak forest fragmentation shifted toward rural areas, indicating progressively more fragmentation in forest interiors. This shift is synchronous with the accelerated urban sprawl as indicated by the accelerated shift of the peak fragmentation index of urban cover toward rural areas, i.e., 1.37% yr-1 in 1977-1991 versus 2.17% yr-1 in 1991-2000. Based on the expected global urbanization and the regional forest transition from deforested to reforested, the fragmented forests and aggregated wetlands in this study highlight possible forest fragmentation processes during reforestation in an assessment of biodiversity and functions and suggest effective laws

Discerning fragmentation dynamics of tropical forest and wetland during reforestation, urban sprawl, and policy shifts.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Qiong; Yu, Mei

2014-01-01

Despite the overall trend of worldwide deforestation over recent decades, reforestation has also been found and is expected in developing countries undergoing fast urbanization and agriculture abandonment. The consequences of reforestation on landscape patterns are seldom addressed in the literature, despite their importance in evaluating biodiversity and ecosystem functions. By analyzing long-term land cover changes in Puerto Rico, a rapidly reforested (6 to 42% during 1940-2000) and urbanized tropical island, we detected significantly different patterns of fragmentation and underlying mechanisms among forests, urban areas, and wetlands. Forest fragmentation is often associated with deforestation. However, we also found significant fragmentation during reforestation. Urban sprawl and suburb development have a dominant impact on forest fragmentation. Reforestation mostly occurs along forest edges, while significant deforestation occurs in forest interiors. The deforestation process has a much stronger impact on forest fragmentation than the reforestation process due to their different spatial configurations. In contrast, despite the strong interference of coastal urbanization, wetland aggregation has occurred due to the effective implementation of laws/regulations for wetland protection. The peak forest fragmentation shifted toward rural areas, indicating progressively more fragmentation in forest interiors. This shift is synchronous with the accelerated urban sprawl as indicated by the accelerated shift of the peak fragmentation index of urban cover toward rural areas, i.e., 1.37% yr-1 in 1977-1991 versus 2.17% yr-1 in 1991-2000. Based on the expected global urbanization and the regional forest transition from deforested to reforested, the fragmented forests and aggregated wetlands in this study highlight possible forest fragmentation processes during reforestation in an assessment of biodiversity and functions and suggest effective laws/regulations in land

Atlanta households’ willingness to increase urban forests to mitigate cimate change

Science.gov (United States)

Y. Tran; J. P.  Siry; J. M.  Bowker; N. C.  Poudyal

2017-01-01

Investments in urban forests have been increasing in many US cities. Urban forests have been shownto provide countless ecosystem benefits with many addressing climate change issues, such as seques-tering carbon, reducing air pollution, and decreasing the heat island effect. Individual groups within theAmerican public may not respond to the issue of climate change in...

A conceptual framework of urban forest ecosystem vulnerability

Science.gov (United States)

James W.N. Steenberg; Andrew A. Millward; David J. Nowak; Pamela J. Robinson

2017-01-01

The urban environment is becoming the most common setting in which people worldwide will spend their lives. Urban forests, and the ecosystem services they provide, are becoming a priority for municipalities. Quantifying and communicating the vulnerability of this resource are essential for maintaining a consistent and equitable supply of these ecosystem services. We...

Urban forest justice and the rights to wild foods, medicines, and materials in the city

Science.gov (United States)

Melissa R. Poe; Rebecca J. McClain; Marla Emery; Patrick. Hurley

2013-01-01

Urban forests are multifunctional socio-ecological landscapes, yet some of their social benefits remain poorly understood. This paper draws on ethnographic evidence from Seattle, Washington to demonstrate that urban forests contain nontimber forest products that contribute a variety of wild foods, medicines, and materials for the wellbeing of urban residents. We show...

Implications of rural-urban migration for conservation of the Atlantic Forest and urban growth in Misiones, Argentina (1970-2030).

Science.gov (United States)

Izquierdo, Andrea E; Grau, Héctor R; Aide, T Mitchell

2011-05-01

Global trends of increasing rural-urban migration and population urbanization could provide opportunities for nature conservation, particularly in regions where deforestation is driven by subsistence agriculture. We analyzed the role of rural population as a driver of deforestation and its contribution to urban population growth from 1970 to the present in the Atlantic Forest of Argentina, a global conservation priority. We created future land-use-cover scenarios based on human demographic parameters and the relationship between rural population and land-cover change between 1970 and 2006. In 2006, native forest covered 50% of the province, but by 2030 all scenarios predicted a decrease that ranged from 18 to 39% forest cover. Between 1970 and 2001, rural migrants represented 20% of urban population growth and are expected to represent less than 10% by 2030. This modeling approach shows how rural-urban migration and land-use planning can favor nature conservation with little impact on urban areas.

The urban forests of Philadelphia

Science.gov (United States)

David J. Nowak; Allison R. Bodine; Robert Hoehn; Alexis Ellis; Sarah C. Low; Lara A. Roman; Jason G. Henning; Emily Stephan; Tom Taggert; Ted. Endreny

2016-01-01

An analysis of the urban forest in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, reveals that this city has an estimated 2.9 million trees (encompassing all woody plants greater than 1 inch diameter at breast height [d.b.h]) with tree canopy that covers 20 percent of the city. The most common tree species are spicebush, black cherry, ash, tree-of-heaven, and boxelder, but the most...

Urbanization Effects on the Vertical Distribution of Soil Microbial Communities and Soil C Storage across Edge-to-Interior Urban Forest Gradients

Science.gov (United States)

Rosier, C. L.; Van Stan, J. T., II; Trammell, T. L.

2017-12-01

Urbanization alters environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) deposition affecting critical soil processes (e.g., C storage). Urban soils experience elevated N deposition (e.g., transportation, industry) and decreased soil moisture via urban heat island that can subsequently alter soil microbial community structure and activity. However, there is a critical gap in understanding how increased temperatures and pollutant deposition influences soil microbial community structure and soil C/N cycling in urban forests. Furthermore, canopy structural differences between individual tree species is a potentially important mechanism facilitating the deposition of pollutants to the soil. The overarching goal of this study is to investigate the influence of urbanization and tree species structural differences on the bacterial and fungal community and C and N content of soils experiencing a gradient of urbanization pressures (i.e., forest edge to interior; 150-m). Soil cores (1-m depth) were collected near the stem (urban pressure (i.e., forest edge). We further expect trees located on the edge of forest fragments will maintain greater surface soil (urbanization alters soil microbial community composition via reduced soil moisture and carbon storage potential via deposition gradients. Further analyses will answer important questions regarding how individual tree species alters urban soil C storage, N retention, and microbial dynamics.

Eco-experiential quality of urban forests: Combining ecological, restorative and aesthetic perspectives

OpenAIRE

Hauru, Kaisa

2015-01-01

In this thesis I combined perspectives from urban forest ecology, environmental psychology and empirical aesthetics to determine whether ecologically beneficial urban forest planning and management can also be experientially good. The thesis consists of four interrelated papers, three of which are empirical research papers and the fourth a theoretical review article. All empirical work was performed in boreal forests in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. In the ecological part of the thes...

Tree Productivity Enhanced with Conversion from Forest to Urban Land Covers.

Science.gov (United States)

Briber, Brittain M; Hutyra, Lucy R; Reinmann, Andrew B; Raciti, Steve M; Dearborn, Victoria K; Holden, Christopher E; Dunn, Allison L

2015-01-01

Urban areas are expanding, changing the structure and productivity of landscapes. While some urban areas have been shown to hold substantial biomass, the productivity of these systems is largely unknown. We assessed how conversion from forest to urban land uses affected both biomass structure and productivity across eastern Massachusetts. We found that urban land uses held less than half the biomass of adjacent forest expanses with a plot level mean biomass density of 33.5 ± 8.0 Mg C ha(-1). As the intensity of urban development increased, the canopy cover, stem density, and biomass decreased. Analysis of Quercus rubra tree cores showed that tree-level basal area increment nearly doubled following development, increasing from 17.1 ± 3.0 to 35.8 ± 4.7 cm(2) yr(-1). Scaling the observed stem densities and growth rates within developed areas suggests an aboveground biomass growth rate of 1.8 ± 0.4 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1), a growth rate comparable to nearby, intact forests. The contrasting high growth rates and lower biomass pools within urban areas suggest a highly dynamic ecosystem with rapid turnover. As global urban extent continues to grow, cities consider climate mitigation options, and as the verification of net greenhouse gas emissions emerges as critical for policy, quantifying the role of urban vegetation in regional-to-global carbon budgets will become ever more important.

Structuring institutional analysis for urban ecosystems: A key to sustainable urban forest management

Science.gov (United States)

Sarah K. Mincey; Miranda Hutten; Burnell C. Fischer; Tom P. Evans; Susan I. Stewart; Jessica M. Vogt

2013-01-01

A decline in urban forest structure and function in the United States jeopardizes the current focus on developing sustainable cities. A number of social dilemmas—for example, free-rider problems—restrict the sustainable production of ecosystem services and the stock of urban trees from which they flow. However, institutions, or the rules, norms, and strategies that...

Houston’s Urban Forest, 2015

Science.gov (United States)

David J. Nowak; Allison R. Bodine; Robert E. Hoehn; Christopher B. Edgar; Gretchen Riley; Dudley R. Hartel; Kerry J. Dooley; Sharon M. Stanton; Mark A. Hatfield; Thomas J. Brandeis; Tonya W. Lister

2017-01-01

An analysis of the urban forest in Houston, Texas, reveals that this area has an estimated 33.3 million live trees with tree canopy that covers 18.4 percent of the city. Roughly 19.2 million of the city’s trees are located on private lands. The most common tree species are yaupon, Chinese tallowtree, Chinese privet, Japanese privet, and sugarberry. Trees in Houston...

Ground beetles in city forests: does urbanization predict a personality trait?

Science.gov (United States)

Schuett, Wiebke; Delfs, Berit; Haller, Richard; Kruber, Sarah; Roolfs, Simone; Timm, Desiree; Willmann, Magdalena; Drees, Claudia

2018-01-01

Urbanization leads to substantial changes in natural habitats with profound effects on wildlife. Understanding behavioural responses to such environmental change is essential for identifying which organisms may adapt, as behaviour is often the first response to altered conditions. Individuals in more urbanized habitats may be expected to be more exploratory and bolder than their conspecifics in less urbanized habitats as they may be better able to cope with novel challenges. In a two-year field study we tested ground beetles from differently urbanized forests for their exploratory behaviour (in a novel environment) and their risk-taking (death-feigning). In total, we tested ca. 3,000 individuals of four forest-dwelling ground beetle species from eight within-city forest patches. In the second year, we also transferred ca. 800 tested individuals of two species to the laboratory to test for consistent behavioural differences (i.e. personality differences) under standardised conditions. Individuals were generally more exploratory in more urbanized than in less urbanized areas but only in one year of the study. Exploratory behaviour was not predicted by population density but increased with temperature or showed a temperature optimum. Exploration was consistent over time and individuals that were more exploratory also took higher risks. We demonstrated that species which are generally less directly exposed to human activities (e.g., most invertebrates) show behavioural responses to urbanization. Effects of urbanization were year-dependent, suggesting that other environmental conditions interacted with effects of urbanization on beetle behaviour. Furthermore, our results indicate that different personality compositions might cause behavioural differences among populations living in differently urbanized habitats.

The role of a peri-urban forest on air quality improvement in the Mexico City megalopolis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumgardner, Darrel; Varela, Sebastian; Escobedo, Francisco J.; Chacalo, Alicia; Ochoa, Carlos

2012-01-01

Air quality improvement by a forested, peri-urban national park was quantified by combining the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) and the Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) models. We estimated the ecosystem-level annual pollution removal function of the park’s trees, shrub and grasses using pollution concentration data for carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O 3 ), and particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter (PM 10 ), modeled meteorological and pollution variables, and measured forest structure data. Ecosystem-level O 3 and CO removal and formation were also analyzed for a representative month. Total annual air quality improvement of the park’s vegetation was approximately 0.02% for CO, 1% for O 3, and 2% for PM 10 , of the annual concentrations for these three pollutants. Results can be used to understand the air quality regulation ecosystem services of peri-urban forests and regional dynamics of air pollution emissions from major urban areas. - Highlights: ► Air quality regulation functions and ecosystem structure of a peri-urban forest in Mexico were quantified. ► Air pollution removal-formation dynamics were estimated using the UFORE and WRF-Chem models. ► Peri-urban forests positively contributed to air qualtiy improvement in Mexico City. ► Results can be used to quantify the ecosystem services of peri-urban forests. - Coupled models estimated air quality improvement and pollution removal-formation by peri-urban forest ecosystems in the Mexico City airshed.

Urban forest biomass estimates: is it important to use allometric relationships developed specifically for urban trees? 

Science.gov (United States)

M.R. McHale; I.C. Burke; M.A. Lefsky; P.J. Peper; E.G. McPherson

2009-01-01

Many studies have analyzed the benefits, costs, and carbon storage capacity associated with urban trees. These studies have been limited by a lack of research on urban tree biomass, such that estimates of carbon storage in urban systems have relied upon allometric relationships developed in traditional forests. As urbanization increases globally, it is becoming...

Parent tree distance-dependent recruitment limitation of native and exotic invasive seedlings in urban forests

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Martínez-García, L.B.; Pietrangelo, O.; Antunes, P.M.

2016-01-01

Urban forests are more vulnerable to exotic species invasions than natural forests and are often a pathway for exotic invasions into natural areas. Investigating the mechanisms responsible for species coexistence in urban ecosystems is important to prevent forest invasions and conserve native

Neighbourhood-scale urban forest ecosystem classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Steenberg, James W N; Millward, Andrew A; Duinker, Peter N; Nowak, David J; Robinson, Pamela J

2015-11-01

Urban forests are now recognized as essential components of sustainable cities, but there remains uncertainty concerning how to stratify and classify urban landscapes into units of ecological significance at spatial scales appropriate for management. Ecosystem classification is an approach that entails quantifying the social and ecological processes that shape ecosystem conditions into logical and relatively homogeneous management units, making the potential for ecosystem-based decision support available to urban planners. The purpose of this study is to develop and propose a framework for urban forest ecosystem classification (UFEC). The multifactor framework integrates 12 ecosystem components that characterize the biophysical landscape, built environment, and human population. This framework is then applied at the neighbourhood scale in Toronto, Canada, using hierarchical cluster analysis. The analysis used 27 spatially-explicit variables to quantify the ecosystem components in Toronto. Twelve ecosystem classes were identified in this UFEC application. Across the ecosystem classes, tree canopy cover was positively related to economic wealth, especially income. However, education levels and homeownership were occasionally inconsistent with the expected positive relationship with canopy cover. Open green space and stocking had variable relationships with economic wealth and were more closely related to population density, building intensity, and land use. The UFEC can provide ecosystem-based information for greening initiatives, tree planting, and the maintenance of the existing canopy. Moreover, its use has the potential to inform the prioritization of limited municipal resources according to ecological conditions and to concerns of social equity in the access to nature and distribution of ecosystem service supply. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tree Productivity Enhanced with Conversion from Forest to Urban Land Covers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brittain M Briber

Full Text Available Urban areas are expanding, changing the structure and productivity of landscapes. While some urban areas have been shown to hold substantial biomass, the productivity of these systems is largely unknown. We assessed how conversion from forest to urban land uses affected both biomass structure and productivity across eastern Massachusetts. We found that urban land uses held less than half the biomass of adjacent forest expanses with a plot level mean biomass density of 33.5 ± 8.0 Mg C ha(-1. As the intensity of urban development increased, the canopy cover, stem density, and biomass decreased. Analysis of Quercus rubra tree cores showed that tree-level basal area increment nearly doubled following development, increasing from 17.1 ± 3.0 to 35.8 ± 4.7 cm(2 yr(-1. Scaling the observed stem densities and growth rates within developed areas suggests an aboveground biomass growth rate of 1.8 ± 0.4 Mg C ha(-1 yr(-1, a growth rate comparable to nearby, intact forests. The contrasting high growth rates and lower biomass pools within urban areas suggest a highly dynamic ecosystem with rapid turnover. As global urban extent continues to grow, cities consider climate mitigation options, and as the verification of net greenhouse gas emissions emerges as critical for policy, quantifying the role of urban vegetation in regional-to-global carbon budgets will become ever more important.

Growing the urban forest: tree performance in response to biotic and abiotic land management

Science.gov (United States)

Emily E. Oldfield; Alexander J. Felson; D. S. Novem Auyeung; Thomas W. Crowther; Nancy F. Sonti; Yoshiki Harada; Daniel S. Maynard; Noah W. Sokol; Mark S. Ashton; Robert J. Warren; Richard A. Hallett; Mark A. Bradford

2015-01-01

Forests are vital components of the urban landscape because they provide ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, storm-water mitigation, and air-quality improvement. To enhance these services, cities are investing in programs to create urban forests. A major unknown, however, is whether planted trees will grow into the mature, closed-canopied forest on which...

[Remote sensing estimation of urban forest carbon stocks based on QuickBird images].

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Xu, Li-Hua; Zhang, Jie-Cun; Huang, Bo; Wang, Huan-Huan; Yue, Wen-Ze

2014-10-01

Urban forest is one of the positive factors that increase urban carbon sequestration, which makes great contribution to the global carbon cycle. Based on the high spatial resolution imagery of QuickBird in the study area within the ring road in Yiwu, Zhejiang, the forests in the area were divided into four types, i. e., park-forest, shelter-forest, company-forest and others. With the carbon stock from sample plot as dependent variable, at the significance level of 0.01, the stepwise linear regression method was used to select independent variables from 50 factors such as band grayscale values, vegetation index, texture information and so on. Finally, the remote sensing based forest carbon stock estimation models for the four types of forest were established. The estimation accuracies for all the models were around 70%, with the total carbon reserve of each forest type in the area being estimated as 3623. 80, 5245.78, 5284.84, 5343.65 t, respectively. From the carbon density map, it was found that the carbon reserves were mainly in the range of 25-35 t · hm(-2). In the future, urban forest planners could further improve the ability of forest carbon sequestration through afforestation and interplanting of trees and low shrubs.

Community perceptions towards the establishment of an urban forest plantation: a case of Dzivaresekwa, Zimbabwe

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A. Mureva

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The health of urban forest communities not only depend on the government and nongovernmental organizations, but also strongly rely on local community stewardship. A study was carried out to assess community perceptions on the establishment of an urban forest plantation among urban residents in Dzivaresekwa, an urban area in Harare. Randomized systematic sampling was used to select 150 households and one resident per household was interviewed using a pretested questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions. The objectives of the study were to determine how age and gender and employment status variables, were related to the urban residents’ perceptions towards establishment of a forest plantation in an urban area. Most females (58.3% viewed the plantation as a threat while most men (51.7% viewed the plantation as a recreational area. The highest proportion (61.9% of the middle age group (21-40 years perceived the plantation as a source of employment. There was a statistically significant relationship (p = 0.040 between gender and the general perception of establishing a forest plantation in the urban area. However, there was no statistically significant relationship (p = 0.203 between age groups and the perception of establishing a forest plantation in the urban area. It is concluded that the community had diverse perceptions on urban community forestry.

Urban Forest Ecosystem Service Optimization, Tradeoffs, and Disparities

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Bodnaruk, E.; Kroll, C. N.; Endreny, T. A.; Hirabayashi, S.; Yang, Y.

2014-12-01

Urban land area and the proportion of humanity living in cities is growing, leading to increased urban air pollution, temperature, and stormwater runoff. These changes can exacerbate respiratory and heat-related illnesses and affect ecosystem functioning. Urban trees can help mitigate these threats by removing air pollutants, mitigating urban heat island effects, and infiltrating and filtering stormwater. The urban environment is highly heterogeneous, and there is no tool to determine optimal locations to plant or protect trees. Using spatially explicit land cover, weather, and demographic data within biophysical ecosystem service models, this research expands upon the iTree urban forest tools to produce a new decision support tool (iTree-DST) that will explore the development and impacts of optimal tree planting. It will also heighten awareness of environmental justice by incorporating the Atkinson Index to quantify disparities in health risks and ecosystem services across vulnerable and susceptible populations. The study area is Baltimore City, a location whose urban forest and environmental justice concerns have been studied extensively. The iTree-DST is run at the US Census block group level and utilizes a local gradient approach to calculate the change in ecosystem services with changing tree cover across the study area. Empirical fits provide ecosystem service gradients for possible tree cover scenarios, greatly increasing the speed and efficiency of the optimization procedure. Initial results include an evaluation of the performance of the gradient method, optimal planting schemes for individual ecosystem services, and an analysis of tradeoffs and synergies between competing objectives.

Assessing net carbon sequestration on urban and community forests of northern New England, USA

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Daolan Zheng; Mark J. Ducey; Linda S. Heath

2013-01-01

Urban and community forests play an important role in the overall carbon budget of the USA. Accurately quantifying carbon sequestration by these forests can provide insight for strategic planning to mitigate greenhouse gas effects on climate change. This study provides a new methodology to estimate net forest carbon sequestration (FCS) in urban and community lands of...

Ground beetles in city forests: does urbanization predict a personality trait?

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Wiebke Schuett

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background Urbanization leads to substantial changes in natural habitats with profound effects on wildlife. Understanding behavioural responses to such environmental change is essential for identifying which organisms may adapt, as behaviour is often the first response to altered conditions. Individuals in more urbanized habitats may be expected to be more exploratory and bolder than their conspecifics in less urbanized habitats as they may be better able to cope with novel challenges. Methods In a two-year field study we tested ground beetles from differently urbanized forests for their exploratory behaviour (in a novel environment and their risk-taking (death-feigning. In total, we tested ca. 3,000 individuals of four forest-dwelling ground beetle species from eight within-city forest patches. In the second year, we also transferred ca. 800 tested individuals of two species to the laboratory to test for consistent behavioural differences (i.e. personality differences under standardised conditions. Results Individuals were generally more exploratory in more urbanized than in less urbanized areas but only in one year of the study. Exploratory behaviour was not predicted by population density but increased with temperature or showed a temperature optimum. Exploration was consistent over time and individuals that were more exploratory also took higher risks. Discussion We demonstrated that species which are generally less directly exposed to human activities (e.g., most invertebrates show behavioural responses to urbanization. Effects of urbanization were year-dependent, suggesting that other environmental conditions interacted with effects of urbanization on beetle behaviour. Furthermore, our results indicate that different personality compositions might cause behavioural differences among populations living in differently urbanized habitats.

iTree-Hydro: Snow hydrology update for the urban forest hydrology model

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Yang Yang; Theodore A. Endreny; David J. Nowak

2011-01-01

This article presents snow hydrology updates made to iTree-Hydro, previously called the Urban Forest Effects—Hydrology model. iTree-Hydro Version 1 was a warm climate model developed by the USDA Forest Service to provide a process-based planning tool with robust water quantity and quality predictions given data limitations common to most urban areas. Cold climate...

The tree-species-specific effect of forest bathing on perceived anxiety alleviation of young-adults in urban forests

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Haoming Guan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Forest bathing, i.e. spending time in a forest to walk, view and breathe in a forest, can alleviate the mental depression of visitors, but the tree-species-specific effect of this function by the urban forest is unknown. In this study, sixty-nine university students (aged 19-22, male ratio: 38% were recruited as participants to visit urban forests dominated by birch (Betula platyphylla Suk., maple (Acer triflorum Komarov and oak (Quercus mongolica Fisch. ex Ledeb trees in a park at the center of Changchun City, Northeast China. In the maple forest only the anxiety from study interest was decreased, while the anxiety from employment pressure was alleviated to the most extent in the birch forest. Participants perceived more anxiety from lesson declined in the oak forest than in the birch forest. Body parameters of weight and age were correlated with the anti-anxiety scores. In the oak forest, female participants can perceive more anxiety alleviation than male participants. For university students, forest bathing in our study can promote their study interest. Forest bathing can be more effective to alleviate the anxiety of young adults with greater weight. The birch forest was recommended to be visited by students to alleviate the pressure of employment worry, and the oak forest was recommended to be visited by girls.

Urban Forest and Rural Cities: Multi-sited Households, Consumption Patterns, and Forest Resources in Amazonia

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Christine Padoch

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In much of the Amazon Basin, approximately 70% of the population lives in urban areas and urbanward migration continues. Based on data collected over more than a decade in two long-settled regions of Amazonia, we find that rural-urban migration in the region is an extended and complex process. Like recent rural-urban migrants worldwide, Amazonian migrants, although they may be counted as urban residents, are often not absent from rural areas but remain members of multi-sited households and continue to participate in rural-urban networks and in rural land-use decisions. Our research indicates that, despite their general poverty, these migrants have affected urban markets for both food and construction materials. We present two cases: that of açaí palm fruit in the estuary of the Amazon and of cheap construction timbers in the Peruvian Amazon. We find that many new Amazonian rural-urban migrants have maintained some important rural patterns of both consumption and knowledge. Through their consumer behavior, they are affecting the areal extent of forests; in the two floodplain regions discussed, tree cover is increasing. We also find changes in forest composition, reflecting the persistence of rural consumption patterns in cities resulting in increased demand for and production of açaí and cheap timber species.

Spatial and temporal patterns of microclimates at an urban forest edge and their management implications.

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Li, Yingnan; Kang, Wanmo; Han, Yiwen; Song, Youngkeun

2018-01-23

Fragmented forests generate a variety of forest edges, leading to microclimates in the edge zones that differ from those in the forest interior. Understanding microclimatic variation is an important consideration for managers because it helps when making decisions about how to restrict the extent of edge effects. Thus, our study attempted to characterize the changing microclimate features at an urban forest edge located on Mt. Gwanak, Seoul, South Korea. We examined edge effects on air temperature, relative humidity, soil temperature, soil moisture, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) during the hottest three consecutive days in August 2016. Results showed that each variable responded differently to the edge effects. This urban forest edge had an effect on temporal changes at a diurnal scale in all microclimate variables, except soil moisture. In addition, all variables except relative humidity were significantly influenced by the edge effect up to 15 m inward from the forest boundary. The relative humidity fluctuated the most and showed the deepest extent of the edge effect. Moreover, the edge widths calculated from the relative humidity and air temperature both peaked in the late afternoon (16:00 h). Our findings provide a reference for forest managers in designing urban forest zones and will contribute to the conservation of fragmented forests in urban areas.

Quantifying Tree and Soil Carbon Stocks in a Temperate Urban Forest in Northeast China

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Hailiang Lv

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Society has placed greater focus on the ecological service of urban forests; however, more information is required on the variation of carbon (C in trees and soils in different functional forest types, administrative districts, and urban-rural gradients. To address this issue, we measured various tree and soil parameters by sampling 219 plots in the urban forest of the Harbin city region. Averaged tree and soil C stock density (C stocks per unit tree cover for Harbin city were 7.71 (±7.69 kg C·m−2 and 5.48 (±2.86 kg C·m−2, respectively. They were higher than those of other Chinese cities (Shenyang and Changchun, but were much lower than local natural forests. The tree C stock densities varied 2.3- to 3.2-fold among forest types, administrative districts, and ring road-based urban-rural gradients. In comparison, soil organic C (SOC densities varied by much less (1.4–1.5-fold. We found these to be urbanization-dependent processes, which were closely related to the urban-rural gradient data based on ring-roads and settlement history patterns. We estimated that SOC accumulation during the 100-year urbanization of Harbin was very large (5 to 14 thousand tons, accounting for over one quarter of the stored C in trees. Our results provide new insights into the dynamics of above- and below-ground C (especially in soil during the urbanization process, and that a city’s ability to provide C-related ecosystem services increases as it ages. Our findings highlight that urbanization effects should be incorporated into calculations of soil C budgets in regions subject to rapid urban expansion, such as China.

Structure of a forested urban park: implications for strategic management.

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Millward, Andrew A; Sabir, Senna

2010-11-01

Informed management of urban parks can provide optimal conditions for tree establishment and growth and thus maximize the ecological and aesthetic benefits that trees provide. This study assesses the structure, and its implications for function, of the urban forest in Allan Gardens, a 6.1 ha downtown park in the City of Toronto, Canada, using the Street Tree Resource Analysis Tool for Urban Forest Managers (STRATUM). Our goal is to present a framework for collection and analysis of baseline data that can inform a management strategy that would serve to protect and enhance this significant natural asset. We found that Allan Garden's tree population, while species rich (43), is dominated by maple (Acer spp.) (48% of all park trees), making it reliant on very few species for the majority of its ecological and aesthetic benefits and raising disease and pest-related concerns. Age profiles (using size as a proxy) showed a dominance of older trees with an inadequate number of individuals in the young to early middle age cohort necessary for short- to medium-term replacement. Because leaf area represents the single-most important contributor to urban tree benefits modelling, we calculated it separately for every park tree, using hemispheric photography, to document current canopy condition. These empirical measurements were lower than estimates produced by STRATUM, especially when trees were in decline and lacked full canopies, highlighting the importance of individual tree condition in determining leaf area and hence overall forest benefits. Stewardship of natural spaces within cities demands access to accurate and timely resource-specific data. Our work provides an uncomplicated approach to the acquisition and interpretation of these data in the context of a forested urban park. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimating Stand Volume and Above-Ground Biomass of Urban Forests Using LiDAR

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Vincenzo Giannico

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Assessing forest stand conditions in urban and peri-urban areas is essential to support ecosystem service planning and management, as most of the ecosystem services provided are a consequence of forest stand characteristics. However, collecting data for assessing forest stand conditions is time consuming and labor intensive. A plausible approach for addressing this issue is to establish a relationship between in situ measurements of stand characteristics and data from airborne laser scanning (LiDAR. In this study we assessed forest stand volume and above-ground biomass (AGB in a broadleaved urban forest, using a combination of LiDAR-derived metrics, which takes the form of a forest allometric model. We tested various methods for extracting proxies of basal area (BA and mean stand height (H from the LiDAR point-cloud distribution and evaluated the performance of different models in estimating forest stand volume and AGB. The best predictors for both models were the scale parameters of the Weibull distribution of all returns (except the first (proxy of BA and the 95th percentile of the distribution of all first returns (proxy of H. The R2 were 0.81 (p < 0.01 for the stand volume model and 0.77 (p < 0.01 for the AGB model with a RMSE of 23.66 m3·ha−1 (23.3% and 19.59 Mg·ha−1 (23.9%, respectively. We found that a combination of two LiDAR-derived variables (i.e., proxy of BA and proxy of H, which take the form of a forest allometric model, can be used to estimate stand volume and above-ground biomass in broadleaved urban forest areas. Our results can be compared to other studies conducted using LiDAR in broadleaved forests with similar methods.

Pavement and riparian forest shape the bird community along an urban river corridor

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Christopher J.W. McClure

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Knowledge of habitat use by animals within urban-riparian corridors during the breeding season is important for conservation, yet remains understudied. We examined the bird community along an urban-riparian corridor through metropolitan Boise, Idaho and predicted that occupancy of individual species and species richness would be greater in forested areas than in urbanized areas. We surveyed birds throughout the summers of 2009 and 2010 and quantified the m2 of each cover-type within 50-m, 100-m, and 200-m buffers surrounding each survey location using satellite imagery. Occupancy modeling revealed that eight of 14 species analyzed were positively associated with riparian forest, and no species avoided forest. Species richness was negatively associated with the amount of paved surface within 100 m of a survey site with richness declining by more than two species for every hectare of paved surface. Most associations with cover-types–especially riparian forest–were at ⩾100 m. Therefore, the riparian forest within 100 m of a given site along an urban-riparian corridor should be the most important for maintaining species richness.

Analyzing the efficacy of subtropical urban forests in offsetting carbon emissions from cities

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Francisco Escobedo; Sebastian Varela; Min Zhao; John E. Wagner; Wayne Zipperer

2010-01-01

Urban forest management and policies have been promoted as a tool to mitigate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study used existing CO2 reduction measures from subtropical Miami-Dade and Gainesville, USA and modeled carbon storage and sequestration by trees to analyze policies that use urban forests to offset carbon emissions. Field data were analyzed, modeled, and...

Birds communities of fragmented forest within highly urbanized landscape in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Mohd-Taib, F. S.; Rabiatul-Adawiyah, S.; Md-Nor, S.

2014-09-01

Urbanization is one form of forest modification for development purposes. It produces forest fragments scattered in the landscape with different intensity of disturbance. We want to determine the effect of forest fragmentation towards bird community in urbanized landscapes in Kuala Lumpur, namely Sungai Besi Forest Reserve (FR), Bukit Nenas FR and Bukit Sungei Puteh FR. We used mist-netting and direct observation method along established trails. These forests differ in size, vegetation composition and land use history. Results show that these forests show relatively low number of species compared to other secondary forest with only 39 bird species recorded. The largest fragment, Sg. Besi encompassed the highest species richness and abundance with 69% species but lower in diversity. Bukit Nenas, the next smallest fragment besides being the only remaining primary forest has the highest diversity index with 1.866. Bkt. Sg. Puteh the smallest fragment has the lowest species richness and diversity with Shanon diversity index of 1.332. The presence of introduced species such as Corvus splendens (House crow) in all study areas suggest high disturbance encountered by these forests. Nonetheless, these patches comprised of considerably high proportion of native species. In conclusion, different intensity of disturbance due to logging activities and urbanization surrounding the forest directly influenced bird species richness and diversity. These effects however can be compensated by maintaining habitat complexity including high vegetation composition and habitat structure at the landscape level.

From the litter up and the sky down: Perspectives on urban forest structure and eco-hydrological processes (presentation)

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The structure of the urban forest represents the complex product of local biophysical conditions, socio-economic milieu, people preferences and management with rare counterparts in rural forests. However, urban forest structure, as similarly observed in rural forests, affects key...

Woody invasions of urban trails and the changing face of urban forests in the great plains, USA

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Nemec, K.T.; Allen, Craig R.; Alai, A.; Clements, G.; Kessler, A.C.; Kinsell, T.; Major, A.; Stephen, B.J.

2011-01-01

Corridors such as roads and trails can facilitate invasions by non-native plant species. The open, disturbed habitat associated with corridors provides favorable growing conditions for many non-native plant species. Bike trails are a corridor system common to many urban areas that have not been studied for their potential role in plant invasions. We sampled five linear segments of urban forest along bike trails in Lincoln, Nebraska to assess the invasion of woody non-native species relative to corridors and to assess the composition of these urban forests. The most abundant plant species were generally native species, but five non-native species were also present: white mulberry (Morus alba), common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) and elm (Ulmus spp.). The distribution of two of the woody species sampled, common buckthorn and honeysuckle, significantly decreased with increasing distance from a source patch of vegetation (P = 0.031 and 0.030). These linear habitats are being invaded by non-native tree and shrub species, which may change the structure of these urban forest corridors. If non-native woody plant species become abundant in the future, they may homogenize the plant community and reduce native biodiversity in these areas. ?? 2011 American Midland Naturalist.

Soil nitrogen levels are linked to decomposition enzyme activities along an urban-remote tropical forest gradient

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D. F. Cusack

2013-01-01

Urban areas in tropical regions are expanding rapidly, with significant potential to affect local ecosystem dynamics. In particular, nitrogen (N) availability may increase in urban-proximate forests because of atmospheric N deposition. Unlike temperate forests, many tropical forests on highly weathered soils have high background N availability, so plant growth is...

Spatio-Temporal Changes in Structure for a Mediterranean Urban Forest: Santiago, Chile 2002 to 2014

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Francisco J. Escobedo

2016-06-01

Full Text Available There is little information on how urban forest ecosystems in South America and Mediterranean climates change across both space and time. This study statistically and spatially analyzed the spatio-temporal dynamics of Santiago, Chile’s urban forest using tree and plot-level data from permanent plots from 2002 to 2014. We found mortality, ingrowth, and tree cover remained stable over the analysis period and similar patterns were observed for basal area (BA and biomass. However, tree cover increased, and was greater in the highest socioeconomic stratum neighborhoods while it dropped in the medium and low strata. Growth rates for the five most common tree species averaged from 0.12 to 0.36 cm·year−1. Spatially, tree biomass and BA were greater in the affluent, northeastern sections of the city and in southwest peri-urban areas. Conversely, less affluent central, northwest, and southern areas showed temporal losses in BA and biomass. Overall, we found that Santiago’s urban forest follows similar patterns as in other parts of the world; affluent areas tend to have more and better managed urban forests than poorer areas, and changes are primarily influenced by social and ecological drivers. Nonetheless, care is warranted when comparing urban forest structural metrics measured with similar sampling-monitoring approaches across ecologically disparate regions and biomes.

Urban Forest Revolution

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Kucherova Anastasia

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The tendency of the last 100 years shows the radical change of the proportion between urbanized areas and those dedicated to wild nature and agriculture. Whether we agree with it or not, cities are our future. Also it is confirmed by the annual reports of UNEP that cities are responsible for 75% of CO2 emissions. Among negative consequences of the uncontrolled urban sprawl on the ecology there are: greenhouse effect leading to global warming; increasingly growing number of people affected by respiratory diseases due to the smog; drastic reduction of the biodiversity. The environmental impact and the look of the city of the future is in the hands of the architects of today. At Stefano Boeri Architetti we are exploring one of the possible way of reducing the buildings’ ecological footprint and improving the quality of air in cities. It is called “Vertical Foresting”, an evolution of the revolutionary idea of bringing the trees to the sky, far beyond its first realization – it became a philosophy, a new lifestyle. But first of all, Vertical Forest is a big question mark, addressed to the global community, to the politicians and common people, asking each and every one living in our planet – what can you do for our common home?

The structure, function and value of urban forests in California communities

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E. Gregory McPherson; Qingfu Xiao; Natalie S. van Doorn; John de Goede; Jacquelyn Bjorkman; Allan Hollander; Ryan M. Boynton; James F. Quinn; James H. Thorne

2017-01-01

This study used tree data from field plots in urban areas to describe forest structure in urban areas throughout California. The plot data were used with numerical models to calculate several ecosystem services produced by trees. A series of transfer functions were calculated to scale-up results from the plots to the landscape using urban tree canopy (UTC) mapped at 1-...

Air pollution removal and temperature reduction by Gainesville's urban forest

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Francisco Escobedo; Jennifer A. Seitz; Wayne Zipperer

2009-01-01

Poor air quality is a common problem in many urban areas. It can lead to human health problems and reduced visibility, and it can impair the health of plants and wildlife. The urban forest can help improve air quality by removing pollutants and by reducing air temperature through shading and transpiration. Trees also emit volatile...

Effects of LiDAR point density and landscape context on the retrieval of urban forest biomass

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Singh, K. K.; Chen, G.; McCarter, J. B.; Meentemeyer, R. K.

2014-12-01

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), as an alternative to conventional optical remote sensing, is being increasingly used to accurately estimate aboveground forest biomass ranging from individual tree to stand levels. Recent advancements in LiDAR technology have resulted in higher point densities and better data accuracies, which however pose challenges to the procurement and processing of LiDAR data for large-area assessments. Reducing point density cuts data acquisition costs and overcome computational challenges for broad-scale forest management. However, how does that impact the accuracy of biomass estimation in an urban environment containing a great level of anthropogenic disturbances? The main goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of LiDAR point density on the biomass estimation of remnant forests in the rapidly urbanizing regions of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. We used multiple linear regression to establish the statistical relationship between field-measured biomass and predictor variables (PVs) derived from LiDAR point clouds with varying densities. We compared the estimation accuracies between the general Urban Forest models (no discrimination of forest type) and the Forest Type models (evergreen, deciduous, and mixed), which was followed by quantifying the degree to which landscape context influenced biomass estimation. The explained biomass variance of Urban Forest models, adjusted R2, was fairly consistent across the reduced point densities with the highest difference of 11.5% between the 100% and 1% point densities. The combined estimates of Forest Type biomass models outperformed the Urban Forest models using two representative point densities (100% and 40%). The Urban Forest biomass model with development density of 125 m radius produced the highest adjusted R2 (0.83 and 0.82 at 100% and 40% LiDAR point densities, respectively) and the lowest RMSE values, signifying the distance impact of development on biomass estimation. Our evaluation

High resolution remote sensing for reducing uncertainties in urban forest carbon offset life cycle assessments.

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Tigges, Jan; Lakes, Tobia

2017-10-04

Urban forests reduce greenhouse gas emissions by storing and sequestering considerable amounts of carbon. However, few studies have considered the local scale of urban forests to effectively evaluate their potential long-term carbon offset. The lack of precise, consistent and up-to-date forest details is challenging for long-term prognoses. Therefore, this review aims to identify uncertainties in urban forest carbon offset assessment and discuss the extent to which such uncertainties can be reduced by recent progress in high resolution remote sensing. We do this by performing an extensive literature review and a case study combining remote sensing and life cycle assessment of urban forest carbon offset in Berlin, Germany. Recent progress in high resolution remote sensing and methods is adequate for delivering more precise details on the urban tree canopy, individual tree metrics, species, and age structures compared to conventional land use/cover class approaches. These area-wide consistent details can update life cycle inventories for more precise future prognoses. Additional improvements in classification accuracy can be achieved by a higher number of features derived from remote sensing data of increasing resolution, but first studies on this subject indicated that a smart selection of features already provides sufficient data that avoids redundancies and enables more efficient data processing. Our case study from Berlin could use remotely sensed individual tree species as consistent inventory of a life cycle assessment. However, a lack of growth, mortality and planting data forced us to make assumptions, therefore creating uncertainty in the long-term prognoses. Regarding temporal changes and reliable long-term estimates, more attention is required to detect changes of gradual growth, pruning and abrupt changes in tree planting and mortality. As such, precise long-term urban ecological monitoring using high resolution remote sensing should be intensified

Distribution of wild mammal assemblages along an urban-rural-forest landscape gradient in warm-temperate East Asia.

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Saito, Masayuki; Koike, Fumito

2013-01-01

Urbanization may alter mammal assemblages via habitat loss, food subsidies, and other factors related to human activities. The general distribution patterns of wild mammal assemblages along urban-rural-forest landscape gradients have not been studied, although many studies have focused on a single species or taxon, such as rodents. We quantitatively evaluated the effects of the urban-rural-forest gradient and spatial scale on the distributions of large and mid-sized mammals in the world's largest metropolitan area in warm-temperate Asia using nonspecific camera-trapping along two linear transects spanning from the urban zone in the Tokyo metropolitan area to surrounding rural and forest landscapes. Many large and mid-sized species generally decreased from forest landscapes to urban cores, although some species preferred anthropogenic landscapes. Sika deer (Cervus nippon), Reeves' muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), Japanese squirrel (Sciurus lis), Japanese marten (Martes melampus), Japanese badger (Meles anakuma), and wild boar (Sus scrofa) generally dominated the mammal assemblage of the forest landscape. Raccoon (Procyon lotor), raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), and Japanese hare (Lepus brachyurus) dominated the mammal assemblage in the intermediate zone (i.e., rural and suburban landscape). Cats (feral and free-roaming housecats; Felis catus) were common in the urban assemblage. The key spatial scales for forest species were more than 4000-m radius, indicating that conservation and management plans for these mammal assemblages should be considered on large spatial scales. However, small green spaces will also be important for mammal conservation in the urban landscape, because an indigenous omnivore (raccoon dog) had a smaller key spatial scale (500-m radius) than those of forest mammals. Urbanization was generally the most important factor in the distributions of mammals, and it is necessary to consider the spatial scale of

Distribution of wild mammal assemblages along an urban-rural-forest landscape gradient in warm-temperate East Asia.

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Masayuki Saito

Full Text Available Urbanization may alter mammal assemblages via habitat loss, food subsidies, and other factors related to human activities. The general distribution patterns of wild mammal assemblages along urban-rural-forest landscape gradients have not been studied, although many studies have focused on a single species or taxon, such as rodents. We quantitatively evaluated the effects of the urban-rural-forest gradient and spatial scale on the distributions of large and mid-sized mammals in the world's largest metropolitan area in warm-temperate Asia using nonspecific camera-trapping along two linear transects spanning from the urban zone in the Tokyo metropolitan area to surrounding rural and forest landscapes. Many large and mid-sized species generally decreased from forest landscapes to urban cores, although some species preferred anthropogenic landscapes. Sika deer (Cervus nippon, Reeves' muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi, Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata, Japanese squirrel (Sciurus lis, Japanese marten (Martes melampus, Japanese badger (Meles anakuma, and wild boar (Sus scrofa generally dominated the mammal assemblage of the forest landscape. Raccoon (Procyon lotor, raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides, and Japanese hare (Lepus brachyurus dominated the mammal assemblage in the intermediate zone (i.e., rural and suburban landscape. Cats (feral and free-roaming housecats; Felis catus were common in the urban assemblage. The key spatial scales for forest species were more than 4000-m radius, indicating that conservation and management plans for these mammal assemblages should be considered on large spatial scales. However, small green spaces will also be important for mammal conservation in the urban landscape, because an indigenous omnivore (raccoon dog had a smaller key spatial scale (500-m radius than those of forest mammals. Urbanization was generally the most important factor in the distributions of mammals, and it is necessary to consider the spatial scale

Water scarcity and urban forest management: introduction

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E. Gregory McPherson; Robert Prince

2013-01-01

Between 1997 and 2009 a serious drought affected much of Australia. Whether reasoned or unintentional, water policy decisions closed the tap, turning much of the urban forest’s lifeline into a trickle. Green infrastructure became brown infrastructure, exposing its standing as a low priority relative to other consumptive sources. To share new solutions to water scarcity...

Carbon stocks in urban forest remnants: Atlanta and Baltimore as case studies. Chapter 5.

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Ian D. Yesilonis; Richard V. Pouyat

2012-01-01

Urban environments influence carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles of forest ecosystems by altering plant biomass, litter mass and chemistry, passive and active pools of C and N, and the occurrence and activity of decomposer organisms. It is difficult to determine the net effect of C storage due to the number of environmental factors exerting stress on urban forests....

The urban forest and ecosystem services: impact on urban water, heat, and pollution cycles at the tree, street, and city scale

Science.gov (United States)

S. J. Livesley; E. G. McPherson; C. Calfapietra

2016-01-01

Many environmental challenges are exacerbated within the urban landscape, such as stormwater runoff and flood risk, chemical and particulate pollution of urban air, soil and water, the urban heat island, and summer heat waves. Urban trees, and the urban forest as a whole, can be managed to have an impact on the urban water, heat, carbon and pollution cycles. However,...

The influence of the interactions between anthropogenic activities and multiple ecological factors on land surface temperatures of urban forests

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Y.

2017-12-01

Context Land surface temperatures (LSTs) spatio-temporal distribution pattern of urban forests are influenced by many ecological factors; the identification of interaction between these factors can improve simulations and predictions of spatial patterns of urban cold islands. This quantitative research requires an integrated method that combines multiple sources data with spatial statistical analysis. Objectives The purpose of this study was to clarify urban forest LST influence interaction between anthropogenic activities and multiple ecological factors using cluster analysis of hot and cold spots and Geogdetector model. We introduced the hypothesis that anthropogenic activity interacts with certain ecological factors, and their combination influences urban forests LST. We also assumed that spatio-temporal distributions of urban forest LST should be similar to those of ecological factors and can be represented quantitatively. Methods We used Jinjiang as a representative city in China as a case study. Population density was employed to represent anthropogenic activity. We built up a multi-source data (forest inventory, digital elevation models (DEM), population, and remote sensing imagery) on a unified urban scale to support urban forest LST influence interaction research. Through a combination of spatial statistical analysis results, multi-source spatial data, and Geogdetector model, the interaction mechanisms of urban forest LST were revealed. Results Although different ecological factors have different influences on forest LST, in two periods with different hot spots and cold spots, the patch area and dominant tree species were the main factors contributing to LST clustering in urban forests. The interaction between anthropogenic activity and multiple ecological factors increased LST in urban forest stands, linearly and nonlinearly. Strong interactions between elevation and dominant species were generally observed and were prevalent in either hot or cold spots

UAV Remote Sensing for Urban Vegetation Mapping Using Random Forest and Texture Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quanlong Feng

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV remote sensing has great potential for vegetation mapping in complex urban landscapes due to the ultra-high resolution imagery acquired at low altitudes. Because of payload capacity restrictions, off-the-shelf digital cameras are widely used on medium and small sized UAVs. The limitation of low spectral resolution in digital cameras for vegetation mapping can be reduced by incorporating texture features and robust classifiers. Random Forest has been widely used in satellite remote sensing applications, but its usage in UAV image classification has not been well documented. The objectives of this paper were to propose a hybrid method using Random Forest and texture analysis to accurately differentiate land covers of urban vegetated areas, and analyze how classification accuracy changes with texture window size. Six least correlated second-order texture measures were calculated at nine different window sizes and added to original Red-Green-Blue (RGB images as ancillary data. A Random Forest classifier consisting of 200 decision trees was used for classification in the spectral-textural feature space. Results indicated the following: (1 Random Forest outperformed traditional Maximum Likelihood classifier and showed similar performance to object-based image analysis in urban vegetation classification; (2 the inclusion of texture features improved classification accuracy significantly; (3 classification accuracy followed an inverted U relationship with texture window size. The results demonstrate that UAV provides an efficient and ideal platform for urban vegetation mapping. The hybrid method proposed in this paper shows good performance in differentiating urban vegetation mapping. The drawbacks of off-the-shelf digital cameras can be reduced by adopting Random Forest and texture analysis at the same time.

The Impact of Urbanization to Forest Degradation in Metropolitan Semarang: A Preliminary Study

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Sejati, A. W.; Buchori, I.; Rudiarto, I.

2018-02-01

This paper aims to examine the relationship of urbanization and the consequences of environmental impacts, especially the availability of forests. The analysis used remote sensing data ie Landsat 7 ETM (1990), Landsat 7 ETM (2000), and Landsat 8 OLI (2015). Analysis of forest availability used green vegetation cover parameters with NDVI techniques, while urbanization was measured by looking at the built-up area growth with NDBI techniques. The detection result in 1990 area of urban area was 74.85 km2, in 2000 was 130.83 km2, and in 2015 was 292.74 km2. Given the overall size of the metropolitan area of Semarang (932.14 km2), the proportion of the built up area in 2015 was 31% with an average of 6% per year change in 1990-2000 and 8.2% per year in 2000-2015. Urbanization in this region is characterized by forest conversion into residential and industrial buildings. With increasing area and built-up density, NDBI is found to be proportionately increasing, while NDVI decrease is significant. The results show that NDBI-NDVI correlation is negative (-0.99). It is very important for policy makers to formulate land use control policies in Metropolitan Semarang particularly in responding to the issue of forest conversion.

Canopy rainfall partitioning across an urbanization gradient in forest structure as characterized by terrestrial LiDAR

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Mesta, D. C.; Van Stan, J. T., II; Yankine, S. A.; Cote, J. F.; Jarvis, M. T.; Hildebrandt, A.; Friesen, J.; Maldonado, G.

2017-12-01

As urbanization expands, greater forest area is shifting from natural stand structures to urban stand structures, like forest fragments and landscaped tree rows. Changes in forest canopy structure have been found to drastically alter the amount of rainwater reaching the surface. However, stormwater management models generally treat all forest structures (beyond needle versus broadleaved) similarly. This study examines the rainfall partitioning of Pinus spp. canopies along a natural-to-urban forest gradient and compares these to canopy structural measurements using terrestrial LiDAR. Throughfall and meteorological observations were also used to estimate parameters of the commonly-used Gash interception model. Preliminary findings indicate that as forest structure changed from natural, closed canopy conditions to semi-closed canopy fragments and, ultimately, to exposed urban landscaping tree rows, the interchange between throughfall and rainfall interception also changed. This shift in partitioning between throughfall and rainfall interception may be linked to intuitive parameters, like canopy closure and density, as well as more complex metrics, like the fine-scale patterning of gaps (ie, lacunarity). Thus, results indicate that not all forests of the same species should be treated the same by stormwater models. Rather, their canopy structural characteristics should be used to vary their hydrometeorological interactions.

Towards a network of Urban Forest Eddy Covariance stations: a unique case study in Naples

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Guidolotti, Gabriele; Pallozzi, Emanuele; Esposito, Raffaela; Mattioni, Michele; Calfapietra, Carlo

2015-04-01

Urban forests are by definition integrated in highly human-made areas, and interact with different components of our cities. Thanks to those interactions, urban forests provide to people and to the urban environment a number of ecosystem services, including the absorption of CO2 and air pollutants thus influencing the local air quality. Moreover, in urban areas a relevant role is played by the photochemical pollution which is strongly influenced by the interactions between volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). In several cities, a high percentage of VOC is of biogenic origin mainly emitted from the urban trees. Despite their importance, experimental sites monitoring fluxes of trace gases fluxes in urban forest ecosystems are still scarce. Here we show the preliminary results of an innovative experimental site located in the Royal Park of Capodimonte within the city of Naples (40°51'N-14°15'E, 130 m above sea level). The site is mainly characterised by Quercus ilex with some patches of Pinus pinea and equipped with an eddy-covariance tower measuring the exchange of CO2, H2O, N2O, CH4, O3, PM, VOCs and NOx using state-of-the art instrumentations; it is running since the end of 2014 and it is part of the large infrastructural I-AMICA project. We suggest that the experience gained with research networks such as Fluxnet and ICOS should be duplicated for urban forests. This is crucial for carbon as there is now the ambition to include urban forests in the carbon stocks accounting system. This is even more important to understand the difficult interactions between anthropogenic and biogenic sources that often have negative implications for urban air quality. Urban environment can thus become an extraordinary case study and a network of such kind of stations might represent an important strategy both from the scientific and the applicative point of view.

Are master plans effective in limiting development in China's disaster-prone areas?

OpenAIRE

Kim, Saehoon; Rowe, Peter G.

2013-01-01

The effectiveness of urban master plans in limiting development in a disaster-prone area of China was empirically investigated by measuring cities’ land-cover changes against their master plans. If a master plan serves as guidance for urban polices that reduce property loss from earthquakes, floods, landslides,land subsidence, and rises in sea level, it will substantially limit urban development in areas at risk from environmental hazards. An environmental risk map weighted toward valuable...

Nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide flux in urban forests and grasslands

Science.gov (United States)

Peter M. Groffman; Candiss O. Williams; Richard V. Pouyat; Lawrence E. Band; Ian D. Yesilonis

2009-01-01

Urban landscapes contain a mix of land-use types with different patterns of nitrogen (N) cycling and export. We measured nitrate (NO3-) leaching and soil:atmosphere nitrous oxide (N2O) flux in four urban grassland and eight forested long-term study plots in the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area....

Enhancing early detection of exotic pests in agricultural and forest ecosystems using an urban-gradient framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Colunga-Garcia, Manuel; Magarey, Roger A; Haack, Robert A; Gage, Stuart H; Qi, Jiaquo

2010-03-01

Urban areas are hubs of international transport and therefore are major gateways for exotic pests. Applying an urban gradient to analyze this pathway could provide insight into the ecological processes involved in human-mediated invasions. We defined an urban gradient for agricultural and forest ecosystems in the contiguous United States to (1) assess whether ecosystems nearer more urbanized areas were at greater risk of invasion, and (2) apply this knowledge to enhance early detection of exotic pests. We defined the gradient using the tonnage of imported products in adjacent urban areas and their distance to nearby agricultural or forest land. County-level detection reports for 39 exotic agricultural and forest pests of major economic importance were used to characterize invasions along the gradient. We found that counties with more exotic pests were nearer the urban end of the gradient. Assuming that the exotic species we analyzed represent typical invaders, then early detection efforts directed at 21-26% of U.S. agricultural and forest land would likely be able to detect 70% of invaded counties and 90% of the selected species. Applying an urban-gradient framework to current monitoring strategies should enhance early detection efforts of exotic pests, facilitating optimization in allocating resources to areas at greater risk of future invasions.

Urban church forests for local temperature regulation: Implications the role of managing and incorporating urban green space in urban planning

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Tulu Tolla TURA

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The global surface temperature shows an increment of 0.50.1C per decade and 1.050.3C per century from 1880-2014 with greater increases in cities than non-urban areas. Global communities are shifting towards urbanization due to various factors. Urbanization has caused lack of stable condition for dwellers due to environmental and anthropogenic factors such as land cover changes. Urban temperature rising is the main factors hindering urban dwellers at global level due to insufficient green areas. Social institutions are playing important role in urban greening and urban climate regulation. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has long history in indigenous trees biodiversity conservation that plays largely greening role in urban and rural parts of the country. However, there is a research gap in Ethiopia regarding the role of urban green area in the church yards in regulating urban temperature and microclimate change. Therefore, the study evaluated the role of church managed forests in Addis Ababa in regulating surface temperature. Surface temperature inside four church forests at a buffer radius of 0–50 m, 50–100 m, 100–200 m and 200–500 m estimated using Landsat image thermal band 6 of 1986, 2000 and 2010 and ground measurement by ambient thermometer at 10:00 am, 12:30 am and 3:00 pm local time. The ground measurement was done in order to validate satellite image analysis. Plant species diversity, DBH, H, HC, BH and BA was measured. There were 1167 trees in the four studied churches. The mean temperatures of the studied sites were 22.50.1, 23.250.2, 240.6, 24.61.1 and 25.52.2C on site,0–50 m, 50–100 m, 100–200m and 200–500 m respectively for 1986 images; 23.20.5, 23.31.0, 24.32.1, 24.82.2 and 25.51.8C on site, 0-50 m, 50–100 m, 100–200 m and 200–500 m respectively for 2000 images and 23.20.3, 23.270.2, 23.71.6, 241.4 and 24.71.3C on site, 0–50 m, 50–100 m

Urban forest topographical mapping using UAV LIDAR

Science.gov (United States)

Putut Ash Shidiq, Iqbal; Wibowo, Adi; Kusratmoko, Eko; Indratmoko, Satria; Ardhianto, Ronni; Prasetyo Nugroho, Budi

2017-12-01

Topographical data is highly needed by many parties, such as government institution, mining companies and agricultural sectors. It is not just about the precision, the acquisition time and data processing are also carefully considered. In relation with forest management, a high accuracy topographic map is necessary for planning, close monitoring and evaluating forest changes. One of the solution to quickly and precisely mapped topography is using remote sensing system. In this study, we test high-resolution data using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) collected from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to map topography and differentiate vegetation classes based on height in urban forest area of University of Indonesia (UI). The semi-automatic and manual classifications were applied to divide point clouds into two main classes, namely ground and vegetation. There were 15,806,380 point clouds obtained during the post-process, in which 2.39% of it were detected as ground.

Assessing a Suitable Contribution of the French Armor Branch to the Doctrinal Development of Violence: Mastering Operations in the Urban Environment

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Millet, Jean-Michel

2003-01-01

.... This study analyzes the current state of the French Army doctrinal development of armor employment in the violence-mastering mode in the urban environment and compare it to the lessons learned...

Factors influencing buyers' willingness to offer price premiums for carbon credits sourced from urban forests

Science.gov (United States)

N.C. Poudyal; J.M. Bowker; J.P. Siry

2015-01-01

Marketing carbon offset credits generated by urban forest projects could help cities and local governments achieve their financial self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability goals. Understanding the value of carbon credits sourced from urban forests, and the factors that determine buyers’ willingness to pay a premium for such credits could benefit cities in...

Nutritional status among the Shabar tribal children living in urban, rural and forest habitats of Orissa, India

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Suman Chakrabarty

2010-09-01

Full Text Available

Background: The current trend towards increasing urbanization due to urban migration among the scheduled tribes in developing countries like India should be reflected in differential nutritional outcomes and its associated factors. The aims of the present study are to investigate the nutritional status amongst Shabar children living in urban, rural and forest habitats and factors associated to nutritional state.

Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among 577 Shabar children (boys and girls aged 5 to 19 years (258 urban, 195 rural and 124 forest. The anthropometric nutritional indices, socio-economic condition and disease prevalence were used to evaluate the present conditions.

Results: The results revealed that children from forest regions had the highest prevalence of under-nutrition followed by their rural and urban counterparts, 33.87%, 24.62% and 20.16%, respectively. Malaria prevalence in forest areas and economic conditions in rural and urban habitats might have been significantly related to underweight and stunting.

Conclusions: To reduce the prevalence and the extent of under-nutrition, it is essential to improve the economic conditions and to simultaneously carry out measurements for reducing malaria specifically in forest habitats.

Citizen Science for Urban Forest Management? Predicting the Data Density and Richness of Urban Forest Volunteered Geographic Information

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Alec Foster

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Volunteered geographic information (VGI has been heralded as a promising new data source for urban planning and policymaking. However, there are also concerns surrounding uneven levels of participation and spatial coverage, despite the promotion of VGI as a means to increase access to geographic knowledge production. To begin addressing these concerns, this research examines the spatial distribution and data richness of urban forest VGI in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and San Francisco, California. Using ordinary least squares (OLS, general linear models (GLM, and spatial autoregressive models, our findings reveal that sociodemographic and environmental indicators are strong predictors of both densities of attributed trees and data richness. Although recent digital urban tree inventory applications present significant opportunities for collaborative data gathering, innovative research, and improved policymaking, asymmetries in the quantity and quality of the data may undermine their effectiveness. If these incomplete and uneven datasets are used in policymaking, environmental justice issues may arise.

Growing Canopy on a College Campus: Understanding Urban Forest Change through Archival Records and Aerial Photography.

Science.gov (United States)

Roman, Lara A; Fristensky, Jason P; Eisenman, Theodore S; Greenfield, Eric J; Lundgren, Robert E; Cerwinka, Chloe E; Hewitt, David A; Welsh, Caitlin C

2017-12-01

Many municipalities are setting ambitious tree canopy cover goals to increase the extent of their urban forests. A historical perspective on urban forest development can help cities strategize how to establish and achieve appropriate tree cover targets. To understand how long-term urban forest change occurs, we examined the history of trees on an urban college campus: the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Using a mixed methods approach, including qualitative assessments of archival records (1870-2017), complemented by quantitative analysis of tree cover from aerial imagery (1970-2012), our analysis revealed drastic canopy cover increase in the late 20th and early 21st centuries along with the principle mechanisms of that change. We organized the historical narrative into periods reflecting campus planting actions and management approaches; these periods are also connected to broader urban greening and city planning movements, such as City Beautiful and urban sustainability. University faculty in botany, landscape architecture, and urban design contributed to the design of campus green spaces, developed comprehensive landscape plans, and advocated for campus trees. A 1977 Landscape Development Plan was particularly influential, setting forth design principles and planting recommendations that enabled the dramatic canopy cover gains we observed, and continue to guide landscape management today. Our results indicate that increasing urban tree cover requires generational time scales and systematic management coupled with a clear urban design vision and long-term commitments. With the campus as a microcosm of broader trends in urban forest development, we conclude with a discussion of implications for municipal tree cover planning.

Growing Canopy on a College Campus: Understanding Urban Forest Change through Archival Records and Aerial Photography

Science.gov (United States)

Roman, Lara A.; Fristensky, Jason P.; Eisenman, Theodore S.; Greenfield, Eric J.; Lundgren, Robert E.; Cerwinka, Chloe E.; Hewitt, David A.; Welsh, Caitlin C.

2017-12-01

Many municipalities are setting ambitious tree canopy cover goals to increase the extent of their urban forests. A historical perspective on urban forest development can help cities strategize how to establish and achieve appropriate tree cover targets. To understand how long-term urban forest change occurs, we examined the history of trees on an urban college campus: the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Using a mixed methods approach, including qualitative assessments of archival records (1870-2017), complemented by quantitative analysis of tree cover from aerial imagery (1970-2012), our analysis revealed drastic canopy cover increase in the late 20th and early 21st centuries along with the principle mechanisms of that change. We organized the historical narrative into periods reflecting campus planting actions and management approaches; these periods are also connected to broader urban greening and city planning movements, such as City Beautiful and urban sustainability. University faculty in botany, landscape architecture, and urban design contributed to the design of campus green spaces, developed comprehensive landscape plans, and advocated for campus trees. A 1977 Landscape Development Plan was particularly influential, setting forth design principles and planting recommendations that enabled the dramatic canopy cover gains we observed, and continue to guide landscape management today. Our results indicate that increasing urban tree cover requires generational time scales and systematic management coupled with a clear urban design vision and long-term commitments. With the campus as a microcosm of broader trends in urban forest development, we conclude with a discussion of implications for municipal tree cover planning.

Tree diversity in southern California’s urban forest: the interacting roles of social and environmental variables

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Meghan eAvolio

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Socio-economic and environmental drivers are important determinants urban plant richness patterns. The scale at which these patterns are observed in different regions, however, has not been explored. In arid regions, where forests are not native, the majority of the urban forest is planted, and trees are presumably chosen for specific attributes. Here, we investigate the role of spatial scales and the relative importance of environmental versus socio-economic drivers in determining the community structure of southern California’s urban forest. Second, we assess the usefulness of ecosystem service-based traits for understanding patterns of urban biodiversity, compared with species composition data. Third, we test whether resident preferences for specific tree attributes are important for understanding patterns of species composition and diversity. We studied tree communities in 37 neighborhoods in three southern California counties (Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside. The urban forest in southern California is very diverse with 114 species. Using multiple regression analyses we found socio-economic drivers were generally more important than environmental and the strength of the relationship between urban forest community structure and socio-economic drivers depended on whether we were analyzing within or across counties. There was greater tree richness in wealthier neighborhoods compared with less affluent neighborhoods across all counties and Orange County, but not in Los Angeles or Riverside counties alone. We also found a greater proportion of residential shade trees in hotter neighborhoods than in cooler neighborhoods, which corresponds with survey results of residents’ preferences for tree attributes. Ultimately our study demonstrates that the species richness and functional traits of urban tree communities are influenced by managers’ and residents’ preferences and perceptions of urban tree traits.

Carbon sequestration and storage by Gainesville's urban forest

Science.gov (United States)

Francisco Escobedo; Jennifer A. Seitz; Wayne Zipperer

2009-01-01

Climate change is a world-wide issue, and it may seem as if only actions by national governments can work effectively against it. In fact individuals and small communities, too, can make wise choices and impacts. Communities can mitigate climate change through reducing fossil fuel consumption and good management of its urban forest....

Urbanization in the US: land use trends, impacts on forest area, projections, and policy considerations

Science.gov (United States)

Ralph Alig

2010-01-01

Since World War II, socio-economic drivers of US urbanization such as population totals and personal income levels have increased substantially. Human land use is the primary force driving changes in forest ecosystem attributes including forest area, which is the focus of this paper. The percentage of the US population residing in urban areas is higher than that in...

Wildland–Urban Interface Forest Entrepreneurs: A Look at a New Trend

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R. Bruce Hull; Katie Nelson

2011-01-01

Wildland–Urban interface forest (WUIF) entrepreneurs are finding a niche in fragmenting forests. Most successful entrepreneurs are either scaling down from their forestry and logging backgrounds or scaling up from green industry. They are skilled in some aspects of working with WUIF owners but often need additional tools, including people and marketing skills, business...

Exotic grasses and nitrate enrichment alter soil carbon cycling along an urban-rural tropical forest gradient.

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Cusack, Daniela F; Lee, Joseph K; McCleery, Taylor L; LeCroy, Chase S

2015-12-01

Urban areas are expanding rapidly in tropical regions, with potential to alter ecosystem dynamics. In particular, exotic grasses and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition simultaneously affect tropical urbanized landscapes, with unknown effects on properties like soil carbon (C) storage. We hypothesized that (H1) soil nitrate (NO3 (-) ) is elevated nearer to the urban core, reflecting N deposition gradients. (H2) Exotic grasslands have elevated soil NO3 (-) and decreased soil C relative to secondary forests, with higher N promoting decomposer activity. (H3) Exotic grasslands have greater seasonality in soil NO3 (-) vs. secondary forests, due to higher sensitivity of grassland soil moisture to rainfall. We predicted that NO3 (-) would be positively related to dissolved organic C (DOC) production via changes in decomposer activity. We measured six paired grassland/secondary forest sites along a tropical urban-to-rural gradient during the three dominant seasons (hurricane, dry, and early wet). We found that (1) soil NO3 (-) was generally elevated nearer to the urban core, with particularly clear spatial trends for grasslands. (2) Exotic grasslands had lower soil C than secondary forests, which was related to elevated decomposer enzyme activities and soil respiration. Unexpectedly, soil NO3 (-) was negatively related to enzyme activities, and was lower in grasslands than forests. (3) Grasslands had greater soil NO3 (-) seasonality vs. forests, but this was not strongly linked to shifts in soil moisture or DOC. Our results suggest that exotic grasses in tropical regions are likely to drastically reduce soil C storage, but that N deposition may have an opposite effect via suppression of enzyme activities. However, soil NO3 (-) accumulation here was higher in urban forests than grasslands, potentially related to of aboveground N interception. Net urban effects on C storage across tropical landscapes will likely vary depending on the mosaic of grass cover, rates of N

Enjoying green cities: Assessing visitors' attitude and preferences of urban forests in Washington, D.C.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogelio II Andrada; Jinyang. Deng

2012-01-01

This study examined the attitudes and preferences of visitors toWashington, D.C., one of the top tourism cities in the United States. Results of a visitor survey conducted at two sites show that respondents have a highly positive attitude towards the city's urban forest and that their appreciation of the urban forest has a positive influence on their experiences...

The Urban Forest and Ecosystem Services: Impacts on Urban Water, Heat, and Pollution Cycles at the Tree, Street, and City Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Livesley, S J; McPherson, G M; Calfapietra, C

2016-01-01

Many environmental challenges are exacerbated within the urban landscape, such as stormwater runoff and flood risk, chemical and particulate pollution of urban air, soil and water, the urban heat island, and summer heat waves. Urban trees, and the urban forest as a whole, can be managed to have an impact on the urban water, heat, carbon and pollution cycles. However, there is an increasing need for empirical evidence as to the magnitude of the impacts, both beneficial and adverse, that urban trees can provide and the role that climatic region and built landscape circumstance play in modifying those impacts. This special section presents new research that advances our knowledge of the ecological and environmental services provided by the urban forest. The 14 studies included provide a global perspective on the role of trees in towns and cities from five continents. Some studies provide evidence for the cooling benefit of the local microclimate in urban green space with and without trees. Other studies focus solely on the cooling benefit of urban tree transpiration at a mesoscale or on cooling from canopy shade at a street and pedestrian scale. Other studies are concerned with tree species differences in canopy interception of rainfall, water uptake from biofilter systems, and water quality improvements through nutrient uptake from stormwater runoff. Research reported here also considers both the positive and the negative impacts of trees on air quality, through the role of trees in removing air pollutants such as ozone as well as in releasing potentially harmful volatile organic compounds and allergenic particulates. A transdisciplinary framework to support future urban forest research is proposed to better understand and communicate the role of urban trees in urban biogeochemical cycles that are highly disturbed, highly managed, and of paramount importance to human health and well-being. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of

According to the Method of Gulez Evaluation of the Recreational Potential of Kafkasör Urban Forest

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Hilal Yılmaz

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Urban people not only attempt to satisfy their hunger for nature by performing some recreational activities in natural areas in their proximities but also they challenge to regain disappeared natural areas in and around their cities in order to make residential areas more liveable. When considered the conditions today, urban trees and forests have turned out to be obligatory facilities for urban people since they provide not only recreational services but also contributions to city aesthetics, public health (with clean air and oxygen supply, human psychology, city and national economy and urban ecology. In this study, it was aimed to determine the existent recreational potentials of Kafkasör urban forest in Artvin city by evaluating the recreational conditions of urban forests. For this aim, recreational value of Artvin Urban Forest tried to be calculated according to Gülez’s method in order to determine existent potentials of recreational areas. As the result of the study, it was found that recreational potential rate of the area was 66.9 %, which shows the area has high recreational potential. The most important factor affecting this high potential was found to be the landscape characteristics the area has and recreational facilities the area provides.

[Soil meso- and micro-fauna community structures in different urban forest types in Shanghai, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Shi Ke; Wang, Juan Juan; Zhu, Sha; Zhang, Qi; Li, Xiang; Zheng, Wen Jing; You, Wen Hui

2016-07-01

Soil meso- and micro-fauna of four urban forest types in Shanghai were investigated in four months which include April 2014, July 2014, October 2014 and January 2015. A total of 2190 soil fauna individuals which belong to 6 phyla, 15 classes and 22 groups were collected. The dominant groups were Nematoda and Arcari, accounting for 56.0% and 21.8% of the total in terms of individual numbers respectively. The common groups were Enchytraeidae, Rotatoria, Collembola and Hymenoptera and they accounted for 18.7% of the total in terms of individual numbers. There was a significant difference (PMetasequoia glyptostroboides forest, the smallest in Cinnamomum camphora forest. The largest groupe number was found in near-nature forest, the smallest was found in M. glyptostroboides forest. There was obvious seasonal dynamics in each urban forest type and green space which had larger density in autumn and larger groupe number in summer and autumn. In soil profiles, the degree of surface accumulation of soil meso- and micro-fauna in C. camphora forest was higher than in other forests and the vertical distribution of soil meso- and micro-fauna in near-nature forest was relatively homogeneous in four layers. Density-group index was ranked as: near-nature forest (6.953)> C. camphora forest (6.351)> Platanus forest (6.313)>M. glyptostroboides forest (5.910). The community diversity of soil fauna in each vegetation type could be displayed preferably by this index. It could be inferred through redundancy analysis (RDA) that the soil bulk density, organic matter and total nitrogen were the main environmental factors influencing soil meso- and micro-fauna community structure in urban forest. The positive correlations occurred between the individual number of Arcari, Enchytraeidae and soil organic matter and total nitrogen, as well as between the individual number of Diptera larvae, Rotatoria and soil water content.

Mapping urban forest structure and function using hyperspectral imagery and lidar data

Science.gov (United States)

Michael Alonzo; Joseph P. McFadden; David J. Nowak; Dar A. Roberts

2016-01-01

Cities measure the structure and function of their urban forest resource to optimize forest managementand the provision of ecosystem services. Measurements made using plot sampling methods yield useful results including citywide or land-use level estimates of species counts, leaf area, biomass, and air pollution reduction. However, these quantities are statistical...

Emerald ash borer impacts on visual preferences for urban forest recreation settings

Science.gov (United States)

Arne Arnberger; Ingrid E. Schneider; Martin Ebenberger; Renate Eder; Robert C. Venette; Stephanie A. Snyder; Paul H. Gobster; Ami Choi; Stuart Cottrell

2017-01-01

Extensive outbreaks of the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis; EAB), an invasive forest insect, are having serious impacts on the cultural ecosystem services of urban forests in the United States and other countries. Limited experience with how such outbreaks might affect recreational opportunities prompted this investigation of visitors to a...

Eutrophication of an Urban Forest Ecosystem: Causes and Effects

Science.gov (United States)

Bednova, O. V.; Kuznetsov, V. A.; Tarasova, N. P.

2018-01-01

The combined use of methods of passive dosimetry of the status of atmospheric air, phytoindication, and cartographic visualization of data made it possible to elaborate and substantiate approaches to evaluation of the effect of atmospheric air contamination on the eutrophication of forest ecosystems under urban conditions.

Low Impact Development Master Plan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Loftin, Samuel R. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-10-02

This project creates a Low Impact Development (LID) Master Plan to guide and prioritize future development of LID projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL or the Laboratory). The LID Master Plan applies to developed areas across the Laboratory and focuses on identifying opportunities for storm water quality and hydrological improvements in the heavily urbanized areas of Technical Areas 03, 35 and 53. The LID Master Plan is organized to allow the addition of LID projects for other technical areas as time and funds allow in the future.

Impact of Urban Heat Island under the Hanoi Master Plan 2030 on Cooling Loads in Residential Buildings

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Tran Hoang Hai Nam

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This study aims to evaluate the influence of urban heat island (UHI under the Hanoi Master Plan 2030 on the energy consumption for space cooling in residential buildings. The weather conditions under the current and future status (master plan condition simulated in the previous study (Trihamdani et al., 2014 were used and cooling loads in all the residential buildings in Hanoi over the hottest month were estimated under the simulated current and future conditions by using the building simulation program, TRNSYS (v17. Three most typical housing types in the city were selected for the simulation. The cooling loads of respective housing types were obtained in each of the districts in Hanoi. The results show that the total cooling loads over June 2010 is approximately 683 Terajoule (TJ under the current status, but it is predicted to increase to 903 TJ under the master plan condition. The increment is largely due to the increase in number of households (203 TJ or 92%, but partially due to the increase in urban temperature, i.e. UHI effect (17 TJ or 8%. The increments in new built-up areas were found to be larger than those in existing built-up areas. The cooling load in apartment is approximately half of that in detached house, which is approximately half of that in row house. Moreover, it was seen that although sensible cooling loads increased with the increase in outdoor temperature, the latent cooling loads decreased due to the decrease in absolute humidity and the increase in air temperature.

Atmospheric pollutants in peri-urban forests of Quercus ilex: evidence of pollution abatement and threats for vegetation.

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García-Gómez, Héctor; Aguillaume, Laura; Izquieta-Rojano, Sheila; Valiño, Fernando; Àvila, Anna; Elustondo, David; Santamaría, Jesús M; Alastuey, Andrés; Calvete-Sogo, Héctor; González-Fernández, Ignacio; Alonso, Rocío

2016-04-01

Peri-urban vegetation is generally accepted as a significant remover of atmospheric pollutants, but it could also be threatened by these compounds, with origin in both urban and non-urban areas. To characterize the seasonal and geographical variation of pollutant concentrations and to improve the empirical understanding of the influence of Mediterranean broadleaf evergreen forests on air quality, four forests of Quercus ilex (three peri-urban and one remote) were monitored in different areas in Spain. Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ammonia (NH3), nitric acid (HNO3) and ozone (O3) were measured during 2 years in open areas and inside the forests and aerosols (PM10) were monitored in open areas during 1 year. Ozone was the only air pollutant expected to have direct phytotoxic effects on vegetation according to current thresholds for the protection of vegetation. The concentrations of N compounds were not high enough to directly affect vegetation but could be contributing through atmospheric N deposition to the eutrophization of these ecosystems. Peri-urban forests of Q. ilex showed a significant below-canopy reduction of gaseous concentrations (particularly NH3, with a mean reduction of 29-38%), which indicated the feasibility of these forests to provide an ecosystem service of air quality improvement. Well-designed monitoring programs are needed to further investigate air quality improvement by peri-urban ecosystems while assessing the threat that air pollution can pose to vegetation.

Comparison of methods for estimating carbon dioxide storage by Sacramento's urban forest

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Elena Aguaron; E. Gregory McPherson

2012-01-01

Limited open-grown urban tree species biomass equations have necessitated use of forest-derived equations with diverse conclusions on the accuracy of these equations to estimate urban biomass and carbon storage. Our goal was to determine and explain variability among estimates of CO2 storage from four sets of allometric equations for the same...

Quercus rubra-associated ectomycorrhizal fungal communities of disturbed urban sites and mature forests.

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Karpati, Amy S; Handel, Steven N; Dighton, John; Horton, Thomas R

2011-08-01

The presence and quality of the belowground mycorrhizal fungal community could greatly influence plant community structure and host species response. This study tests whether mycorrhizal fungal communities in areas highly impacted by anthropogenic disturbance and urbanization are less species rich or exhibit lower host root colonization rates when compared to those of less disturbed systems. Using a soil bioassay, we sampled the ectomycorrhizal fungal (EMF) communities associating with Quercus rubra (northern red oak) seedlings in soil collected from seven sites: two mature forest reference sites and five urban sites of varying levels of disturbance. Morphological and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses of fungi colonizing root tips revealed that colonization rates and fungal species richness were significantly lower on root systems of seedlings grown in disturbed site soils. Analysis of similarity showed that EMF community composition was not significantly different among several urban site soils but did differ significantly between mature forest sites and all but one urban site. We identified a suite of fungal species that occurred across several urban sites. Lack of a diverse community of belowground mutualists could be a constraint on urban plant community development, especially of late-successional woodlands. Analysis of urban EMF communities can add to our understanding of urban plant community structure and should be addressed during ecological assessment before pragmatic decisions to restore habitats are framed.

Urban Logistics in Master Plan and a Review on Istanbul Master Plan

OpenAIRE

Senay Oguztimur; Metin Canci

2011-01-01

Urban logistics might be called as city logistics, urban freight transportation is a specific subsection of logistics concept. Urban logistics is generally based on logistics and freight activities in urban areas and focus on these activities' linkage with urban areas. Urban logistics issues might be evaluated under seven subtitles: These are respectively: logistics activities regarding with citizen subsistence, energy supply, industrial manufacturing, construction-maintenance activities, par...

Quantifying the Impact of Different Ways to Delimit Study Areas on the Assessment of Species Diversity of an Urban Forest

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Rongxiao He

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Assessing the species diversity of an urban forest is important for understanding its structure and functions, but the result can be affected by sampling methods, times, and delimitations of the study area. In this study, we examined the influence of different ways to delimit boundaries of urban areas on the assessment of species diversity of urban forests through a case study conducted in Haikou, China. We surveyed the species diversity of the urban forest in Haikou twice using the same sampling protocol but two commonly used delimitations of the urban area. The two surveys produced significantly different estimates of species richness of the urban forest. Recorded species richness was 228 (144 woody and 84 herbaceous species and 303 (164 woody and 139 herbaceous species for the first and the second survey, respectively. The rarefaction analysis indicated that species richness of woody plants recorded in the two surveys could converge by doubling the sample size, but species richness of herbaceous plants was significantly different between the two surveys at the 95% confidence interval even at three times the original sample size. The value of the Simpson dissimilarity index between the two surveys was 0.417 and 0.357 for woody and herbaceous plants respectively, which implied noticeable dissimilarity of species compositions of plant assemblages in the two areas. We concluded that the assessment of biodiversity of an urban forest can be affected significantly by how the boundary of an urban area is defined. Caution should be taken when comparing species diversities of urban forests reported in different studies, especially when richness measures are used.

FLORULA URBAN FRAGMENT OF TROPICAL DRY FOREST

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Willington Barranco-Pérez

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to record the composition of plant species in an urban fragment of tropical dry forest of secondary regeneration (bs-T to generate information that can be used in the planning and management of green spaces in the city of Santa Marta. Transects of 2 x 50 m were established equivalent to 0.1 ha and all species were counted >1.0 cm DBH (Diameter at Breast Height: 1.3m. 100 species of angiosperms were recorded of which 47% have herbaceous habit. The number of species recorded in this study represents 39.6% of the species reported for the hills of Santa Marta and 3.8% for the dry forests of Colombia. It is suggested to isolate this type of secondary formations of any intervention and contemplate the reintroduction of individuals and conservation strategies.

Delivering a Multi-Functional and Resilient Urban Forest

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James D. Hale

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Tree planting is widely advocated and applied in urban areas, with large-scale projects underway in cities globally. Numerous potential benefits are used to justify these planting campaigns. However, reports of poor tree survival raise questions about the ability of such projects to deliver on their promises over the long-term. Each potential benefit requires different supporting conditions—relating not only to the type and placement of the tree, but also to the broader urban system within which it is embedded. This set of supporting conditions may not always be mutually compatible and may not persist for the lifetime of the tree. Here, we demonstrate a systems-based approach that makes these dependencies, synergies, and tensions more explicit, allowing them to be used to test the decadal-scale resilience of urban street trees. Our analysis highlights social, environmental, and economic assumptions that are implicit within planting projects; notably that high levels of maintenance and public support for urban street trees will persist throughout their natural lifespan, and that the surrounding built form will remain largely unchanged. Whilst the vulnerability of each benefit may be highly context specific, we identify approaches that address some typical weaknesses, making a functional, resilient, urban forest more attainable.

Teachers, Traditions, and Transformation: Keynote Address Delivered at the 9th Annual Master's Capstone Conference for the Urban Teacher Master's and Certification Program at the University of Pennsylvania on 29 April 2014

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Smith, John F., III

2015-01-01

An alumnus of both Teach For America and the master's program in urban education at the University of Pennsylvania, John F. Smith III delivered the following address on April 29, 2014, to teachers in the 2013 and 2014 cohorts of Teach For America in Philadelphia. Program organizers invited him to provide remarks during the capstone event and to…

Changes in soil carbon sequestration in Pinus massoniana forests along an urban-to-rural gradient of southern China

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H. Chen

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Urbanization is accelerating globally, causing a variety of environmental changes such as increases in air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric CO2, and nitrogen (N deposition. However, the effects of these changes on forest soil carbon (C sequestration remain largely unclear. Here, we used urban-to-rural environmental gradients in Guangdong Province, southern China, to address the potential effects of these environmental changes on soil C sequestration in Pinus massoniana forests. In contrast to our expectations and earlier observations, soil C content in urban sites was significantly lower than that in suburban and rural sites. Lower soil C pools in urban sites were correlated with a significant decrease in fine root biomass and a potential increase in soil organic C decomposition. Variation of soil C pools was also a function of change in soil C fractions. Heavy fraction C content in urban sites was significantly lower than that in suburban and rural sites. By contrast, light fraction C content did not vary significantly along the urban-to-rural gradient. Our results suggest that urbanization-induced environmental changes may have a negative effect on forest soil C in the studied region.

Assessing urban forest effects and values of the Great Plains: Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota

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David J. Nowak; Robert E. III Hoehn; Daniel E. Crane; Allison R. Bodine

2012-01-01

This report details the evaluation of the urban tree resources of the north-central Great Plains region of the United States. Specifically this report provides a more comprehensive understanding of the species composition and structural and functional benefits of the urban forests in the states of Kansas (33.1 million urban trees), Nebraska (13.3 million urban trees),...

Urban forests' potential to supply marketable carbon emission offsets: a survey of municipal governments in the United States

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Neelam C. Poudyal; Jacek P. Siry; J. M. Bowker

2010-01-01

This study assesses the motivation, willingness, and technical as well as managerial capacities of U.S. cities to store carbon and sell carbon offsets. Based on a national survey of urban foresters, arborists, and other officials responsible for urban forest management within U.S. municipal governments, results indicate that local governments are interested in selling...

Air contaminants and litter fall decomposition in urban forest areas: The case of São Paulo - SP, Brazil.

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Lamano Ferreira, Maurício; Portella Ribeiro, Andreza; Rodrigues Albuquerque, Caroline; Ferreira, Ana Paula do Nascimento Lamano; Figueira, Rubens César Lopes; Lafortezza, Raffaele

2017-05-01

Urban forests are usually affected by several types of atmospheric contaminants and by abnormal variations in weather conditions, thus facilitating the biotic homogenization and modification of ecosystem processes, such as nutrient cycling. Peri-urban forests and even natural forests that surround metropolitan areas are also subject to anthropogenic effects generated by cities, which may compromise the dynamics of these ecosystems. Hence, this study advances the hypothesis that the forests located at the margins of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP), Brazil, have high concentrations of atmospheric contaminants leading to adverse effects on litter fall stock. The production, stock and decomposition of litter fall in two forests were quantified. The first, known as Guarapiranga forest, lies closer to the urban area and is located within the MRSP, approximately 20km from the city center. The second, Curucutu forest, is located 70km from the urban center. This forest is situated exactly on the border of the largest continuum of vegetation of the Atlantic Forest. To verify the reach of atmospheric pollutants from the urban area, levels of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu) adsorbed on the litter fall deposited on the soil surface of the forests were also quantified. The stock of litter fall and the levels of heavy metals were generally higher in the Guarapiranga forest in the samples collected during the lower rainfall season (dry season). Non-metric multidimensional scaling multivariate analysis showed a clear distinction of the sample units related to the concentrations of heavy metals in each forest. A subtle difference between the units related to the dry and rainy seasons in the Curucutu forest was also noted. Multivariate Analysis of Variance revealed that both site and season of the year (dry or rainy) were important to differentiate the quantity of heavy metals in litter fall stock, although the analysis did not show the interaction between these two

A mixed-methods analysis of social-ecological feedbacks between urbanization and forest persistence

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Todd BenDor

2014-09-01

Full Text Available We examined how social-ecological factors in the land-change decision-making process influenced neighboring decisions and trajectories of alternative landscape ecologies. We decomposed individual landowner decisions to conserve or develop forests in the rapidly growing Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. region, exposing and quantifying the effects of forest quality, and social and cultural dynamics. We tested the hypothesis that the intrinsic value of forest resources, e.g., cultural attachment to land, influence woodland owners' propensity to sell. Data were collected from a sample of urban, nonindustrial private forest (U-NIPF owners using an individualized survey design that spatially matched land-owner responses to the ecological and timber values of their forest stands. Cluster analysis (n = 126 revealed four woodland owner typologies with widely ranging views on the ecosystem, cultural, and historical values of their forests. Classification tree analysis revealed woodland owners' willingness to sell was characterized by nonlinear, interactive factors, including sense of place values regarding the retention of native vegetation, the size of forest holdings, their connectedness to nature, 'pressure' from surrounding development, and behavioral patterns, such as how often landowners visit their land. Several ecological values and economic factors were not found to figure in the decision to retain forests. Our study design is unique in that we address metropolitan forest persistence across urban-rural and population gradients using a unique individualized survey design that richly contextualizes survey responses. Understanding the interplay between policies and landowner behavior can also help resource managers to better manage and promote forest persistence. Given the region's paucity of policy tools to manage the type and amount of development, the mosaic of land cover the region currently enjoys is far from stable.

Urban Logistics in Master Plan and a Review on İstanbul Master Plan

OpenAIRE

Oguztimur, Senay; Canci, Metin

2011-01-01

Urban logistics might be called as city logistics, urban freight transportation is a specific subsection of logistics concept. Urban logistics is generally based on logistics and freight activities in urban areas and focus on these activities' linkage with urban areas. Urban logistics issues might be evaluated under seven subtitles: These are respectively: logistics activities regarding with citizen subsistence, energy supply, industrial manufacturing, construction-maintenance activities, par...

Land use context and natural soil controls on plant community and soil nitrogen and carbon dynamics in urban and rural forests

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Peter M. Groffman; Richard V. Pouyat; Mary L. Cadenasso; Wayne C. Zipperer; Katalin Szlavecz; Ian D. Yesilonis; Lawrence E. Band; Grace S. Brush

2006-01-01

Forests embedded in an urban matrix are a useful venue for investigating the effects of multiple factors such as climate change, altered disturbance regimes and species invasions on forest ecosystems. Urban forests also represent a significant land area, with potentially important effects on landscape and regional scale nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) storage and flux. We...

Case study: Rainfall partitioning across a natural-to-urban forest gradient during an extreme rain event

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Akin, B. H.; Van Stan, J. T., II; Cote, J. F.; Jarvis, M. T.; Underwood, J.; Friesen, J.; Hildebrandt, A.; Maldonado, G.

2017-12-01

Trees' partitioning of rainfall is an important first process along the rainfall-to-runoff pathway that has economically significant influences on urban stormwater management. However, important knowledge gaps exist regarding (1) its role during extreme storms and (2) how this role changes as forest structure is altered by urbanization. Little research has been conducted on canopy rainfall partitioning during large, intense storms, likely because canopy water storage is rapidly overwhelmed (i.e., 1-3 mm) by short duration events exceeding, for example, 80 mm of rainfall. However, canopy structure controls more than just storage; it also affects the time for rain to drain to the surface (becoming throughfall) and the micrometeorological conditions that drive wet canopy evaporation. In fact, observations from an example extreme ( 100 mm with maximum 5-minute intensities exceeding 55 mm/h) storm across a urban-to-natural gradient in pine forests in southeast Georgia (USA), show that storm intensities were differentially dampened by 33% (tree row), 28% (forest fragment), and 17% (natural forests). In addition, maximum wet canopy evaporation rates were higher for the exposed tree row (0.18 mm/h) than for the partially-enclosed fragment canopy (0.14 mm/h) and the closed canopy natural forest site (0.11). This resulted in interception percentages decreasing from urban-to-natural stand structures (25% to 16%). A synoptic analysis of the extreme storm in this case study also shows that the mesoscale meteorological conditions that developed the heavy rainfall is expected to occur more often with projected climate changes.

Problem-solving performance and reproductive success of great tits in urban and forest habitats.

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Preiszner, Bálint; Papp, Sándor; Pipoly, Ivett; Seress, Gábor; Vincze, Ernő; Liker, András; Bókony, Veronika

2017-01-01

Success in problem solving, a form of innovativeness, can help animals exploit their environments, and recent research suggests that it may correlate with reproductive success. Innovativeness has been proposed to be especially beneficial in urbanized habitats, as suggested by superior problem-solving performance of urban individuals in some species. If there is stronger selection for innovativeness in cities than in natural habitats, we expect problem-solving performance to have a greater positive effect on fitness in more urbanized habitats. We tested this idea in great tits (Parus major) breeding at two urban sites and two forests by measuring their problem-solving performance in an obstacle-removal task and a food-acquisition task. Urban pairs were significantly faster problem-solvers in both tasks. Solving speed in the obstacle-removal task was positively correlated with hatching success and the number of fledglings, whereas performance in the food-acquisition task did not correlate with reproductive success. These relationships did not differ between urban and forest habitats. Neophobia, sensitivity to human disturbance, and risk taking in the presence of a predator did not explain the relationships of problem-solving performance either with habitat type or with reproductive success. Our results suggest that the benefit of innovativeness in terms of reproductive success is similar in urban and natural habitats, implying that problem-solving skills may be enhanced in urban populations by some other benefits (e.g. increased survival) or reduced costs (e.g. more opportunities to gain practice with challenging tasks).

MODELING URBAN DYNAMICS USING RANDOM FOREST: IMPLEMENTING ROC AND TOC FOR MODEL EVALUATION

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M. Ahmadlou

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The importance of spatial accuracy of land use/cover change maps necessitates the use of high performance models. To reach this goal, calibrating machine learning (ML approaches to model land use/cover conversions have received increasing interest among the scholars. This originates from the strength of these techniques as they powerfully account for the complex relationships underlying urban dynamics. Compared to other ML techniques, random forest has rarely been used for modeling urban growth. This paper, drawing on information from the multi-temporal Landsat satellite images of 1985, 2000 and 2015, calibrates a random forest regression (RFR model to quantify the variable importance and simulation of urban change spatial patterns. The results and performance of RFR model were evaluated using two complementary tools, relative operating characteristics (ROC and total operating characteristics (TOC, by overlaying the map of observed change and the modeled suitability map for land use change (error map. The suitability map produced by RFR model showed 82.48% area under curve for the ROC model which indicates a very good performance and highlights its appropriateness for simulating urban growth.

The role of composition, invasives, and maintenance emissions on urban forest carbon stocks.

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Horn, Josh; Escobedo, Francisco J; Hinkle, Ross; Hostetler, Mark; Timilsina, Nilesh

2015-02-01

There are few field-based, empirical studies quantifying the effect of invasive trees and palms and maintenance-related carbon emissions on changes in urban forest carbon stocks. We estimated carbon (C) stock changes and tree maintenance-related C emissions in a subtropical urban forest by re-measuring a subsample of residential permanent plots during 2009 and 2011, using regional allometric biomass equations, and surveying residential homeowners near Orlando, FL, USA. The effect of native, non-native, invasive tree species and palms on C stocks and sequestration was also quantified. Findings show 17.8 tC/ha in stocks and 1.2 tC/ha/year of net sequestration. The most important species both by frequency of C stocks and sequestration were Quercus laurifolia Michx. and Quercus virginiana Mill., accounting for 20% of all the trees measured; 60% of carbon stocks and over 75% of net C sequestration. Palms contributed to less than 1% of the total C stocks. Natives comprised two-thirds of the tree population and sequestered 90% of all C, while invasive trees and palms accounted for 5 % of net C sequestration. Overall, invasive and exotic trees had a limited contribution to total C stocks and sequestration. Annual tree-related maintenance C emissions were 0.1% of total gross C sequestration. Plot-level tree, palm, and litter cover were correlated to C stocks and net sequestration. Findings can be used to complement existing urban forest C offset accounting and monitoring protocols and to better understand the role of invasive woody plants on urban ecosystem service provision.

[Simulation of three-dimensional green biomass of urban forests in Shenyang City and the factors affecting the biomass].

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Liu, Chang-Fu; He, Xing-Yuan; Chen, Wei; Zhao, Gui-Ling; Xue, Wen-Duo

2008-06-01

Based on the fractal theory of forest growth, stepwise regression was employed to pursue a convenient and efficient method of measuring the three-dimensional green biomass (TGB) of urban forests in small area. A total of thirteen simulation equations of TGB of urban forests in Shenyang City were derived, with the factors affecting the TGB analyzed. The results showed that the coefficients of determination (R2) of the 13 simulation equations ranged from 0.612 to 0.842. No evident pattern was shown in residual analysis, and the precisions were all higher than 87% (alpha = 0.05) and 83% (alpha = 0.01). The most convenient simulation equation was ln Y = 7.468 + 0.926 lnx1, where Y was the simulated TGB and x1 was basal area at breast height per hectare (SDB). The correlations between the standard regression coefficients of the simulation equations and 16 tree characteristics suggested that SDB was the main factor affecting the TGB of urban forests in Shenyang.

Enhancing early detection of exotic pests in agricultural and forest ecosystems using an urban-gradient framework

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Manuel Colunga-Garcia; Roger A. Magarey; Robert A. Haack; Stuart H. Gage; Jiaquo. Qi

2010-01-01

Urban areas are hubs of international transport and therefore are major gateways for exotic pests. Applying an urban gradient to analyze this pathway could provide insight into the ecological processes involved in human-mediated invasions. We defined an urban gradient for agricultural and forest ecosystems in the contiguous United States to (1) assess whether...

Herpetofauna of an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest in Paraíba State, Northeast Brazil

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Yuri C. C. Lima

2008-03-01

Full Text Available The Herpetofauna of an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest was investigated in relation to species richness and habitat use. Fourteen species of amphibian anurans pertaining to the families Bufonidae, Brachycephalidae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae, Leiuperidae, Microhylidae and Ranidae were recorded. The reptiles were represented by 37 species, distributed in the families Gekkonidae, Gymnophthalmidae, Polychrotidae, Scincidae, Teiidae, Tropiduridae, Amphisbaenidae, Boidae, Colubridae, Elapidae, Typhlopidae, Chelidae, Testudinidae and Alligatoridae. Most of the recorded species presented wide geographic distribution, although some of them had distributions that were restricted to the Atlantic Forest. The species richness of Mata do Buraquinho is relatively high for an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest, and the observed anthropogenic impacts show the urgent necessity of conservation in order to guarantee the viability of populations of amphibians and reptiles.

Comparison of Tillandsia usneoides (Spanish moss) water and leachate dynamics between urban and pristine barrier island maritime oak forests

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Van Stan, J. T.; Stubbins, A.; Reichard, J. S.; Wright, K.; Jenkins, R. B.

2013-12-01

Epiphyte coverage on forest canopies can drastically alter the volume and chemical composition of rainwater reaching soils. Along subtropical and tropical coastlines Tillandisa usneoides L. (Spanish moss), in particular, can envelop urban and natural tree crowns. Several cities actively manage their 'moss' covered forest to enhance aesthetics in the most active tourist areas (e.g., Savannah GA, St. Augustine FL, Charleston SC). Since T. usneoides survives through atmospheric water and solute exchange from specialized trichomes (scales), we hypothesized that T. usneoides water storage dynamics and leachate chemistry may be altered by exposure to this active urban atmosphere. 30 samples of T. usneoides from managed forests around the tourist center of Savannah, Georgia, USA were collected to compare with 30 samples from the pristine maritime live oak (Quercus virginiana Mill.) forests of a nearby undeveloped barrier island (St. Catherines Island, Georgia, USA). Maximum water storage capacities were determined via submersion (for all 60 samples) along with dissolved ion (DI) and organic matter (DOM) concentrations (for 15 samples each) after simulated throughfall generation using milliQ ultrapurified water. Further, DOM quality was evaluated (for 15 samples each) using absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy (EEMS). Results show significant alterations to water storage dynamics, DI, DOM, and DOM quality metrics under urban atmospheric conditions, suggesting modified C and water cycling in urban forest canopies that may, in turn, influence intrasystem nutrient cycles in urban catchment soils or streams via runoff.

Tree species composition affects the abundance of rowan (Sorbus aucuparia L.) in urban forests in Finland.

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Hamberg, Leena; Lehvävirta, Susanna; Kotze, D Johan; Heikkinen, Juha

2015-03-15

Recent studies have shown a considerable increase in the abundance of rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) saplings in urban forests in Finland, yet the reasons for this increase are not well understood. Here we investigated whether canopy cover or tree species composition, i.e., the basal areas of different tree species in Norway spruce dominated urban forests, affects the abundances of rowan seedlings, saplings and trees. Altogether 24 urban forest patches were investigated. We sampled the number of rowan and other saplings, and calculated the basal areas of trees. We showed that rowan abundance was affected by tree species composition. The basal area of rowan trees (≥ 5 cm in diameter at breast height, dbh) decreased with increasing basal area of Norway spruce, while the cover of rowan seedlings increased with an increase in Norway spruce basal area. However, a decrease in the abundance of birch (Betula pendula) and an increase in the broad-leaved tree group (Acer platanoides, Alnus glutinosa, Alnus incana, Amelanchier spicata, Prunus padus, Quercus robur, Rhamnus frangula and Salix caprea) coincided with a decreasing number of rowans. Furthermore, rowan saplings were scarce in the vicinity of mature rowan trees. Although it seems that tree species composition has an effect on rowan, the relationship between rowan saplings and mature trees is complex, and therefore we conclude that regulating tree species composition is not an easy way to keep rowan thickets under control in urban forests in Finland. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Home-range use patterns and movements of the Siberian flying squirrel in urban forests: Effects of habitat composition and connectivity.

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Mäkeläinen, Sanna; de Knegt, Henrik J; Ovaskainen, Otso; Hanski, Ilpo K

2016-01-01

Urbanization causes modification, fragmentation and loss of native habitats. Such landscape changes threaten many arboreal and gliding mammals by limiting their movements through treeless parts of a landscape and by making the landscape surrounding suitable habitat patches more inhospitable. Here, we investigate the effects of landscape structure and habitat availability on the home-range use and movement patterns of the Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) at different spatial and temporal scales. We followed radio-tagged individuals in a partly urbanized study area in Eastern Finland, and analysed how landscape composition and connectivity affected the length and speed of movement bursts, distances moved during one night, and habitat and nest-site use. The presence of urban habitat on movement paths increased both movement lengths and speed whereas nightly distances travelled by males decreased with increasing amount of urban habitat within the home range. The probability of switching from the present nest site to another nest site decreased with increasing distance among the nest sites, but whether the nest sites were connected or unconnected by forests did not have a clear effect on nest switching. Flying squirrels preferred to use mature forests for their movements at night. Our results suggest that the proximity to urban habitats modifies animal movements, possibly because animals try to avoid such habitats by moving faster through them. Urbanization at the scale of an entire home range can restrict their movements. Thus, maintaining a large enough amount of mature forests around inhabited landscape fragments will help protect forest specialists in urban landscapes. The effect of forested connections remains unclear, highlighting the difficulty of measuring and preserving connectivity in a species-specific way.

Hurricane Impacts on Ecological Services and Economic Values of Coastal Urban Forest: A Case Study of Pensacola, Florida

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As urbanized areas continue to grow and green spaces dwindle, the importance of urban forests increases for both ecologically derived health benefits and for their potential to mitigate climate change. This study examined pre- and post- hurricane conditions of Pensacola's urban f...

Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: The case of urban forests in Barcelona, Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Francesc Baró; Lydia Chaparro; Erik Gómez-Baggethun; Johannes Langemeyer; David J. Nowak; Jaume. Terradas

2014-01-01

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change...

Urban forests and green spaces of Tbilisi and ecological problems of the city

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T.K. Patarkalashvili

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The increase in urbanization is the most dramatic factor in today's world and it did not passed round Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, too. Since the sixties of the 20th century the population of the city nearly doubled and today is about 1.3–1.4 million. Many problems that may not have been so evident in the past, became obvious and dramatic today. These problems concern urban forests and green spaces of the city because they shrank considerably and as the result, deteriorated ecological situation. Today, their role in improvement of city climate is little. In the Soviet period the main polluters of the air considered factories and plants, but today, after breaking of the Soviet Union and closing or destruction of all factories and plants, the increasing number of light vehicles, especially outdated once, manufactured before 1999(67% are the main source of pollution(80%. The article highlights the historical development of Tbilisi urban forests and green spaces and outlines some challenges and prospects of ecological condition of the city.

Urban forest management in New England: Towards a contemporary understanding of tree wardens in Massachusetts communities

Science.gov (United States)

Harper, Richard W.; Bloniarz, David V.; DeStefano, Stephen; Nicolson, Craig

2017-01-01

In the New England states, tree wardens are local officials responsible for the preservation, maintenance and stewardship of municipal public trees. This study explores the emerging professional challenges, duties and responsibilities of tree wardens, from the subject’s point of view, by conducting in-person, semi-structured qualitative research interviews with 50 tree wardens throughout Massachusetts. Many of the findings corroborate previous literature, including that tree wardens are typically housed in a municipal department (often public works or highway), that tree wardens routinely interact with a wide variety of local organisations (representatives from other municipal departments, community volunteer associations) and that as community size increases, tree wardens typically have access to a greater pool of resources to carry out urban forest management. A newer finding is that the subject of urban forest health arose as a topic of great importance for tree wardens, as nearly all interviewees (n = 49) indicated that they monitor for urban forest pests and that they would like further continuing education concerning this subject.

Mapping regional patterns of large forest fires in Wildland-Urban Interface areas in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Modugno, Sirio; Balzter, Heiko; Cole, Beth; Borrelli, Pasquale

2016-05-01

Over recent decades, Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) trends in many regions of Europe have reconfigured the landscape structures around many urban areas. In these areas, the proximity to landscape elements with high forest fuels has increased the fire risk to people and property. These Wildland-Urban Interface areas (WUI) can be defined as landscapes where anthropogenic urban land use and forest fuel mass come into contact. Mapping their extent is needed to prioritize fire risk control and inform local forest fire risk management strategies. This study proposes a method to map the extent and spatial patterns of the European WUI areas at continental scale. Using the European map of WUI areas, the hypothesis is tested that the distance from the nearest WUI area is related to the forest fire probability. Statistical relationships between the distance from the nearest WUI area, and large forest fire incidents from satellite remote sensing were subsequently modelled by logistic regression analysis. The first European scale map of the WUI extent and locations is presented. Country-specific positive and negative relationships of large fires and the proximity to the nearest WUI area are found. A regional-scale analysis shows a strong influence of the WUI zones on large fires in parts of the Mediterranean regions. Results indicate that the probability of large burned surfaces increases with diminishing WUI distance in touristic regions like Sardinia, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, or in regions with a strong peri-urban component as Catalunya, Comunidad de Madrid, Comunidad Valenciana. For the above regions, probability curves of large burned surfaces show statistical relationships (ROC value > 0.5) inside a 5000 m buffer of the nearest WUI. Wise land management can provide a valuable ecosystem service of fire risk reduction that is currently not explicitly included in ecosystem service valuations. The results re-emphasise the importance of including this ecosystem service

An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 Thematic Mapper data for the classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, D. A.; Anderson, J. E.; Brannon, D. P.; Hill, C. L.

1982-01-01

An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 thematic mapper (TM) data for the delineation and classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers was conducted. A study area in Poinsett County, Arkansas was used to evaluate a classification of agricultural lands derived from multitemporal LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) data in comparison with a classification of TM data for the same area. Data over Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee were utilized to evaluate the TM for delineating forested wetland species. A classification of the study area was assessed for accuracy in discriminating five forested wetland categories. Finally, the TM data were used to identify urban features within a small city. A computer generated classification of Union City, Tennessee was analyzed for accuracy in delineating urban land covers. An evaluation of digitally enhanced TM data using principal components analysis to facilitate photointerpretation of urban features was also performed.

Improving the effectiveness of planning EIA (PEIA) in China: Integrating planning and assessment during the preparation of Shenzhen's Master Urban Plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Che Xiuzhen; English, Alex; Lu Jia; Chen, Yongqin David

2011-01-01

The enactment and implementation of the 2003 EIA Law in China institutionalised the role of plan environmental impact assessment (PEIA). While the philosophy, methodology and mechanisms of PEIA have gradually permeated through the various levels of government with a positive effect on the process and outcome of urban planning, only a few cities in China have so far carried out PEIA as a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)-type procedure. One such case is the southern city of Shenzhen. During the past three decades, Shenzhen has grown from a small town to a large and booming city as China has successfully and rapidly developed its economy by adopting the 'reform and open door' policy. In response to the challenges arising from the generally divergent processes of rapid urbanisation, economic transformation and environment protection, Shenzhen has incrementally adopted the SEA concept in developing the city's Master Urban Plan. As such, this paper reviews the effectiveness of PEIA in three ways: ·as a tool and process for achieving more sustainable and strategic planning; ·to determine the level of integration of SEA within the planning system; and, ·its effectiveness vis-a-vis implementation. The implementation of PEIA within Shenzhen's Master Urban Plan offers important insights into the emergence of innovative practices in undertaking PEIA as well as theoretical contributions to the field, especially in exploring the relationship between PEIA and SEA and highlighting the central role of local governing institutions in SEA development.

Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Communities in Urban Parks Are Similar to Those in Natural Forests but Shaped by Vegetation and Park Age.

Science.gov (United States)

Hui, Nan; Liu, Xinxin; Kotze, D Johan; Jumpponen, Ari; Francini, Gaia; Setälä, Heikki

2017-12-01

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are important mutualists for the growth and health of most boreal trees. Forest age and its host species composition can impact the composition of ECM fungal communities. Although plentiful empirical data exist for forested environments, the effects of established vegetation and its successional trajectories on ECM fungi in urban greenspaces remain poorly understood. We analyzed ECM fungi in 5 control forests and 41 urban parks of two plant functional groups (conifer and broadleaf trees) and in three age categories (10, ∼50, and >100 years old) in southern Finland. Our results show that although ECM fungal richness was marginally greater in forests than in urban parks, urban parks still hosted rich and diverse ECM fungal communities. ECM fungal community composition differed between the two habitats but was driven by taxon rank order reordering, as key ECM fungal taxa remained largely the same. In parks, the ECM communities differed between conifer and broadleaf trees. The successional trajectories of ECM fungi, as inferred in relation to the time since park construction, differed among the conifers and broadleaf trees: the ECM fungal communities changed over time under the conifers, whereas communities under broadleaf trees provided no evidence for such age-related effects. Our data show that plant-ECM fungus interactions in urban parks, in spite of being constructed environments, are surprisingly similar in richness to those in natural forests. This suggests that the presence of host trees, rather than soil characteristics or even disturbance regime of the system, determine ECM fungal community structure and diversity. IMPORTANCE In urban environments, soil and trees improve environmental quality and provide essential ecosystem services. ECM fungi enhance plant growth and performance, increasing plant nutrient acquisition and protecting plants against toxic compounds. Recent evidence indicates that soil-inhabiting fungal communities

Differential Impact of Passive versus Active Irrigation on Urban Forests in Semiarid Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Luketich, A. M.; Papuga, S. A.; Crimmins, M.

2017-12-01

The network of trees within a city provides a variety of ecosystem services such as flood mitigation and reduced heat island effects. To maintain these `urban forests' in semiarid cities, the use of scarce water resources for irrigation is often necessary. Rainwater harvesting has been widely adopted in Tucson, AZ as a sustainable water source for trees, but the effects of passive water harvesting versus active irrigation on tree canopy productivity and microclimate is largely unquantified. We hypothesize that regardless of whether trees are passively or actively irrigated, deep soil moisture will be elevated compared to natural conditions; however, we expect that increased deep soil moisture conditions will be more frequent using active irrigation. Additionally, we hypothesize that similar to natural settings, urban trees will need access deep soil moisture for transpiration. Therefore, we expect that actively irrigated trees will have more periods of transpiration than passively irrigated trees and that this will result in elevated and sustained phenological activity. We also expect that this difference will translate to more ecosystem services for a longer portion of the year in actively irrigated urban forests. Here, we compare key ecohydrological indicators of passive and active irrigation systems at two sites in Tucson, AZ. Our measurements include soil moisture, transpiration, air temperature, soil temperature, below- and within- canopy temperatures, and canopy phenology. Our first year of results suggest there are differences in transpiration, canopy greening and microclimate between the two irrigation techniques and that the magnitude of these differences are highly seasonal. This research can help to improve understanding of the practices and function of green infrastructure in semiarid cities and inform models that attempt to aggregate the influence of these urban forests for understanding watershed management strategies.

A note on estimating urban roof runoff with a forest evaporation model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gash, J.H.C.; Rosier, P.T.W.; Ragab, R.

2008-01-01

A model developed for estimating the evaporation of rainfall intercepted by forest canopies is applied to estimate measurements of the average runoff from the roofs of six houses made in a previous study of hydrological processes in an urban environment. The model is applied using values of the mean

Climate Change for Agriculture, Forest Cover and 3d Urban Models

Science.gov (United States)

Kapoor, M.; Bassir, D.

2014-11-01

This research demonstrates the important role of the remote sensing in finding out the different parameters behind the agricultural crop change, forest cover and urban 3D models. Standalone software is developed to view and analysis the different factors effecting the change in crop productions. Open-source libraries from the Open Source Geospatial Foundation have been used for the development of the shape-file viewer. Software can be used to get the attribute information, scale, zoom in/out and pan the shapefiles. Environmental changes due to pollution and population that are increasing the urbanisation and decreasing the forest cover on the earth. Satellite imagery such as Landsat 5(1984) to Landsat TRIS/8 (2014), Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) and NDVI are used to analyse the different parameters that are effecting the agricultural crop production change and forest change. It is advisable for the development of good quality of NDVI and forest cover maps to use data collected from the same processing methods for the complete region. Management practices have been developed from the analysed data for the betterment of the crop and saving the forest cover

Distribution and Source Apportionment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Forest Soils from Urban to Rural Areas in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Yihua; Tong, Fuchun; Kuang, Yuanwen; Chen, Bufeng

2014-01-01

The upper layer of forest soils (0–20 cm depth) were collected from urban, suburban, and rural areas in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China to estimate the distribution and the possible sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Total concentrations of PAHs in the forest soils decreased significantly along the urban–suburban–rural gradient, indicating the influence of anthropogenic emissions on the PAH distribution in forest soils. High and low molecular weight PAHs dominated in the urban and rural forest soils, respectively, implying the difference in emission sources between the areas. The values of PAH isomeric diagnostic ratios indicated that forest soil PAHs were mainly originated from traffic emissions, mixed sources and coal/wood combustion in the urban, suburban and rural areas, respectively. Principal component analysis revealed that traffic emissions, coal burning and residential biomass combustion were the three primary contributors to forest soil PAHs in the Pearl River Delta. Long range transportation of PAHs via atmosphere from urban area might also impact the PAHs distribution in the forest soils of rural area. PMID:24599040

An analysis of the public discourse about urban sprawl in the United States: Monitoring concern about a major threat to forests

Science.gov (United States)

David N. Bengston; Robert S. Potts; David P. Fan; Edward G. Goetz

2005-01-01

Urban sprawl has been identified as a serious threat to forests and other natural areas in the United States, and public concern about the impacts of sprawling development patterns has grown in recent years. The prominence of public concern about sprawl is germane to planners, managers, and policymakers involved in efforts to protect interface forests from urban...

Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: the case of urban forests in Barcelona, Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Baró, Francesc; Chaparro, Lydia; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; Langemeyer, Johannes; Nowak, David J; Terradas, Jaume

2014-05-01

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change mitigation in the municipality of Barcelona, Spain. We apply the i-Tree Eco model to quantify in biophysical and monetary terms the ecosystem services "air purification," "global climate regulation," and the ecosystem disservice "air pollution" associated with biogenic emissions. Our results show that the contribution of urban forests regulating services to abate pollution is substantial in absolute terms, yet modest when compared to overall city levels of air pollution and GHG emissions. We conclude that in order to be effective, green infrastructure-based efforts to offset urban pollution at the municipal level have to be coordinated with territorial policies at broader spatial scales.

Spatial Analysis of Urban Master Plans of Towns in North-Eastern Poland in the Context of Urban Revalorisation

Science.gov (United States)

Zagroba, Marek; Klopotowski, Maciej

2017-12-01

The research subject raised in this study is the urban structure of small towns in Warmia, a region rich in history, situated in the north-eastern Poland. This area, together with the neighbouring region of Mazury, is referred to as the Land of a Thousand Lakes. The historical events, such as the conquest of this territory by the Teutonic Order in 13th century, gave rise to the foundation of twelve towns in Warmia, which have survived until our time. Of these settlements, only one, which is Olsztyn, grew to a larger size over the centuries and eventually became the capital of Warmia. The others are still small towns, with a population from a few to less than twenty thousand inhabitants. The policy and economic goals of the Teutonic Order underlay the spread of a uniform type of urban master plan in the entire region. The establishment of urban centres was dictated by military considerations - all towns had fortified castles and were 15-30 km distant from one another, which stemmed from the organisation of the Teutonic State. The location of new towns in Warmia coincided in time with the general urban planning principles governing urban development in the Middle Ages. The medieval towns, which grew on the foundations of ancient cultures, were developed on a regular grid of streets, delineating land lots for compact town houses and a central square serving as a market place. Within this structure, the town’s most significant spatial dominants, such as a town hall, a church and a fortified castle, were situated. The castle often stood on the outskirts of a town, as it had to be connected to the town’s fortifications. The location of medieval towns in Warmia proceeded according to a similar concept. All these towns are distinguished by characteristically medieval, regular urban layouts, which - while being similar - have certain intrinsic features. Differences can be seen in the design of main streets, the size and proportions of market squares, the ways in which

Setting Priorities for Urban Forest Planning. A Comprehensive Response to Ecological and Social Needs for the Metropolitan Area of Rome (Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giulia Capotorti

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Urban forests represent key elements of green infrastructure and provide essential ecosystem services in both the ecological and social spheres. Therefore, forestation planning plays a decisive role in the sustainable development strategies of metropolitan areas and addresses the challenge of maintaining biodiversity while improving human health and well-being. The aim of this work is to present a methodological approach that can be used to identify priorities in urban forest planning and can provide comprehensive responses to ecological and social needs in any metropolitan context. The approach, which is based on interdisciplinary principles of landscape ecology, ecosystem geography and dynamic plant sociology, has been adopted in the Municipality of Rome (Italy. The first step entails defining an ecological framework for forestation plans by means of the ecological land classification and assessment of landscape conservation status. The second step entails setting forestation priorities according to both ecological and social criteria. The application of the method proved to effectively select limited areas requiring intervention within an extensive metropolitan area. Furthermore, it provided responses to sustainability issues such as long-term maintenance of restored habitats, landscape perspective of planning, greening of urban agriculture, improvement in urban resilience, and cost-effective improvement in ecosystem services provision.

Analyzing the cost effectiveness of Santiago, Chile's policy of using urban forests to improve air quality

Science.gov (United States)

Francisco J. Escobedo; John E. Wagner; David J. Nowak; Carmen Luz De la Maza; Manuel Rodriguez; Daniel E. Crane

2008-01-01

Santiago, Chile has the distinction of having among the worst urban air pollution problems in Latin America. As part of an atmospheric pollution reduction plan, the Santiago Regional Metropolitan government defined an environmental policy goal of using urban forests to remove particulate matter less than 10 µm (PM10) in the Gran...

Trading Natural Riparian Forests for Urban Shelterbelt Plantations—A Sustainability Assessment of the Kökyar Protection Forest in NW China

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Siegmund Missall

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Cities at the fringe of the Taklimakan desert in NW China are prone to dust and sand storms with serious consequences for human well-being. The Kökyar Protection Forest was established in the 1980s as an ecological engineering project with the intent of protecting the city of Aksu, NW China, from these impacts. It is designed as a combination of poplar shelterbelts and orchards, irrigated by river water from the Aksu River, the main tributary of the Tarim River. Prevalent literature describes it as an afforestation project for combatting desertification with manifold positive effects for the economic, social, and environmental dimension of sustainable development. This paper sets out to challenge these claims by a sustainability assessment in which the plantation is examined from a broader perspective, embedding it to the wider context of social and environmental problems in South Xinjiang. Methods comprise evapotranspiration calculations, interviews, a socioeconomic household survey, stakeholder dialogues, and literature research. Results affirm its economic sustainability, but see a mixed record for the social sphere. From the nature conservation point of view, it has to be classified as unsustainable because its high irrigation water consumption results in the downstream desiccation and desertification of natural riparian forests along the Tarim River, causing a forest loss in the downstream area twice the size of the forest gain in the upstream area. There is a trade-off between artificial shelterbelt plantations for urban ecosystem services on the one hand side, and natural riparian forests and their biodiversity on the other hand side. The paper recommends restricting agricultural extension, and using locally adapted less water consuming agroforestry schemes to protect urban dwellers from dust stress.

The urban forest cultivating green infrastructure for people and the environment

CERN Document Server

Calfapietra, Carlo; Samson, Roeland; O'Brien, Liz; Ostoić, Silvija; Sanesi, Giovanni; Amo, Rocío

2017-01-01

This book focuses on urban "green infrastructure" – the interconnected web of vegetated spaces like street trees, parks and peri-urban forests that provide essential ecosystem services in cities. The green infrastructure approach embodies the idea that these services, such as storm-water runoff control, pollutant filtration and amenities for outdoor recreation, are just as vital for a modern city as those provided by any other type of infrastructure. Ensuring that these ecosystem services are indeed delivered in an equitable and sustainable way requires knowledge of the physical attributes of trees and urban green spaces, tools for coping with the complex social and cultural dynamics, and an understanding of how these factors can be integrated in better governance practices. By conveying the findings and recommendations of COST Action FP1204 GreenInUrbs, this volume summarizes the collaborative efforts of researchers and practitioners from across Europe to address these challenges. .

Woody vegetation and soil characteristics of residential forest patches and open spaces along an urban-to-rural gradient

Science.gov (United States)

Benjamin L. Reichert; Sharon R. Jean-Philippe; Christopher Oswalt; Jennifer Franklin; Mark Radosevich

2015-01-01

As the process of urbanization advances across the country, so does the importance of urban forests, which include both trees and the soils in which they grow. Soil microbial biomass, which plays a critical role in nutrient transformation in urban ecosystems, is affected by factors such as soil type and the availability of water, carbon, and nitrogen. The aim of this...

Physical Characters of Trees And Their Effects on Micro-Climate (Case Study at Urban Forest and Green Open Space at Semarang City

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Endes N Dahlan

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Air temperature in cities are increasing which can cause reduce the human comfort and productivity. Urban forest can make the environment comfortable. The objectiveof the researc hwere: (1. To Determine the effects of urban forest on air temperature and relative humidity, (2. To analyze the effects of physical characters of trees ont he micro-climate amelioration and(3. To Determine species of trees which are very effective for micro-climate amelioration.The results of the research revealed that the average of daily air temperature in the urban forest was 30.2 C with arelative humidityof 74.0%, while the daily air temperature around the urban forest was 31.8 Karakter Fisik Pohon ... (Dahlan E o C with relative humidityof 71.1%. Tree composisitin of all study sites consist of192trees, 29 speciesand 13families. The TinjomoyoForest Tourism has the highest density of trees(406trees/ha, while the lowest in the Parks Minister Supeno (316trees/ha. Value of Key Performance Indicator (KPI of trees based on calculation of tall of trees, diameter of canopies, total leaves area and canopy forms noticed that very effective trees for micro-climate amelioration were: Angsana(Pterocarpus indicus, beringin(Ficus benjamina, flamboyan(Delonix regia , ketapang(Terminalia catappa, mahoni (Swietenia mahogany, andtrembesi (Albizia saman.

Transport and Breakdown of Organic Matter in Urban and Forested Streams: The Effects of Altered Hydrology and Landscape Position

Science.gov (United States)

Belt, K. T.; Swan, C. M.; Pouyat, R. V.; Kaushal, S.; Groffman, P. M.; Stack, W. P.; Fisher, G. T.

2006-05-01

A better understanding of how urbanization and trees interact to alter organic matter transport and cycling is needed to assess retention in catchments and streams, as well as to estimate the magnitude of carbon fluxes to the atmosphere and to downstream aquatic ecosystems. The influx of particulate and dissolved organic matter (POM/DOC) to headwater streams normally originates within or near riparian areas, and is important to aquatic food webs in stream ecosystems. Urban catchments, however, have huge effective drainage densities (due to storm drainage infrastructure), which facilitate a POM/DOC "gutter subsidy" to streams that dwarfs riparian inputs and alters benthic litter quality (and represents a major short-circuit in the carbon vegetation-soil cycle.) We measured in-situ leaf litter breakdown rates, flows, DOC, BOD and nutrients in forested, suburban and urban streams of the BES LTER and Baltimore City DPW sampling networks, which encompassed a variety of urban and rural landscapes. Sycamore and Planetree leaf litter in-situ experiments revealed faster breakdown rates for suburban and urban landscape litter than for riparian litter, with rates being much faster than literature values for forested catchments. DOC, BOD and nutrient data (storm and dry weather) from BES/DPW stream sites showed much higher concentrations and loads in the more urbanized catchments and indicate the streams are likely heterotrophic and experience transient but high dissolved oxygen demands. High nutrient concentrations, faster litter breakdown rates, and substantially higher upland urban fluxes of organic matter (particulate and dissolved) in urban streams suggest that export rates are likely substantially higher than in forested systems and that carbon loads to both downstream aquatic systems and to the atmosphere (as CO2) are substantial.

Assessing the Recreation Value of Urban Woodland Using the Ecosystem Service Approach in Two Forests in the Munich Metropolitan Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerd Lupp

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Recreation is considered an important ecosystem services (ES in urban woodlands and puts pressure on other ES. Visitor management strategies can be tools to safeguard biodiversity and ES. On-site data are necessary to evaluate the demand for outdoor recreation opportunities in urban woodlands, but also for providing more reliable values for monetization as a basis for multifunctional forest management, and for raising awareness for the importance of urban proximate forests. Such information can also be used for the assessment and monetization of socio-cultural ES, and hence, contribute to developing market-based mechanisms or to promoting these ES. In our paper, we demonstrate methods to describe recreational demand by collecting data from interviews and using camera traps in two forests in the north of Munich for visitor counting. Visitor numbers in the forests were much greater than rough estimations; visitors also had quite long travelling distances to the forests. Jogging or Nordic walking were proven to be important recreational activities. In some of the monitored locations, almost half of the recreationists carried out these sports. Depending on the method chosen, the calculative monetary value of recreation reached up to 15,440 Euro per hectare per year.

Comparison of Effect of Two-Hour Exposure to Forest and Urban Environments on Cytokine, Anti-Oxidant, and Stress Levels in Young Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Im, Su Geun; Choi, Han; Jeon, Yo-Han; Song, Min-Kyu; Kim, Won; Woo, Jong-Min

2016-06-23

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two-hour exposure to a forest environment on cytokine, anti-oxidant and stress levels among university students and to compare the results to those measured in urban environments. Forty-one subjects were recruited. For our crossover design, subjects were divided into two groups based on similar demographic characteristics. Group A remained in the urban environment and was asked to perform regular breathing for 2 h. Blood samples were collected and the serum levels of cytokines including interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were examined. Subjects were moved to a small town in a rural area for an equal amount of time to exclude carryover effects, and then remained for another 2 h in a forest environment. The second set of blood samples was collected to assess the effect of exposure to the forest environment. Using the same method, Group B was first exposed to the forest environment, followed by exposure to the urban environment. Blood samples collected after the subjects were exposed to the forest environment showed significantly lower levels of IL-8 and TNF-α compared to those in samples collected after urban environment exposure (10.76 vs. 9.21, t = 4.559, p forest environment (LnGPx = 5.09 vs. LnGPx = 5.21, t = -2.039, p < 0.05).

Species composition of forested natural communities near freshwater hydrological features in an urbanizing watershed of west-central Florida

Science.gov (United States)

Melissa H Friedman; Michael G.  Andreu; Wayne Zipperer; Rob J.  Northrop; Amr  Abd-Elrahman

2015-01-01

Natural communities near freshwater hydrological features provide important ecosystem functions and services. As human populations increase, forested landscapes become increasingly fragmented and deforested, which may result in a loss of the functions and services they provide. To investigate the current state of forested natural communities in the rapidly urbanizing...

Urban Flood Mapping Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Remote Sensing and Random Forest Classifier—A Case of Yuyao, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quanlong Feng

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Flooding is a severe natural hazard, which poses a great threat to human life and property, especially in densely-populated urban areas. As one of the fastest developing fields in remote sensing applications, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV can provide high-resolution data with a great potential for fast and accurate detection of inundated areas under complex urban landscapes. In this research, optical imagery was acquired by a mini-UAV to monitor the serious urban waterlogging in Yuyao, China. Texture features derived from gray-level co-occurrence matrix were included to increase the separability of different ground objects. A Random Forest classifier, consisting of 200 decision trees, was used to extract flooded areas in the spectral-textural feature space. Confusion matrix was used to assess the accuracy of the proposed method. Results indicated the following: (1 Random Forest showed good performance in urban flood mapping with an overall accuracy of 87.3% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.746; (2 the inclusion of texture features improved classification accuracy significantly; (3 Random Forest outperformed maximum likelihood and artificial neural network, and showed a similar performance to support vector machine. The results demonstrate that UAV can provide an ideal platform for urban flood monitoring and the proposed method shows great capability for the accurate extraction of inundated areas.

Mites associated to Xylopia aromatica (Lam. Mart. (Annonaceae in urban and rural fragments of semidecidual forest

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Felipe M. Nuvoloni

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Mites associated to Xylopia aromatica (Lam. Mart. (Annonaceae in urban and rural fragments of semidecidual forest. Native plants can shelter a great diversity of mites. Notwithstanding, the conservation of the forest fragments where the plants are located can influence the structure of the mites community. Generally, in homogenous environments the diversity is lower due to the dominance of one or a few species. In this work, we studied the mite community on Xylopia aromatica (Lam. Mart. (Annonaceae in two fragments of semidecidual forest: one on rural and other on urban area. Seven individuals of X. aromatica were monthly sampled from April 2007 to March 2008, in each of these fragments. Descriptive indexes of diversity, dominance and evenness were applied to verify the ecological patterns of the mite community, besides the Student's t-test to compare the abundance between the fragments. We collected 27,365 mites of 37 species belonging to 11 families. Calacarus sp. (Eriophyidae was the most abundant species, representing 73% of the total sampled. The abundance was greater in the urban fragment (67.7%, with the diversity index reaching only 25% of the theoretical maximum expected. Probably, these values might have been influenced by the location of this fragment in the urban area, being more homogeneous and submitted directly to the presence of atmospheric pollution. In this manner, X. aromatica is able to shelter a higher diversity of mites when inserted in preserved ecosystems, since the highest diversity of available resources allows the establishment of richer and most diverse mite community.

Particle growth in an isoprene-rich forest: Influences of urban, wildfire, and biogenic air masses

Science.gov (United States)

Gunsch, Matthew J.; Schmidt, Stephanie A.; Gardner, Daniel J.; Bondy, Amy L.; May, Nathaniel W.; Bertman, Steven B.; Pratt, Kerri A.; Ault, Andrew P.

2018-04-01

Growth of freshly nucleated particles is an important source of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and has been studied within a variety of environments around the world. However, there remains uncertainty regarding the sources of the precursor gases leading to particle growth, particularly in isoprene-rich forests. In this study, particle growth events were observed from the 14 total events (31% of days) during summer measurements (June 24 - August 2, 2014) at the Program for Research on Oxidants PHotochemistry, Emissions, and Transport (PROPHET) tower within the forested University of Michigan Biological Station located in northern Michigan. Growth events were observed within long-range transported air masses from urban areas, air masses impacted by wildfires, as well as stagnant, forested/regional air masses. Growth events observed during urban-influenced air masses were prevalent, with presumably high oxidant levels, and began midday during periods of high solar radiation. This suggests that increased oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) likely contributed to the highest observed particle growth in this study (8 ± 2 nm h-1). Growth events during wildfire-influenced air masses were observed primarily at night and had slower growth rates (3 ± 1 nm h-1). These events were likely influenced by increased SO2, O3, and NO2 transported within the smoke plumes, suggesting a role of NO3 oxidation in the production of semi-volatile compounds. Forested/regional air mass growth events likely occurred due to the oxidation of regionally emitted BVOCs, including isoprene, monoterpenes, and sesquiterpenes, which facilitated multiday growth events also with slower rates (3 ± 2 nm h-1). Intense sulfur, carbon, and oxygen signals in individual particles down to 20 nm, analyzed by transmission electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (TEM-EDX), suggest that H2SO4 and secondary organic aerosol contributed to particle growth. Overall, aerosol

Comparison of Effect of Two-Hour Exposure to Forest and Urban Environments on Cytokine, Anti-Oxidant, and Stress Levels in Young Adults

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Su Geun Im

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two-hour exposure to a forest environment on cytokine, anti-oxidant and stress levels among university students and to compare the results to those measured in urban environments. Forty-one subjects were recruited. For our crossover design, subjects were divided into two groups based on similar demographic characteristics. Group A remained in the urban environment and was asked to perform regular breathing for 2 h. Blood samples were collected and the serum levels of cytokines including interleukin-6 (IL-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α, and glutathione peroxidase (GPx were examined. Subjects were moved to a small town in a rural area for an equal amount of time to exclude carryover effects, and then remained for another 2 h in a forest environment. The second set of blood samples was collected to assess the effect of exposure to the forest environment. Using the same method, Group B was first exposed to the forest environment, followed by exposure to the urban environment. Blood samples collected after the subjects were exposed to the forest environment showed significantly lower levels of IL-8 and TNF-α compared to those in samples collected after urban environment exposure (10.76 vs. 9.21, t = 4.559, p < 0.001, and 0.97 vs. 0.87, t = 4.130, p < 0.001. The GPx concentration increased significantly after exposure to the forest environment (LnGPx = 5.09 vs. LnGPx = 5.21, t = −2.039, p < 0.05.

Quantifying the benefits of urban forest systems as a component of the green infrastructure stormwater treatment network

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Eric Kuehler; Jon Hathaway; Andrew Tirpak

2017-01-01

The use of green infrastructure for reducing stormwater runoff is increasingly common. One under‐studied component of the green infrastructure network is the urban forest system. Trees can play an important role as the “first line of defense” for restoring more natural hydrologic regimes in urban watersheds by intercepting rainfall, delaying runoff, infiltrating, and...

Forests and water

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Graeme Lockaby; Chelsea Nagy; James M. Vose; Chelcy R. Ford; Ge Sun; Steve McNulty; Pete Caldwell; Erika Cohen; Jennifer Moore Myers

2013-01-01

Key FindingsForest conversion to agriculture or urban use consistently causes increased discharge, peak flow, and velocity of streams. Subregional differences in hydrologic responses to urbanization are substantial.Sediment, water chemistry indices, pathogens, and other substances often become more concentrated after forest...

Assessing the Effects of the Urban Forest Restoration Effort of MillionTreesNYC on the Structure and Functioning of New York City Ecosystems

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P. Timon McPhearson

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Current forest restoration practices for New York City’s (NYC MillionTreesNYC Initiative on public parkland include site preparation with extensive invasive species removal and tree and shrub planting with the goal of creating new multi-layered forests. We have launched a long-term investigation of these sites in order to understand the primary physical, chemical, and biological responses of urban ecosystems to MillionTreesNYC forest restoration practices. This research will examine high and low diversity tree and understory planting combinations in permanent experimental forest restoration plots across NYC. The study assesses how the interactions between soil heterogeneity, plant population dynamics, and forest restoration management strategies drive urban forest ecosystem structure and functioning. Working in collaboration with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks and the MillionTreesNYC tree planting campaign, we are examining different restoration strategies to assess how restoration practices affect the ecological development trajectories of newly established forests in NYC.

National forest economic clusters: a new model for assessing national-forest-based natural resources products and services.

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Thomas D. Rojas

2007-01-01

National forest lands encompass numerous rural and urban communities. Some national-forest-based communities lie embedded within national forests, and others reside just outside the official boundaries of national forests. The urban and rural communities within or near national forest lands include a wide variety of historical traditions and cultural values that affect...

Object-based assessment of burn severity in diseased forests using high-spatial and high-spectral resolution MASTER airborne imagery

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Chen, Gang; Metz, Margaret R.; Rizzo, David M.; Dillon, Whalen W.; Meentemeyer, Ross K.

2015-04-01

Forest ecosystems are subject to a variety of disturbances with increasing intensities and frequencies, which may permanently change the trajectories of forest recovery and disrupt the ecosystem services provided by trees. Fire and invasive species, especially exotic disease-causing pathogens and insects, are examples of disturbances that together could pose major threats to forest health. This study examines the impacts of fire and exotic disease (sudden oak death) on forests, with an emphasis on the assessment of post-fire burn severity in a forest where trees have experienced three stages of disease progression pre-fire: early-stage (trees retaining dried foliage and fine twigs), middle-stage (trees losing fine crown fuels), and late-stage (trees falling down). The research was conducted by applying Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) to MASTER airborne images that were acquired immediately following the fire for rapid assessment and contained both high-spatial (4 m) and high-spectral (50 bands) resolutions. Although GEOBIA has gradually become a standard tool for analyzing high-spatial resolution imagery, high-spectral resolution data (dozens to hundreds of bands) can dramatically reduce computation efficiency in the process of segmentation and object-based variable extraction, leading to complicated variable selection for succeeding modeling. Hence, we also assessed two widely used band reduction algorithms, PCA (principal component analysis) and MNF (minimum noise fraction), for the delineation of image objects and the subsequent performance of burn severity models using either PCA or MNF derived variables. To increase computation efficiency, only the top 5 PCA and MNF and top 10 PCA and MNF components were evaluated, which accounted for 10% and 20% of the total number of the original 50 spectral bands, respectively. Results show that if no band reduction was applied the models developed for the three stages of disease progression had relatively

Chicago's urban forest ecosystem: Results of the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project. (Includes executive summary). Forest Service general technical report (Final)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McPherson, E.G.; Nowak, D.J.; Rowntree, R.A.

1994-06-01

Results of the 3-year Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project indicate that there are an estimated 50.8 million trees in the Chicago area of Cook and DuPage Counties; 66 percent of these trees rated in good or excellent condition. During 1991, trees in the Chicago area removed an estimated 6,145 tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing valued at $9.2 million dollars. These trees also sequester approximately 155,000 tons of carbon per year, and provide residential heating and cooling energy savings that, in turn, reduce carbon emissions from power plants by about 12,600 tons annually. Shade, lower summer air temperatures, and a reduction in windspeed associated with increasing tree cover by 10 percent can lower total heating and cooling energy use by 5 to 10 percent annually ($50 to $90 per dwelling unit). The projected net present value of investment in planting and care of 95,000 trees in Chicago is $38 million ($402 per planted tree), indicating that the long-term benefits of trees are more than twice their costs

The Challenges of Implementing Sustainable Development: The Case of Sofia’s Master Plan

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Aleksandar D. Slaev

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we explore how master planning promotes and implements particular urban development patterns and, more generally, contributes to sustainability. Our goal is to understand the link between urban growth intentions articulated through the master planning process and realisation of its specific forms, e.g., monocentric or polycentric, compact or dispersed. As a case study, we examine the current General Urban Development Plan (GUDP of the Bulgarian capital Sofia against the city’s actual development pattern. We observe that the primary goals of the GUDP are to promote a polycentric urban structure and low-density expansion, as well as preserve green edges. While the question of whether and how these goals reflect the sustainability ideal requires further consideration, there are some indications that Sofia’s GUDP may not be effective in encouraging sustainable forms of growth. Substantial inconsistencies exist between the plan’s overall goals and some of its measures and implementation tools. The results on the ground suggest that, despite the plan’s low-density aspirations, Sofia is becoming more compact and densified, while losing its green edges and failing to redirect growth to its northern territories where ample space and opportunities exist. We conclude that employing the achievements of research on sustainability and developing relevant implementation tools such as more effective zoning regulations and viable suburban transportation infrastructure are necessary for realising both the patterns proposed through master planning and achieving sustainable urban growth.

Effects of Land Use/Cover Changes and Urban Forest Configuration on Urban Heat Islands in a Loess Hilly Region: Case Study Based on Yan’an City, China

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Zhang, Xinping; Hao, Hongke; Zhang, Fangfang; Hu, Youning

2017-01-01

In this study Yan’an City, a typical hilly valley city, was considered as the study area in order to explain the relationships between the surface urban heat island (SUHI) and land use/land cover (LULC) types, the landscape pattern metrics of LULC types and land surface temperature (LST) and remote sensing indexes were retrieved from Landsat data during 1990–2015, and to find factors contributed to the green space cool island intensity (GSCI) through field measurements of 34 green spaces. The results showed that during 1990–2015, because of local anthropogenic activities, SUHI was mainly located in lower vegetation cover areas. There was a significant suburban-urban gradient in the average LST, as well as its heterogeneity and fluctuations. Six landscape metrics comprising the fractal dimension index, percentage of landscape, aggregation index, division index, Shannon’s diversity index, and expansion intensity of the classified LST spatiotemporal changes were paralleled to LULC changes, especially for construction land, during the past 25 years. In the urban area, an index-based built-up index was the key positive factor for explaining LST increases, whereas the normalized difference vegetation index and modified normalized difference water index were crucial factors for explaining LST decreases during the study periods. In terms of the heat mitigation performance of green spaces, mixed forest was better than pure forest, and the urban forest configuration had positive effects on GSCI. The results of this study provide insights into the importance of species choice and the spatial design of green spaces for cooling the environment. PMID:28933770

Effects of Land Use/Cover Changes and Urban Forest Configuration on Urban Heat Islands in a Loess Hilly Region: Case Study Based on Yan’an City, China

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Xinping Zhang

2017-07-01

Full Text Available In this study Yan’an City, a typical hilly valley city, was considered as the study area in order to explain the relationships between the surface urban heat island (SUHI and land use/land cover (LULC types, the landscape pattern metrics of LULC types and land surface temperature (LST and remote sensing indexes were retrieved from Landsat data during 1990–2015, and to find factors contributed to the green space cool island intensity (GSCI through field measurements of 34 green spaces. The results showed that during 1990–2015, because of local anthropogenic activities, SUHI was mainly located in lower vegetation cover areas. There was a significant suburban-urban gradient in the average LST, as well as its heterogeneity and fluctuations. Six landscape metrics comprising the fractal dimension index, percentage of landscape, aggregation index, division index, Shannon’s diversity index, and expansion intensity of the classified LST spatiotemporal changes were paralleled to LULC changes, especially for construction land, during the past 25 years. In the urban area, an index-based built-up index was the key positive factor for explaining LST increases, whereas the normalized difference vegetation index and modified normalized difference water index were crucial factors for explaining LST decreases during the study periods. In terms of the heat mitigation performance of green spaces, mixed forest was better than pure forest, and the urban forest configuration had positive effects on GSCI. The results of this study provide insights into the importance of species choice and the spatial design of green spaces for cooling the environment.

Effects of Land Use/Cover Changes and Urban Forest Configuration on Urban Heat Islands in a Loess Hilly Region: Case Study Based on Yan'an City, China.

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Zhang, Xinping; Wang, Dexiang; Hao, Hongke; Zhang, Fangfang; Hu, Youning

2017-07-26

In this study Yan'an City, a typical hilly valley city, was considered as the study area in order to explain the relationships between the surface urban heat island (SUHI) and land use/land cover (LULC) types, the landscape pattern metrics of LULC types and land surface temperature (LST) and remote sensing indexes were retrieved from Landsat data during 1990-2015, and to find factors contributed to the green space cool island intensity (GSCI) through field measurements of 34 green spaces. The results showed that during 1990-2015, because of local anthropogenic activities, SUHI was mainly located in lower vegetation cover areas. There was a significant suburban-urban gradient in the average LST, as well as its heterogeneity and fluctuations. Six landscape metrics comprising the fractal dimension index, percentage of landscape, aggregation index, division index, Shannon's diversity index, and expansion intensity of the classified LST spatiotemporal changes were paralleled to LULC changes, especially for construction land, during the past 25 years. In the urban area, an index-based built-up index was the key positive factor for explaining LST increases, whereas the normalized difference vegetation index and modified normalized difference water index were crucial factors for explaining LST decreases during the study periods. In terms of the heat mitigation performance of green spaces, mixed forest was better than pure forest, and the urban forest configuration had positive effects on GSCI. The results of this study provide insights into the importance of species choice and the spatial design of green spaces for cooling the environment.

Observations of atmospheric monoaromatic hydrocarbons at urban, semi-urban and forest environments in the Amazon region

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Paralovo, Sarah L.; Borillo, Guilherme C.; Barbosa, Cybelli G. G.; Godoi, Ana Flavia L.; Yamamoto, Carlos I.; de Souza, Rodrigo A. F.; Andreoli, Rita V.; Costa, Patrícia S.; Almeida, Gerson P.; Manzi, Antonio O.; Pöhlker, Christopher; Yáñez-Serrano, Ana M.; Kesselmeier, Jürgen; Godoi, Ricardo H. M.

2016-03-01

The Amazon region is one of the most significant natural ecosystems on the planet. Of special interest as a major study area is the interface between the forest and Manaus city, a state capital in Brazil embedded in the heart of the Amazon forest. In view of the interactions between natural and anthropogenic processes, an integrated experiment was conducted measuring the concentrations of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and meta, ortho, para-xylene (known as BTEX), all of them regarded as pollutants with harmful effects on human health and vegetation and acting also as important precursors of tropospheric ozone. Furthermore, these compounds also take part in the formation of secondary organic aerosols, which can influence the pattern of cloud formation, and thus the regional water cycle and climate. The samples were collected in 2012/2013 at three different sites: (i) The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO), a pristine rain forest region in the central Amazon Basin; (ii) Manacapuru, a semi-urban site located southwest and downwind of Manaus as a preview of the Green Ocean Amazon Experiment (GoAmazon 2014/15); and (iii) the city of Manaus (distributed over three sites). Results indicate that there is an increase in pollutant concentrations with increasing proximity to urban areas. For instance, the benzene concentration ranges were 0.237-19.6 (Manaus), 0.036-0.948 (Manacapuru) and 0.018-0.313 μg m-3 (ATTO). Toluene ranges were 0.700-832 (Manaus), 0.091-2.75 μg m-3 (Manacapuru) and 0.011-4.93 (ATTO). For ethylbenzene, they were 0.165-447 (Manaus), 0.018-1.20 μg m-3 (Manacapuru) and 0.047-0.401 (ATTO). Some indication was found for toluene to be released from the forest. No significant difference was found between the BTEX levels measured in the dry season and the wet seasons. Furthermore, it was observed that, in general, the city of Manaus seems to be less impacted by these pollutants than other cities in Brazil and in other

Measuring the Effects of Forest SPA Programme in Urban Parks Using Active Imagination

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Pešalj Gordana

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Nature has been shown to be beneficial to our overall health and well-being. We are all connected to nature and it is important to maintain this vital connection for our health and well-being. Spending time outside in nature or urban parks has been shown to positively affect a person’s emotions and improve their sense of well-being. Access to nature balances circadian rhythms, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress and increases absorption of Vitamin D. Increasingly, evidence demonstrates that contactwith the living world around us is an important part of healing and recovery. The natural world’s role in human well-being is an essential, yet often forgotten, aspect of healthcare. Of particular importance are the benefits one can derive through interaction with natural environments. Reincorporating the natural world is practiced to move healthcare toward being more “green”. Spiritual well-being is enhanced through the experience of greater interconnections, and it occurs when interacting with the natural world. One study examined the physiological and psychological responses to real forest landscapes as well as the therapeutic uses of forests relative to urban environments.

Atmospheric particulate mercury at the urban and forest sites in central Poland.

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Siudek, Patrycja; Frankowski, Marcin; Siepak, Jerzy

2016-02-01

Particulate mercury concentrations were investigated during intensive field campaigns at the urban and forest sites in central Poland, between April 2013 and October 2014. For the first time, quantitative determination of total particulate mercury in coarse (PHg2.2) and fine (PHg0.7) aerosol samples was conducted in Poznań and Jeziory. The concentrations in urban fine and coarse aerosol fractions amounted to mercury concentrations. A strong impact of meteorological conditions (wind velocity, air mass direction, air temperature, and precipitation amount) on particulate mercury concentrations was also observed. In particular, higher variation and concentration range of PHg0.7 and PHg2.2 was reported for wintertime measurements. An increase in atmospheric particulate mercury during the cold season in the study region indicated that coal combustion, i.e., residential and industrial heating, is the main contribution factor for the selected particle size modes. Coarse particulate Hg at the urban site during summer was mainly attributed to anthropogenic sources, with significant contribution from resuspension processes and long-range transport. The highest values of PHg0.7 and PHg2.2 were found during westerly and southerly wind events, reflecting local emission from highly polluted areas. The period from late fall to spring showed that advection from the southern part of Poland was the main factor responsible for elevated Hg concentrations in fine and coarse particles in the investigated region. Moreover, September 2013 could be given as an example of the influence of additional urban activities which occurred approx. 10 m from the sampling site-construction works connected with replacement of the road surface, asphalting, etc. The concentrations of particulate Hg (>600.0 pg m(-3)) were much higher than during the following months when any similar situation did not occur. Our investigations confirmed that Hg in urban aerosol samples was predominantly related to local

Assessing the ecosystem service potential of Tucson AZ's urban forest

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Pavao-Zuckerman, M.

2011-12-01

canopy photos) to asses growth of the trees in the urban environment. These growth rates, and associated ecosystem services (C-sequestration, energy savings, pollution mitigation, etc.) are evaluated using US Forest Service models (Tree Carbon Calculator and i-tree software) to determine how the performance of trees in the Tucson urban environment perform vs. model predictions. We hypothesize that the models overestimate tree performance as Tucson differs in water availability relative to the cities the model was parameterized in (e.g. Glendale), both in terms of soil water holding capacities and also city "water culture." This preliminary study will provide a data collection framework for a citizen science urban forestry project which will provide data to improve environmental decision making related to the interaction of plants, water, and energy balance in this arid city.

Increasing the Accuracy of Mapping Urban Forest Carbon Density by Combining Spatial Modeling and Spectral Unmixing Analysis

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Hua Sun

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Accurately mapping urban vegetation carbon density is challenging because of complex landscapes and mixed pixels. In this study, a novel methodology was proposed that combines a linear spectral unmixing analysis (LSUA with a linear stepwise regression (LSR, a logistic model-based stepwise regression (LMSR and k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN, to map the forest carbon density of Shenzhen City of China, using Landsat 8 imagery and sample plot data collected in 2014. The independent variables that contributed to statistically significantly improving the fit of a model to data and reducing the sum of squared errors were first selected from a total of 284 spectral variables derived from the image bands. The vegetation fraction from LSUA was then added as an independent variable. The results obtained using cross-validation showed that: (1 Compared to the methods without the vegetation information, adding the vegetation fraction increased the accuracy of mapping carbon density by 1%–9.3%; (2 As the observed values increased, the LSR and kNN residuals showed overestimates and underestimates for the smaller and larger observations, respectively, while LMSR improved the systematical over and underestimations; (3 LSR resulted in illogically negative and unreasonably large estimates, while KNN produced the greatest values of root mean square error (RMSE. The results indicate that combining the spatial modeling method LMSR and the spectral unmixing analysis LUSA, coupled with Landsat imagery, is most promising for increasing the accuracy of urban forest carbon density maps. In addition, this method has considerable potential for accurate, rapid and nondestructive prediction of urban and peri-urban forest carbon stocks with an acceptable level of error and low cost.

Regeneration Through Hidden Historical Landscape of Lecco. Urban Course Design Process

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Angela Colucci

2017-12-01

The first part of paper presents the general learning process characterizing Urban Design course and the methodological process for the Urban Master Plan development in the studio modules. The second part presents the LeccoLAB didactical path developed in the Lecco Campus focusing on the urban design issues and presenting selected results and design proposals developed by students focusing on the Lecco Historical Urban Heritage issues. During the Academic Year 2016/2017 students’ work teams (27 applied the concepts, methods and techniques presented in Urban Design course to the Lecco waterfront urban systems developing proposal for Urban Master Plan aiming the regeneration of urban complex systems through principles of Nature Based Solutions and  Urban Resilience.

Chapter 13: Water and Forests

Science.gov (United States)

Graeme Lockaby; Chelsea Nagy; James M. Vose; Chelcy R. Ford; Ge Sun; Steve McNulty; Pete Caldwell; Erika Cohen; Jennifer Moore Meyers

2011-01-01

Forest conversion to agriculture or urban use consistently causes increased discharge, peak flow, and velocity of streams. Subregional differences in hydrologic responses to urbanization are substantial. Sediment, water chemistry indices, pathogens, and other substances often become more concentrated after forest conversion. If the conversion is to an urban use, the...

It is not all bad for the grey city - A crossover study on physiological and psychological restoration in a forest and an urban environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Stigsdotter, Ulrika K; Corazon, Sus Sola; Sidenius, Ulrik; Kristiansen, Jesper; Grahn, Patrik

2017-07-01

Today, urbanization presents a challenge to urban planning with regard to creating healthy living environments. The aim of this research is to gain further knowledge of the restorativeness of a best case urban and natural environment: that is a historic down town urban environment and forest environment located in an arboretum. The study has a cross-over design where 51 (N) female university students are exposed to the two environments through both seated viewing and walking. A mixed method approach is used with both physiological measurements of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate variability (HRV) and psychological measurements of mood change and perceived restorativeness. The HRV results show no significant differences between the two environments, and both environments are found to be more physiologically restorative than being at the office or on the minibus. The results of the psychological measures indicate that the forest walk has a positive effect on mood, while the walk in the urban environment has no effect. The forest environment is also rated more highly with regard to perceived restorativeness than the urban environment. The results support the current research that shows natural environments as more restorative than urban environments. The study also adds to the ongoing debate on healthy urban planning by indicating that architectural and historical qualities may be associated with the physiological well-being of citizens. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Differences in the impacts of formal and informal recreational trails on urban forest loss and tree structure.

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Ballantyne, Mark; Pickering, Catherine Marina

2015-08-15

Recreational trails are one of the most common types of infrastructure used for nature-based activities such as hiking and mountain biking worldwide. Depending on their design, location, construction, maintenance and use, these trails differ in their environmental impacts. There are few studies, however, comparing the impacts of different trail types including between formal management-created trails and informal visitor-created trails. Although both types of trails can be found in remote natural areas, dense networks of them often occur in forests close to cities where they experience intense visitor use. To assess the relative impacts of different recreational trails in urban forests, we compared the condition of the trail surface, loss of forest strata and changes in tree structure caused by seven types of trails (total network 46.1 km) traversing 17 remnants of an endangered urban forest in Australia. After mapping and classifying all trails, we assessed their impact on the forest condition at 125 sites (15 sites per trail type, plus 15 control sites within undisturbed forest). On the trail sites, the condition of the trail surface, distance from the trail edge to four forest strata (litter, understory, midstorey and tree cover) and structure of the tree-line were assessed. Informal trails generally had poorer surface conditions and were poorly-designed and located. Per site, formal and informal trails resulted in similar loss of forest strata, with wider trails resulting in greater loss of forest. Because there were more informal trails, however, they accounted for the greatest cumulative forest loss. Structural impacts varied, with the widest informal trails and all formal hardened trails resulting in similar reductions in canopy cover and tree density but an increase in saplings. These structural impacts are likely a function of the unregulated and intense use of large informal trails, and disturbance from the construction and maintenance of formal trails

Modeling urban coastal flood severity from crowd-sourced flood reports using Poisson regression and Random Forest

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Sadler, J. M.; Goodall, J. L.; Morsy, M. M.; Spencer, K.

2018-04-01

Sea level rise has already caused more frequent and severe coastal flooding and this trend will likely continue. Flood prediction is an essential part of a coastal city's capacity to adapt to and mitigate this growing problem. Complex coastal urban hydrological systems however, do not always lend themselves easily to physically-based flood prediction approaches. This paper presents a method for using a data-driven approach to estimate flood severity in an urban coastal setting using crowd-sourced data, a non-traditional but growing data source, along with environmental observation data. Two data-driven models, Poisson regression and Random Forest regression, are trained to predict the number of flood reports per storm event as a proxy for flood severity, given extensive environmental data (i.e., rainfall, tide, groundwater table level, and wind conditions) as input. The method is demonstrated using data from Norfolk, Virginia USA from September 2010 to October 2016. Quality-controlled, crowd-sourced street flooding reports ranging from 1 to 159 per storm event for 45 storm events are used to train and evaluate the models. Random Forest performed better than Poisson regression at predicting the number of flood reports and had a lower false negative rate. From the Random Forest model, total cumulative rainfall was by far the most dominant input variable in predicting flood severity, followed by low tide and lower low tide. These methods serve as a first step toward using data-driven methods for spatially and temporally detailed coastal urban flood prediction.

Persistence of long-distance, insect-mediated pollen movement for a tropical canopy tree species in remnant forest patches in an urban landscape.

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Noreen, A M E; Niissalo, M A; Lum, S K Y; Webb, E L

2016-12-01

As deforestation and urbanization continue at rapid rates in tropical regions, urban forest patches are essential repositories of biodiversity. However, almost nothing is known about gene flow of forest-dependent tree species in urban landscapes. In this study, we investigated gene flow in the insect-pollinated, wind-dispersed tropical tree Koompassia malaccensis in and among three remnant forest patches in the urbanized landscape of Singapore. We genotyped the vast majority of adults (N=179) and a large number of recruits (N=2103) with 8 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers. Spatial genetic structure of the recruit and adult cohorts was significant, showing routine gene dispersal distances of ~100-400 m. Parentage analysis showed that 97% of recruits were within 100 m of their mother tree, and a high frequency of relatively short-distance pollen dispersal (median ~143-187 m). Despite routine seed and pollen dispersal distances of within a few hundred meters, interpatch gene flow occurred between all patches and was dominated by pollen movement: parentage analysis showed 76 pollen versus 2 seed interpatch dispersal events, and the seedling neighborhood model estimated ~1-6% seed immigration and ~21-46% pollen immigration rates, depending on patch. In addition, the smallest patch (containing five adult K. malaccensis trees) was entirely surrounded by >2.5 km of 'impervious' substrate, yet had the highest proportional pollen and seed immigration estimates of any patch. Hence, contrary to our hypothesis, insect-mediated gene flow persisted across an urban landscape, and several of our results also parallel key findings from insect-pollinated canopy trees sampled in mixed agricultural-forest landscapes.

Tree hole mosquito species composition and relative abundances differ between urban and adjacent forest habitats in northwestern Argentina.

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Mangudo, C; Aparicio, J P; Rossi, G C; Gleiser, R M

2018-04-01

Water-holding tree holes are main larval habitats for many pathogen vectors, especially mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). Along 3 years, the diversity and composition of mosquito species in tree holes of two neighbouring but completely different environments, a city and its adjacent forest, were compared using generalized linear mixed models, PERMANOVA, SIMPER and species association indexes. The city area (Northwest Argentina) is highly relevant epidemiologically due to the presence of Aedes aegypti L. (main dengue vector) and occurrence of dengue outbreaks; the Yungas rainforests are highly biologically diverse. In total seven mosquito species were recorded, in descending order of abundance: Ae. aegypti, Haemagogus spegazzinii Brèthes, Sabethes purpureus (Theobald), Toxorhynchites guadeloupensis Dyar and Knab, Aedes terrens Walker, Haemagogus leucocelaenus Dyar & Shannon and Sabethes petrocchiae (Shannon and Del Ponte). The seven mosquito species were recorded in both city sites and forested areas; however, their mosquito communities significantly diverged because of marked differences in the frequency and relative abundance of some species: Tx. guadeloupensis and Ae. aegypti were significantly more abundant in forest and urban areas, respectively. Positive significant associations were detected between Ae. aegypti, Hg. spegazzinii and Hg. leucocelaenus. The combined presence of Ae. aegypti, Haemagogus and Sabethes in the area also highlight a potential risk of yellow fever epidemics. Overall results show an impoverished tree hole mosquito fauna in urban environments, reflecting negative effects of urbanization on mosquito diversity.

Simulating Urban Growth Using a Random Forest-Cellular Automata (RF-CA Model

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Courage Kamusoko

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Sustainable urban planning and management require reliable land change models, which can be used to improve decision making. The objective of this study was to test a random forest-cellular automata (RF-CA model, which combines random forest (RF and cellular automata (CA models. The Kappa simulation (KSimulation, figure of merit, and components of agreement and disagreement statistics were used to validate the RF-CA model. Furthermore, the RF-CA model was compared with support vector machine cellular automata (SVM-CA and logistic regression cellular automata (LR-CA models. Results show that the RF-CA model outperformed the SVM-CA and LR-CA models. The RF-CA model had a Kappa simulation (KSimulation accuracy of 0.51 (with a figure of merit statistic of 47%, while SVM-CA and LR-CA models had a KSimulation accuracy of 0.39 and −0.22 (with figure of merit statistics of 39% and 6%, respectively. Generally, the RF-CA model was relatively accurate at allocating “non-built-up to built-up” changes as reflected by the correct “non-built-up to built-up” components of agreement of 15%. The performance of the RF-CA model was attributed to the relatively accurate RF transition potential maps. Therefore, this study highlights the potential of the RF-CA model for simulating urban growth.

Trace metal concentrations in forest and lawn soils of Paris region (France) along a gradient of urban pressure

Science.gov (United States)

Ludovic, Foti

2017-04-01

Urban soils differ greatly from natural ones as they are located in areas of intense anthropogenic activity (e.g. pollution, physical disturbance, surface transformation). Urban soils are a crucial component of urban ecosystems, especially in public green spaces, and contribute to many ecosystem services from the mitigation of urban heat island to recreational services. In the last decade, the study of urban soils has emerged as an important frontier in environmental research, at least because of their impact on the quality of life of urban populations, because of the services they deliver and because they are more and more recognized as a valuable resource. One of the key issues is the pollution of urban soils because they receive a variety of deposits from local (vehicle emissions, industrial discharges, domestic heating, waste incineration and other anthropogenic activities) and from remote sources (through atmospheric transport). Typical contaminants include persistent toxic substances, such as trace metals (TMs) that have drawn wide attention due to their long persistence in the environment, their tendency to bioaccumulate in the food chain and their toxicity for humans and other organisms. Concentrations, spatial distributions, dynamics, impacts and sources of TMs (e.g. industry or fossil fuels combustion) have attracted a global interest in urban soils and are the subject of ongoing research (e.g. ecotoxicological urban ecology). Some studies have already documented soil pollution with TMs at both the town and regional scales. So far, several monitoring programs (e.g. National Network for the long term Monitoring of Forest Ecosystem, Regional Monitoring Quality of Soil in France) and studies have been carried out on a national scale to measure the ranges of TM concentrations and natural background values in French soils. These studies have focused on French agricultural and forest soils and have not tackled urban soils. No study has described TM

Yakima Habitat Improvement Project Master Plan, Technical Report 2003.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Golder Associates, Inc.

2003-04-22

The Yakima Urban Growth Area (UGA) is a developing and growing urban area in south-central Washington. Despite increased development, the Yakima River and its tributaries within the UGA continue to support threatened populations of summer steelhead and bull trout as well as a variety of non-listed salmonid species. In order to provide for the maintenance and recovery of these species, while successfully planning for the continued growth and development within the UGA, the City of Yakima has undertaken the Yakima Habitat Improvement Project. The overall goal of the project is to maintain, preserve, and restore functioning fish and wildlife habitat within and immediately surrounding the Yakima UGA over the long term. Acquisition and protection of the fish and wildlife habitat associated with key properties in the UGA will prevent future subdivision along riparian corridors, reduce further degradation or removal of riparian habitat, and maintain or enhance the long term condition of aquatic habitat. By placing these properties in long-term protection, the threat of development from continued growth in the urban area will be removed. To most effectively implement the multi-year habitat acquisition and protection effort, the City has developed this Master Plan. The Master Plan provides the structure and guidance for future habitat acquisition and restoration activities to be performed within the Yakima Urban Area. The development of this Master Plan also supports several Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives (RPAs) of the NOAA Fisheries 2000 Biological Opinion (BiOp), as well as the Water Investment Action Agenda for the Yakima Basin, local planning efforts, and the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority's 2000 Fish and Wildlife Program. This Master Plan also provides the framework for coordination of the Yakima Habitat Improvement Project with other fish and wildlife habitat acquisition and protection activities currently being implemented in the area. As a

Grooming Great Urban Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, Michele; Lewis, Jeffrey; Onafowora, Laura

2005-01-01

Master teachers working in real urban classrooms have shared their exemplary teaching practices in an After-School Pedagogical Laboratory (L-TAPL), a program for elementary students that aims to improve the achievement of urban students and the competence of their teachers. The L-TAPL enrichment program curriculum includes language arts, math,…

Urbanism Studio 2014

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

This catalogue showcases the master Urbanism Studio results 2014, which have been developed utilising research on station cities completed by Centre for Strategic Urban Research. Together with the Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs (MHURA), UC wished to explore development potentials fo...... to waterflow, from market to stream, from hedge to school garden and from trees to icons. 56 students first developed a list of key strategic proposals from the citizens groups vision papers, followed by specific design answers....

Using stable isotopes in tree rings to evaluate the impact of urban pollution on CO2 uptake by forests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Savard, M.M.; Begin, Ch.; Marion, J.

2004-01-01

Contributions addressing the impact of industrial activities on tree growth are scarce; likewise, only a few studies document δ 13 C values in growth rings of natural specimens subjected to potentially toxic industrial emissions. These last studies suggest that the SO 2 emissions affect the physiology of trees and induce changes in their carbon isotope ratios. It has been reported that copper-smelter emissions reduce the C uptake of exposed trees by 35 % to 6 % relatively to unexposed trees, in growth stands located between 9 and 120 km from the smelter. In the context of the globally increasing concentrations of CO 2 in the atmosphere, what is the net impact of the large-scale annual reduction of CO 2 uptake induced by phyto-toxic pollutants? What should we expect for trees growing in regions submitted to urban diffuse pollution? It has been recently suggested on the basis of plant biomass measurements in the New York region that urban pollution can relatively reduce plant growth, but the effect is apparently greater in distant rural sites than in peri-urban and urban ones. Is this representative of numerous urban settings? If the answer to this question is yes, the pollution-effect parameter should be considered in the global annual forest C budget, particularly for the highly industrialized northern hemisphere. The specific objectives of this study are to: (1) measure the tissue increments of the stems and determine the C isotopic ratios in tree-ring cellulose of selected trees undergoing pollution stress in selected peri-urban stands; (2) present a secular time series of the CO 2 uptake by forests peripheral to a large urban region; and (3) evaluate stable isotope dendro-geochemistry as a proxy for past changes of air quality in urban and peri-urban settings. (authors)

Using LiDAR data to measure the 3D green biomass of Beijing urban forest in China.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Cheng; Convertino, Matteo; Feng, Zhongke; Zhang, Siyu

2013-01-01

The purpose of the paper is to find a new approach to measure 3D green biomass of urban forest and to testify its precision. In this study, the 3D green biomass could be acquired on basis of a remote sensing inversion model in which each standing wood was first scanned by Terrestrial Laser Scanner to catch its point cloud data, then the point cloud picture was opened in a digital mapping data acquisition system to get the elevation in an independent coordinate, and at last the individual volume captured was associated with the remote sensing image in SPOT5(System Probatoired'Observation dela Tarre)by means of such tools as SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions), GIS (Geographic Information System), RS (Remote Sensing) and spatial analysis software (FARO SCENE and Geomagic studio11). The results showed that the 3D green biomass of Beijing urban forest was 399.1295 million m(3), of which coniferous was 28.7871 million m(3) and broad-leaf was 370.3424 million m(3). The accuracy of 3D green biomass was over 85%, comparison with the values from 235 field sample data in a typical sampling way. This suggested that the precision done by the 3D forest green biomass based on the image in SPOT5 could meet requirements. This represents an improvement over the conventional method because it not only provides a basis to evalue indices of Beijing urban greenings, but also introduces a new technique to assess 3D green biomass in other cities.

Should Master's Level Training To Provide Rural Services Survive?

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Peter A.

Despite recent efforts to encourage federal funding of psychological services for underserved populations such as the elderly and residents of rural areas, ample evidence suggests that rural areas are underserved by psychologists. Drawing on data from rural and urban areas in Pennsylvania, this paper argues that master's level training can provide…

Changing Perspectives on the Planning of Ankara (1924-2007 and Lessons for a New Master-Planning Approach to Developing Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olgu Çalişkan

2014-07-01

Full Text Available As one of the newly planned capitals in the 20th century – like Islamabad, Canberra and Brazil –, Ankara represents an original case in planning history: from shaping a new town under the influence of early European urbanism to the control of a dynamic metropolitan form by structural planning approaches. Forming its urban core according to the initial planning perspectives between the beginning of 1930s and the mid-1970s, the city has entered a rapid phase of space production in its extensions for about the last thirty years.In the current period of development, highly fragmented urban peripheral formation has being occurred in Ankara. Since the existing trend on the dispersion of urban form lacking spatial coherence at different scale-levels causes the dominance of the private domain and a loss of urbanity, this trend might at first glance be considered as a break with the European tradition and the emergence of Anglo-Americanization in Turkish planning system in terms of looser development control approach on urban form.Before, coming to such a critical end-point, the paper prefers a closer look into the changing dynamics of master plans of the city. It is aimed to reveal the developmental logic of the city by means of master plan analysis. The comprehensive outlook – called plan matrix – is integrated into each master plan schema by correlating the basic components like main policy directions, depth of control, settlement typology, and city structure and form. Such a framework has a potential to be utilized for any kind of plan analysis at metropolitan scale for different cases. At the end of the analysis, the paper tends to address an alternative master planning approach for the similar types of developing cities striving for keeping its urban character within a fragmented urban body.

Forest crimes as a threat to sustainable forest management

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S. Özden

2016-08-01

Full Text Available From ancient times to the present day, forest public relations has been an issue on the agenda. This relationship’s purpose was initially needed for shelter and nutrition; however today this process has changed with urbanization, overpopulation and understanding the new functions of forests. When land ownership became a tool of production, offenses occurred in order to convert forestlands to agricultural lands. So the vast majority of the world’s forests have been lost for this reason. Today, deforestation is occurring in tropical countries that are expecting to gain agricultural area. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between urbanization and the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of forest crimes, which are a major obstacle for sustainable forestry. Although forests cover about 27 % of Turkey’s territory, the forests are losing viability; the status of wood raw material per unit area and the total area of the country in the ratio of productive forests are becoming critical in Turkey. Turkey’s rugged terrain and factors such as human interventions, fires, deforestation for agriculture, illegal cuttings, or improper grazing reduce existing forests or cause deterioration of their structure. In the past, deforestation, as a result of human interventions in Turkey, was done by forest villagers who live in rural areas. The forest crimes depend on various socio-economic reasons and have many adverse effects on the sustainability of forest and forest existence. In developed countries, illegal interventions such as opening, grazing, cutting, occupation, use, settlement, or hunting crimes have been largely eliminated because of the absence of cadastral problems, the existence of more responsive people to protect the environment and forests and a rural population, which has a higher standard of living. In the last 20 years, there has been both a dramatic decrease in the population living in rural areas and a

The Architect Carlos Contreras and the master plan of Aguascalientes, 1948. Modern city planning and influence on urban morphology

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Alejandro Acosta Collazo

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to analyze the ordering interest related to industry in the city, workers' housing needs, the impact on the phenomenon of the city shape of the moment and building complex urban morphology consistent, positive or negative, with a planning practice. The labor colonies and Industrial guild were the product of a social response to the demands of the manufacturing city in the first half of the twentieth century. Thanks to the Master Plan by architect Carlos Contreras Elizondo for the city of Aguascalientes in 1948. Also, this article seeks to address the impact of the Plan in the historic centreof Aguascalientes, which was modified over the years to meet the needs that arose.

Storms over the Urban Forest: Planning, Responding, and Regreening-- A community Guide to Natural Disaster Relief

Science.gov (United States)

Lisa L. Burban; John W. Andresen

1994-01-01

Natural disasters which can occur in the United States include floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and related high-velocity winds, as well as ice storms. Preparing for these natural disasters, which strike urban forests in large cities and small communities, should involve the cooperative effort of a wide array of municipal agencies, private arboricultural companies,...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds from the urban forest of the Metropolitan Region, Chile

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Préndez, Margarita; Carvajal, Virginia; Corada, Karina; Morales, Johanna; Alarcón, Francis; Peralta, Hugo

2013-01-01

Tropospheric ozone is a secondary pollutant whose primary sources are volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. The national standard is exceeded on a third of summer days in some areas of the Chilean Metropolitan Region (MR). This study reports normalized springtime experimental emissions factors (EF) for biogenic volatile organic compounds from tree species corresponding to approximately 31% of urban trees in the MR. A Photochemical Ozone Creation Index (POCI) was calculated using Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential of quantified terpenes. Ten species, natives and exotics, were analysed using static enclosure technique. Terpene quantification was performed using GC-FID, thermal desorption, cryogenic concentration and automatic injection. Observed EF and POCI values for terpenes from exotic species were 78 times greater than native values; within the same family, exotic EF and POCI values were 28 and 26 times greater than natives. These results support reforestation with native species for improved urban pollution management. -- First experimental determination of the emission factors of biogenic volatile organic compounds in the urban forest of the Metropolitan Region, Chile

Herpetofauna of an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest in Paraíba State, Northeast Brazil

OpenAIRE

Yuri C. C. Lima; Fagner R. Delfim; Gentil A. Pereira-Filho; Washington L. S. Vieira; Gindomar Gomes Santana; Kleber S. Vieira

2008-01-01

The Herpetofauna of an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest was investigated in relation to species richness and habitat use. Fourteen species of amphibian anurans pertaining to the families Bufonidae, Brachycephalidae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae, Leiuperidae, Microhylidae and Ranidae were recorded. The reptiles were represented by 37 species, distributed in the families Gekkonidae, Gymnophthalmidae, Polychrotidae, Scincidae, Teiidae, Tropiduridae, Amphisbaenidae, Boidae, Colubridae, Elapidae, Typ...

Infection of Ixodes ricinus by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in peri-urban forests of France.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Axelle Marchant

Full Text Available Lyme borreliosis is the most common tick-borne disease in the northern hemisphere. In Europe, it is transmitted by Ixodes ticks that carry bacteria belonging to the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex. The objective of this work was to explore eco-epidemiological factors of Lyme borreliosis in peri-urban forests of France (Sénart, Notre-Dame and Rambouillet. We investigated whether the introduction of Tamias sibiricus in Sénart could alter the density of infected ticks. Moreover, the density and tick infection were investigated according to the tree species found in various patches of Sénart forest. For this purpose, ticks were sampled during 3 years. In the Sénart forest, the density of nymph and adult ticks showed no significant difference between 2008, 2009 and 2011. The nymph density varied significantly as a function of the month of collection. Regarding the nymphs, a higher rate of infection and infected density were found in 2009. Plots with chipmunks (C presented a lower density of both nymphs and adult ticks than plots without chipmunks (NC did. A higher rate of infection of nymphs with Borrelia was seen in C plots. The prevalence of the various species of Borrelia was also found to vary between C and NC plots with the year of the collect. The presence of chestnut trees positively influenced the density of both nymphs and adults. The infected nymph density showed a significant difference depending on the peri-urban forest studied, Sénart being higher than Rambouillet. The prevalence of Borrelia species also differed between the various forests studied. Concerning the putative role that Tamias sibiricus may play in the transmission of Borrelia, our results suggest that its presence is correlated with a higher rate of infection of questing ticks by Borrelia genospecies and if its population increases, it could play a significant role in the risk of transmission of Lyme borreliosis.

Mobbing call experiment suggests the enhancement of forest bird movement by tree cover in urban landscapes across seasons

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Atsushi Shimazaki

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Local scale movement behavior is an important basis to predict large-scale bird movements in heterogeneous landscapes. Here we conducted playback experiments using mobbing calls to estimate the probability that forest birds would cross a 50-m urban area during three seasons (breeding, dispersal, and wintering seasons with varying amounts of tree cover, building area, and electric wire density. We examined the responses of four forest resident species: Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris, Varied Tit (Sittiparus varius, Japanese Tit (P. minor, and Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea in central Hokkaido, northern Japan. We carried out and analyzed 250 playback experiments that attracted 618 individuals. Our results showed that tree cover increased the crossing probability of three species other than Varied Tit. Building area and electric wire density had no detectable effect on crossing probability for four species. Seasonal difference in the crossing probability was found only for Varied Tit, and the probability was the highest in the breeding season. These results suggest that the positive effect of tree cover on the crossing probability would be consistent across seasons. We therefore conclude that planting trees would be an effective way to promote forest bird movement within an urban landscape.

From the litter up and the sky down: Perspectives on urban ...

Science.gov (United States)

The structure of the urban forest represents the complex product of local biophysical conditions, socio-economic milieu, people preferences and management with rare counterparts in rural forests. However, urban forest structure, as similarly observed in rural forests, affects key ecological and hydrological processes as well as the plethora of organisms regulating these processes. This seminar talk will firstly present key mechanisms regulating urban eco-hydrological processes “from a litter up” perspective. In particular, fine scale effects of urban forest structure upon i) organic matter decomposition, and comminution, ii) community-assembly of decomposers, detritivores, and ecosystem engineers (i.e. bacteria, litter-dwelling macrofauna, ants), and iii) stormwater runoff infiltration and interception will be discussed. The second part of this intervention will look at the structure of the urban forest “from a sky down” perspective. Recent findings from large scale LiDAR investigations will be presented to discuss social and biophysical drivers affecting urban forest structure at sub-continental scale, as well as short-term tree loss dynamics across residential landscapes, and how these can potentially affect eco-hydrological processes at large scale. Urban forest structure, as similarly observed in rural forests, affects key ecological and hydrological processes as well as the plethora of organisms regulating these processes.

Development at the wildland-urban interface and the mitigation of forest-fire risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Spyratos, Vassilis; Bourgeron, Patrick S; Ghil, Michael

2007-09-04

This work addresses the impacts of development at the wildland-urban interface on forest fires that spread to human habitats. Catastrophic fires in the western United States and elsewhere make these impacts a matter of urgency for decision makers, scientists, and the general public. Using a simple fire-spread model, along with housing and vegetation data, we show that fire size probability distributions can be strongly modified by the density and flammability of houses. We highlight a sharp transition zone in the parameter space of vegetation flammability and house density. Many actual fire landscapes in the United States appear to have spreading properties close to this transition. Thus, the density and flammability of buildings should be taken into account when assessing fire risk at the wildland-urban interface. Moreover, our results highlight ways for regulation at this interface to help mitigate fire risk.

Freight transportation and the potential for invasions of exotic insects in urban and periurban forests of the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Colunga-Garcia, Manuel; Haack, Robert A; Adelaja, Adesoji O

2009-02-01

Freight transportation is an important pathway for the introduction and dissemination of exotic forest insects (EFI). Identifying the final destination of imports is critical in determining the likelihood of EFI establishment. We analyzed the use of regional freight transport information to characterize risk of urban and periurban areas to EFI introductions. Specific objectives were to 1) approximate the final distribution of selected imports among urban areas of the United States, 2) characterize the final distribution of imports in terms of their spatial aggregation and dominant world region of origin, and 3) assess the effect of the final distribution of imports on the level of risk to urban and periurban forests from EFI. Freight pattern analyses were conducted for three categories of imports whose products or packaging materials are associated with EFI: wood products, nonmetallic mineral products, and machinery. The final distribution of wood products was the most evenly distributed of the three selected imports, whereas machinery was most spatially concentrated. We found that the type of import and the world region of origin greatly influence the final distribution of imported products. Risk assessment models were built based on the amount of forestland and imports for each urban area The model indicated that 84-88% of the imported tonnage went to only 4-6% of the urban areas in the contiguous United States. We concluded that freight movement information is critical for proper risk assessment of EFI. Implications of our findings and future research needs are discussed.

Urbanization effects on soil nitrogen transformations and microbial biomass in the subtropics

Science.gov (United States)

Heather A. Enloe; B. Graeme Lockaby; Wayne C. Zipperer; Greg L. Somers

2015-01-01

As urbanization can involve multiple alterations to the soil environment, it is uncertain how urbanization effects soil nitrogen cycling. We established 22–0.04 ha plots in six different land cover types—rural slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantations (n=3), rural natural pine forests (n=3), rural natural oak forests (n=4), urban pine forests (n=3), urban oak forests (n...

Bushmeat networks link the forest to urban areas in the trifrontier region between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nathalie van Vliet

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Recent studies have intended to quantify urban consumption and trade in Amazonian towns. However, little is still known about the different ways in which bushmeat is made available in urban areas, including commercial and noncommercial flows, and how those flows contribute to link forests to urban livelihoods. In this study we qualitatively describe the structure and functioning of bushmeat flows in terms of species, catchment area, stakeholders involved, and the motivations for their activity in the main towns of the Amazon trifrontier region between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. We show that bushmeat trade to urban areas exists under an organized but invisible commodity chain providing a source of income to about 195 persons. Bushmeat is made available either directly from the hunter to the urban consumer, at the main market place, or in food stalls and restaurants. On the Colombian border, the trade is totally invisible, whereas in Peru and Brazil, bushmeat is sold in open markets despite regulations. The catchment area comprises the main rivers: up to Caballococha along the Amazon River, along the Atacuary River in Peru, along the Javari River between Peru and Brazil, and along the Loretoyacu and Amacayacu rivers in Colombia and in periurban forests. Although the trade is rather localized (no commercial flows to larger towns, international transborder trade is commonplace, disregarding Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora regulations. Bushmeat clients in urban areas are mainly nonindigenous or mestizos who can afford bushmeat as a luxury meal. Instead, indigenous people in urban areas do not access bushmeat through the market but rather through their social networks with whom they maintain noncommercial flows including immediate exchange and long-term exchange mechanisms. Although bushmeat is no longer consumed as a daily meal among urban and periurban indigenous families, it constitutes what could be

Monitoring forest/non-forest land use conversion rates with annual inventory data

Science.gov (United States)

Francis A. Roesch; Paul C. Van Deusen

2012-01-01

The transitioning of land from forest to other uses is of increasing interest as urban areas expand and the world’s population continues to grow. Also of interest, but less recognized, is the transitioning of land from other uses into forest. In this paper, we show how rates of conversion from forest to non-forest and non-forest to forest can be estimated in the US...

Master-planned in exurbia: examining the drivers and impacts of master-planned communities at the urban fringe

Science.gov (United States)

Jenna H. Tilt; Lee. Cerveny

2013-01-01

Smart growth strategies of infill and compact growth in existing suburban cities will most likely not be sufficient to absorb a new US household growth in the future. To meet housing demands and preferences, master-planned communities will continue to be built in outlying exurban areas. However, little is known about the impacts these communities may have on the...

Mapping Atlas of Shenzhen - Urban Villages

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Qu, L.; van Oostrum, Matthijs; Liu, Jiayao; Li, Yishiqin; Hoek, Ruben; Yang, Yidong; He, Zhujun; Buysschaert, Axel; Xiao, Yazhi; Peng, Jiping; van Eijk, Saskia; Yang, Qiao

2017-01-01

This publication is in response to the call of 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\\Architecture (Shenzhen) (UABB) “Cities, Grow in Difference”, from the perspective of urbanism: the synthesis of factors that collectively determine the spatial use of the city.
This atlas is based on master

Influence of Mortality Factors and Host Resistance on the Population Dynamics of Emerald Ash Borer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in Urban Forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Macquarrie, Chris J K; Scharbach, Roger

2015-02-01

The success of emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) in North America is hypothesized to be due to both the lack of significant natural enemies permitting easy establishment and a population of trees that lack the ability to defend themselves, which allows populations to grow unchecked. Since its discovery in 2002, a number of studies have examined mortality factors of the insect in forests, but none have examined the role of natural enemies and other mortality agents in the urban forest. This is significant because it is in the urban forest where the emerald ash borer has had the most significant economic impacts. We studied populations in urban forests in three municipalities in Ontario, Canada, between 2010 and 2012 using life tables and stage-specific survivorship to analyze data from a split-rearing manipulative experiment. We found that there was little overall mortality caused by natural enemies; most mortality we did observe was caused by disease. Stage-specific survivorship was lowest in small and large larvae, supporting previous observations of high mortality in these two stages. We also used our data to test the hypothesis that mortality and density in emerald ash borer are linked. Our results support the prediction of a negative relationship between mortality and density. However, the relationship varies between insects developing in the crown and those in the trunk of the tree. This relationship was significant because when incorporated with previous findings, it suggests a mechanism and hypothesis to explain the outbreak dynamics of the emerald ash borer. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Evaluation of Plan Implementation: Peri-urban Development and the Shanghai Master Plan 1999-2020

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Jinghuan He

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Since the 1980s China has experienced unprecedented urbanisation as a result of a series of reforms promoting rapid economic development. Shanghai, like the other big cities along China’s coastline, has witnessed extraordinary growth in its economy and population with industrial development and rural-to-urban migration generating extensive urban expansion. Shanghai’s GDP growth rate has been over 10 per cent for more than 15 years. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 23.47 million, which is double its size in 1979. The urban area enlarged by four times from 644 to 2,860 km2 between 1977 and 2010. Such demanding growth and dramatic changes present big challenges for urban planning practice in Shanghai. Plans have not kept up with development and the mismatch between the proposals in plans and the actual spatial development has gradually increased, reaching a critical level since 2000. The mismatch in the periurban areas is more notable than that in the existing urban area, but there has not been a systematic review of the relationship between plan and implementation. Indeed, there are few studies on the evaluation of plan implementation in China generally. Although many plans at numerous spatial levels are successively prepared and revised, only few of them have been evaluated in terms of their effectiveness and implementation.  This particularly demanding context for planning where spatial development becomes increasingly unpredictable and more difficult to influence presents an opportunity to investigate the role of plans under conditions of rapid urbanisation. The research project asks to what extent have spatial plans influenced the actual spatial development in the peri-urban areas of Shanghai? The research pays particular attention to the role of the Shanghai Master Plan 1999-2020 (Plan 1999. By answering the main research question this study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of present planning practice in Shanghai

A study on the relationship between carbon budget and ecosystem service in urban areas according to urbanization

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, S. J.; Lee, W. K.

2017-12-01

The study on the analysis of carbon storage capacity of urban green spaces with increasing urban forest. Modern cities have experienced rapid economic development since Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. The rapid economic growth caused an exponential concentration of population to the cities and decrease of green spaces due to the conversion of forest and agricultural lands to build-up areas with rapid urbanization. As green areas including forests, grasslands, and wetlands provide diverse economic, environmental, and cultural benefits, the decrease of green areas might be a huge loss. Also, the process of urbanization caused pressure on the urban environment more than its natural capacity, which accelerates global climate change. This study tries to see the relations between carbon budget and ecosystem services according to the urbanization. For calculating carbon dynamics, this study used VISIT(Vegetation Integrated Simulator for trace gases) model. And the value that ecosystem provides is explained with the concept of ecosystem service and calculated by InVEST model. Study sites are urban and peri-urban areas in Northeast Asia. From the result of the study, the effect of the urbanization can be understood in regard to carbon storage and ecosystem services.

Trees in urban parks and forests reduce O3, but not NO2 concentrations in Baltimore, MD, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Yli-Pelkonen, Vesa; Scott, Anna A.; Viippola, Viljami; Setälä, Heikki

2017-10-01

Trees and other vegetation absorb and capture air pollutants, leading to the common perception that they, and trees in particular, can improve air quality in cities and provide an important ecosystem service for urban inhabitants. Yet, there has been a lack of empirical evidence showing this at the local scale with different plant configurations and climatic regions. We studied the impact of urban park and forest vegetation on the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ground-level ozone (O3) while controlling for temperature during early summer (May) using passive samplers in Baltimore, USA. Concentrations of O3 were significantly lower in tree-covered habitats than in adjacent open habitats, but concentrations of NO2 did not differ significantly between tree-covered and open habitats. Higher temperatures resulted in higher pollutant concentrations and NO2 and O3 concentration were negatively correlated with each other. Our results suggest that the role of trees in reducing NO2 concentrations in urban parks and forests in the Mid-Atlantic USA is minor, but that the presence of tree-cover can result in lower O3 levels compared to similar open areas. Our results further suggest that actions aiming at local air pollution mitigation should consider local variability in vegetation, climate, micro-climate, and traffic conditions.

Planning and Construction of Gupanshan Urban Forest Park in Pingyang County%平阳县古盘山城市森林公园规划与建设

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈庆虎; 杨笑一

2014-01-01

The environmental background of the current urban forest park construction is described briefly ,and the importance of Gu-pan mountain urban forest Park in the socio-economic development and ecological environment construction of Pingyang is ana -lyzed.The scientific planning and the construction management methods of the urban forest park are researched from the aspects of ecological landscape ,cultural heritage ,industrial development and etc ,based on the full investigation of the general situation of the park and combined with the construction advantages and the existing problems of the park .the methods to guarantee the proceeding of the construction planning and management of Gupan mountain urban forest park are proposed .%对古盘山城市森林公园概况及现状进行调研，结合公园建设优势条件和存在问题，从生态景观、文化传承、产业发展等层面探索古盘山城市森林公园科学规划与建设管理理念，提出古盘山城市森林公园规划建设与管理顺利推进的保障措施。

Policy Research Using Agent-Based Modeling to Assess Future Impacts of Urban Expansion into Farmlands and Forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael R. Guzy

2008-06-01

Full Text Available The expansion of urban land uses into farmlands and forests requires an assessment of future ecological impacts. Spatially explicit agent-based models can represent the changes in resilience and ecological services that result from different land-use policies. When modeling complex adaptive systems, both the methods used to interpret results and the standards of rigor used to judge adequacy are complicated and require additional research. Recent studies suggest that it would be appropriate to use these models as an extension of exploratory analysis. This type of analysis generates ensembles of alternate plausible representations of future system conditions. User expertise steers interactive, stepwise system exploration toward inductive reasoning about potential changes to the system. In this study, we develop understanding of the potential alternative futures for a social-ecological system by way of successive simulations that test variations in the types and numbers of policies. The model addresses the agricultural-urban interface and the preservation of ecosystem services. The landscape analyzed is at the junction of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers adjacent to the cities of Eugene and Springfield in Lane County, Oregon. Our exploration of alternative future scenarios suggests that policies that constrain urban growth and create incentives for farming and forest enterprises to preserve and enhance habitat can protect ecosystem resilience and services.

The status of conservation of urban forests in eastern Amazonia

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DD Amaral

Full Text Available This study aims to identify the remnant tree flora in six forest fragments in the metropolitan area of Belém and to analyze these fragments in terms of biological conservation, species richness and diversity in the local urban landscape. The fragments and their respective sampling areas were as follows: Amafrutas reserve (15 ha, Trambioca Is. reserve (2 ha, Bosque Rodrigues Alves city park (15 ha, Combu Is. reserve (10 ha, Gunma Park reserve (10 ha and Mocambo reserve (5 ha. Inventories were built from lineal plots of 250 m² and included trees with DBH equal to or greater than 10 cm at a height of 1.3 m above ground. Sixty-nine families and 759 species, of which eight were officially listed as endangered (Brazilian National Flora: Ministry of Environment, Normative Instruction of September, 2008; Pará State Flora: Decree Nº. 802 of February 2008 were recorded. These endangered species are: Aspidosperma desmanthum Benth. ex Müll. Arg. (Apocynaceae, Cedrela odorata L. (Meliaceae, Eschweilera piresii S.A Mori (Lecythidaceae, Euxylophora paraensis Huber (Rutaceae, Hymenolobium excelsum Ducke (Leguminosae, Manilkara huberi (Ducke Chevalier (Sapotaceae, Tabebuia impetiginosa (Mart. ex DC. Standl. (Bignoniaceae, Mezilaurus itauba (Meisn. Taub. ex Mez (Lauraceae and Qualea coerulea Aubl. (Vochysiaceae. Emergency actions such as implementing management plans for already existing Conservation Units, the creation of new such units in areas of primary forest fragments (as in the case of the Amafrutas reserve, as well as the intensification of actions of surveillance and monitoring, should be undertaken by Federal, State, and Municipal environmental agencies so as to ensure the conservation of these last primary forest remnants in the metropolitan area of Belém.

The hummingbird community and their floral resources in an urban forest remnant in Brazil

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LC. Rodrigues

Full Text Available The temporal and spatial resource use among hummingbirds was studied over 13 months in an urban forest remnant (Prosa State Park: PSP in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Hummingbird visitation was recorded at three ornithophilous and eleven non-ornithophilous species. Flower density was roughly constant during the study period, with the density of non-ornithophilous flowers being higher than that of ornithophilous ones. Mean values of nectar volume and concentration were similar between ornithophilous and non-ornithophilous species. Eight hummingbird species were observed at PSP: Amazilia fimbriata, Anthracothorax nigricollis, Chlorostilbon lucidus, Eupetomena macroura, Hylocharis chrysura, Florisuga fusca, Thalurania furcata and an unidentified species. Hummingbird visit frequencies to ornithophilous and non-ornithophilous flowers were similar. However, some non-ornithophilous species received a higher number of visits, which seems to be related to their large number of open flowers per plant per day. The number of feedings bouts of hummingbirds increased with the total number of flowers observed per focal plant. All recorded species of hummingbirds visited non-ornithophilous flowers, predominantly melittophilous and generalised entomophilous flowers. Hummingbird species recorded at PSP may be viewed as generalists, visiting a large number of non-ornithophilous species. Despite being an urban forest, PSP is relatively rich in hummingbird species, suggesting that it provides important shelter and foraging sites for hummingbirds in such an environment.

The hummingbird community and their floral resources in an urban forest remnant in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, L C; Araujo, A C

2011-08-01

The temporal and spatial resource use among hummingbirds was studied over 13 months in an urban forest remnant (Prosa State Park: PSP) in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Hummingbird visitation was recorded at three ornithophilous and eleven non-ornithophilous species. Flower density was roughly constant during the study period, with the density of non-ornithophilous flowers being higher than that of ornithophilous ones. Mean values of nectar volume and concentration were similar between ornithophilous and non-ornithophilous species. Eight hummingbird species were observed at PSP: Amazilia fimbriata, Anthracothorax nigricollis, Chlorostilbon lucidus, Eupetomena macroura, Hylocharis chrysura, Florisuga fusca, Thalurania furcata and an unidentified species. Hummingbird visit frequencies to ornithophilous and non-ornithophilous flowers were similar. However, some non-ornithophilous species received a higher number of visits, which seems to be related to their large number of open flowers per plant per day. The number of feedings bouts of hummingbirds increased with the total number of flowers observed per focal plant. All recorded species of hummingbirds visited non-ornithophilous flowers, predominantly melittophilous and generalised entomophilous flowers. Hummingbird species recorded at PSP may be viewed as generalists, visiting a large number of non-ornithophilous species. Despite being an urban forest, PSP is relatively rich in hummingbird species, suggesting that it provides important shelter and foraging sites for hummingbirds in such an environment.

Forestry serving urban societies in the north atlantic region

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

In the North Atlantic Region, the social services provided by forests play a major role. With the high level of urbanisation in many of these countries, forests and other green areas are of great importance as recreational settings for urban dwellers. In order to ensure that forests cater...... of Ministers and was organised in collaboration with the Nordic-Baltic Centre of Advanced Research on Forestry Serving Urbanised Societies (CARe-FOR-US), the European Forest Network, Icelandic Forest Research and the Icelandic Forestry Association. Over 120 delegates represented researchers, planners...... and managers of forests and other green areas, policy makers and students. This issue of TemaNord presents a selection of papers presented at the conference, covering topics such as planning for environmental services, urban forest strategies, public involvement, and urban woodland management....

Desiring the city: the urban imaginary in rural collective settlements in a Brazilian submontane Atlantic forest reserve

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Bruno César Cavalcanti

Full Text Available This article discusses data obtained in a study on populations who live near an important Brazilian submontane Atlantic forest, a geographical zone of north-eastern states located between the beach zone and the savanna-scrub zone. The populations in question live in a so-called Ecological Station from Murici (Esec-Murici, in the Murici Forest Complex (CFM, in the forest zone of Alagoas, distributed between two Incra rural collective settlements and on farms. Cultural forms used by such populations have been discussed by using social indexes taken from this survey and associating them with economical and environmental sustainability notions in their interfaces with these groups' social development and with regards to the actions of other agents in the CFM, suggesting that the maintenance of an urban imaginary which produces new subjectivities can be easily linked with environmental conservation policies.

The Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Psychological Effects of Viewing Forest Landscapes in Autumn Season.

Science.gov (United States)

Joung, Dawou; Kim, Geonwoo; Choi, Yoonho; Lim, HyoJin; Park, Soonjoo; Woo, Jong-Min; Park, Bum-Jin

2015-06-26

Recently reported research indicate that forest environments have physiological and psychological relaxing effects compared to urban environments. However, some researchers claim that the stress of the subjects from being watched by others during measurements can affect the measurement result in urban experiments conducted in the center of a street. The present study was conducted to determine whether forest environments have physiological and psychological relaxing effects, using comparison of viewing a forest area with viewing an urban area from the roof of an urban building without being watched by others. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurement was performed on subjects while they viewed scenery for 15 min at each experimental site (urban and forest areas). Subjective assessments were performed after the NIRS measurement was complete. Total hemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin concentrations were significantly lower in the forest area than in the urban area. For semantic differential in subjective assessments, feelings of "comfortable", "natural", and "soothed" were significantly higher in the forest area than in the urban area, and for profile of mood states, negative emotions were significantly lower in the forest area than in the urban area. The results of physiological and psychological measurements show that viewing the forest enabled effective relaxation.

Southern Forests: a Journal of Forest Science - Vol 198 (2003)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Reverting urban exotic pine forests to Macchia and indigenous forest vegetation, using cable-yarders on the slopes of Table Mountain, South Africa: management paper · EMAIL FULL TEXT EMAIL FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. Pierre Ackerman, Bruce Talbot, 35-44 ...

Atmospheric carbon reduction by urban trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nowak, D.J.

1993-01-01

Trees, because they sequester atmospheric carbon through their growth process and conserve energy in urban areas, have been suggested as one means to combat increasing levels of atmospheric carbon. Analysis of the urban forest in Oakland, California (21% tree cover), reveals a tree carbon storage level of 11·0 metric tons/hectare. Trees in the area of the 1991 fire in Oakland stored approximately 14,500 metric tons of carbon, 10% of the total amount stored by Oakland's urban forest. National urban forest carbon storage in the United States (28% tree cover) is estimated at between 350 and 750 million metric tons. Establishment of 10 million urban trees annually over the next 10 years is estimated to sequester and offset the production of 363 million metric tons of carbon over the next 50 years-less than 1% of the estimated carbon emissions in the United States over the same time period. Advantages and limitations of managing urban trees to reduce atmospheric carbon are discussed. 36 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs

Effect of urbanization on the structure and functional traits of remnant subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in South China

Science.gov (United States)

Liujing Huang; Hongfeng Chen; Hai Ren; Jun Wang; Qinfeng Guo

2013-01-01

We investigated the effects of major environmental drivers associated with urbanization on species diversity and plant functional traits (PFTs) in the remnant subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in Metropolitan Guangzhou (Guangdong, China). Twenty environmental factors including topography, light, and soil properties were used to quantify the effects of...

Individual and Interactive Influences of Anthropogenic and Ecological Factors on Forest PM2.5 Concentrations at an Urban Scale

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Guoliang Yun

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Integration of Landsat images and multisource data using spatial statistical analysis and geographical detector models can reveal the individual and interactive influences of anthropogenic activities and ecological factors on concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5. This approach has been used in many studies to estimate biomass and forest disturbance patterns and to monitor carbon sinks. However, the approach has rarely been used to comprehensively analyze the individual and interactive influences of anthropogenic factors (e.g., population density, impervious surface percentage and ecological factors (e.g., canopy density, stand age, and elevation on PM2.5 concentrations. To do this, we used Landsat-8 images and meteorological data to retrieve quantitative data on the concentrations of particulates (PM2.5, then integrated a forest management planning inventory (FMPI, population density distribution data, meteorological data, and topographic data in a Geographic Information System database, and applied a spatial statistical analysis model to identify aggregated areas (hot spots and cold spots of particulates in the urban area of Jinjiang city, China. A geographical detector model was used to analyze the individual and interactive influences of anthropogenic and ecological factors on PM2.5 concentrations. We found that particulate concentration hot spots are mainly distributed in urban centers and suburbs, while cold spots are mainly distributed in the suburbs and exurban region. Elevation was the dominant individual factor affecting PM2.5 concentrations, followed by dominant tree species and meteorological factors. A combination of human activities (e.g., population density, impervious surface percentage and multiple ecological factors caused the dominant interactive effects, resulting in increased PM2.5 concentrations. Our study suggests that human activities and multiple ecological factors

Thing theory & urban objects at EXPO '58

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wallis De Vries, J.G.

2012-01-01

This issue of Seminarch us devoted to the seminar Urban Objects at the Expo '58, a Thing Theory for Urbanism, initiated by Karel Wuytack, from Ghent, who is pursuing his PhD at our faculty under the supervision of prof. B. Colenbrander. The 15 participants in this Master's seminar studied the thing

Carrion Beetles Visiting Pig Carcasses during Early Spring in Urban, Forest and Agricultural Biotopes of Western Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Dekeirsschieter, Jessica; Verheggen, François J.; Haubruge, Eric; Brostaux, Yves

2011-01-01

Carrion beetles are important in terrestrial ecosystems, consuming dead mammals and promoting the recycling of organic matter into ecosystems. Most forensic studies are focused on succession of Diptera while neglecting Coleoptera. So far, little information is available on carrion beetles postmortem colonization and decomposition process in temperate biogeoclimatic countries. These beetles are however part of the entomofaunal colonization of a dead body. Forensic entomologists need databases concerning the distribution, ecology and phenology of necrophagous insects, including silphids. Forensic entomology uses pig carcasses to surrogate human decomposition and to investigate entomofaunal succession. However, few studies have been conducted in Europe on large carcasses. The work reported here monitored the presence of the carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) on decaying pig carcasses in three selected biotopes (forest, crop field, urban site) at the beginning of spring. Seven species of Silphidae were recorded: Nicrophorus humator (Gleditsch), Nicrophorus vespillo (L.), Nicrophorus vespilloides (Herbst), Necrodes littoralis L., Oiceoptoma thoracica L., Thanatophilus sinuatus (Fabricius), Thanatophilus rugosus (L.). All of these species were caught in the forest biotope, and all but O. thoracica were caught in the agricultural biotope. No silphids were caught in the urban site. PMID:21867439

Characteristics of Urban Natural Areas Influencing Winter Bird Use in Southern Ontario, Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Paul G. R.

2007-03-01

Characteristics of urban natural areas and surrounding landscapes were identified that best explain winter bird use for 28 urban natural areas in southern Ontario, Canada. The research confirms for winter birds the importance of area (size) and natural vegetation, rather than managed, horticultural parkland, within urban natural areas as well as percent urban land use and natural habitat in surrounding landscapes. Alien bird density and percent ground feeding species increased with percent surrounding urban land use. Higher percent forest cover was associated with higher percentages of forest, bark feeding, small (species. Natural area size (ha) was related to higher species richness, lower evenness and higher percentages of insectivorous, forest interior, area-sensitive, upper canopy, bark feeding, and non-resident species. Higher number of habitat types within natural areas and percent natural habitat in surrounding landscapes were also associated with higher species richness. Common, resident bird species dominated small areas (20 ha start to support some area-sensitive species. Areas similar to rural forests had >25% insectivores, >25% forest interior species, >25% small species, and species. Indicator species separated urban natural areas from rural habitats and ordination placed urban natural areas along a gradient between urban development and undisturbed, rural forests. More attention is needed on issues of winter bird conservation in urban landscapes.

Urban Crowns: crown analysis software to assist in quantifying urban tree benefits

Science.gov (United States)

Matthew F. Winn; Sang-Mook Lee Bradley; Philip A. Araman

2010-01-01

UrbanCrowns is a Microsoft® Windows®-based computer program developed by the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station. The software assists urban forestry professionals, arborists, and community volunteers in assessing and monitoring the crown characteristics of urban trees (both deciduous and coniferous) using a single side-view digital photograph. Program output...

Climate change and forest diseases: using todays knowledge to address future challenges

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sturrock, R. N.

2012-11-01

The health of the earths forests and urban green spaces is increasingly challenged by the outcomes of human activities, including global climate change. As climate changes, the role and impact of diseases on trees in both forest ecosystems and in urban settings will also change. Knowledge of relationships between climate variables and diseases affecting forest and urban trees is reviewed, with specific emphasis on those affecting foliage, shoots, and stems. Evidence that forest diseases are already responding to the earths changing climate is examined (e.g., Dothistroma needle blight in northern British Columbia) as are predicted scenarios for future changes in impact on forests by other tree diseases. Outbreaks of tree diseases caused by native and alien pathogens are predicted to become more frequent and intense this and other general predictions about the effects of climate change on forest and tree diseases are discussed. Despite the uncertainty that accompanies such predictions it is imperative that researchers, forest and urban tree managers, and policy makers work together to develop and implement management strategies that enhance the resilience of the worlds forests and urbanized trees. Strategies discussed include monitoring, forecasting, planning, and mitigation. (Author) 60 refs.

Evaluating green infrastructure in urban environments using a multi-taxa and functional diversity approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinho, Pedro; Correia, Otília; Lecoq, Miguel; Munzi, Silvana; Vasconcelos, Sasha; Gonçalves, Paula; Rebelo, Rui; Antunes, Cristina; Silva, Patrícia; Freitas, Catarina; Lopes, Nuno; Santos-Reis, Margarida; Branquinho, Cristina

2016-05-01

Forested areas within cities host a large number of species, responsible for many ecosystem services in urban areas. The biodiversity in these areas is influenced by human disturbances such as atmospheric pollution and urban heat island effect. To ameliorate the effects of these factors, an increase in urban green areas is often considered sufficient. However, this approach assumes that all types of green cover have the same importance for species. Our aim was to show that not all forested green areas are equal in importance for species, but that based on a multi-taxa and functional diversity approach it is possible to value green infrastructure in urban environments. After evaluating the diversity of lichens, butterflies and other-arthropods, birds and mammals in 31 Mediterranean urban forests in south-west Europe (Almada, Portugal), bird and lichen functional groups responsive to urbanization were found. A community shift (tolerant species replacing sensitive ones) along the urbanization gradient was found, and this must be considered when using these groups as indicators of the effect of urbanization. Bird and lichen functional groups were then analyzed together with the characteristics of the forests and their surroundings. Our results showed that, contrary to previous assumptions, vegetation density and more importantly the amount of urban areas around the forest (matrix), are more important for biodiversity than forest quantity alone. This indicated that not all types of forested green areas have the same importance for biodiversity. An index of forest functional diversity was then calculated for all sampled forests of the area. This could help decision-makers to improve the management of urban green infrastructures with the goal of increasing functionality and ultimately ecosystem services in urban areas. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Geostatistics and Geographic Information System to Analyze the Spatial Distribution of the Diversity of Anastrepha Species (Diptera: Tephritidae): the Effect of Forest Fragments in an Urban Area.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, A G; Araujo, M R; Uramoto, K; Walder, J M M; Zucchi, R A

2017-12-08

Fruit flies are among the most damaging insect pests of commercial fruit in Brazil. It is important to understand the landscape elements that may favor these flies. In the present study, spatial data from surveys of species of Anastrepha Schiner (Diptera: Tephritidae) in an urban area with forest fragments were analyzed, using geostatistics and Geographic Information System (GIS) to map the diversity of insects and evaluate how the forest fragments drive the spatial patterns. The results indicated a high diversity of species associated with large fragments, and a trend toward lower diversity in the more urbanized area, as the fragment sizes decreased. We concluded that the diversity of Anastrepha species is directly and positively related to large and continuous forest fragments in urbanized areas, and that combining geostatistics and GIS is a promising method for use in insect-pest management and sampling involving fruit flies. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Freight transportation and the potential for invasions of exotic insects in urban and periurban forests of the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Manuel Colunga-Garcia; Robert A. Haack; Adesoji O. Adelaja

2009-01-01

Freight transportation is an important pathway for the introduction and dissemination of exotic forest insects (EFI). Identifying the final destination of imports is critical in determining the likelihood of EFI establishment. We analyzed the use of regional freight transport information to characterize risk of urban and periurban areas to EFI introductions. Specifc...

Modelling with the master equation solution methods and applications in social and natural sciences

CERN Document Server

Haag, Günter

2017-01-01

This book presents the theory and practical applications of the Master equation approach, which provides a powerful general framework for model building in a variety of disciplines. The aim of the book is to not only highlight different mathematical solution methods, but also reveal their potential by means of practical examples. Part I of the book, which can be used as a toolbox, introduces selected statistical fundamentals and solution methods for the Master equation. In Part II and Part III, the Master equation approach is applied to important applications in the natural and social sciences. The case studies presented mainly hail from the social sciences, including urban and regional dynamics, population dynamics, dynamic decision theory, opinion formation and traffic dynamics; however, some applications from physics and chemistry are treated as well, underlining the interdisciplinary modelling potential of the Master equation approach. Drawing upon the author’s extensive teaching and research experience...

Carbon cycle dynamics within Oregon’s urban-suburban-forested-agricultural landscapes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Law, Beverly E. [Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States); Still, Christopher Jason [Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States); Schmidt, Andres [Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)

2017-06-15

Our overarching goal was to develop and utilize an observation-based analysis framework to assess interactions between climate and mosaics of land use, land cover and urbanization on regional carbon, water, and energy dynamics, and potential changes associated with land management and climate. Carbon, water and energy cycling was quantified for the range of current and potential land uses under present and future climates. The study region of Oregon has a strong climatic gradient from the coastal mesic forests (2500mm ppt) to the Willamette Valley, Cascade Mountains, and the Northern Great Basin semi-arid “cold desert” to the east (300 mm). The study was focused on the effects of (1) conversion of semi-arid sagebrush and Willamette Valley agricultural crops to bioenergy production; (2) afforestation of idle land and rangelands deemed suitable for forests or poplar crops under future climate conditions. We found that net ecosystem production (NEP), the net of ecosystem photosynthesis and respiration, was 10 times higher in the high biomass forests of the Coast Range compared with drier regions like sagebrush in the Northern Great Basin, which was nearly zero (Schmidt et al. 2016). The state total NEP averaged about 30 teragrams carbon (Tg C) per year for the years 2012 to 2014 using our model framework that we developed for predictions of current and future NEP, and compared well with our detailed inventory estimates (28 Tg C annual average for 2011-2015 for forests only; Law et al. 2017). Running our model framework until the year 2050, we found that climate alone only increased NEP by less than 1 Tg C per decade (~3%) using the current trajectory of carbon dioxide emissions, however, changes are expected to be more rapid in subsequent years. We evaluated the possibility of land use change from grass seed crops to poplar for bioenergy, which slightly increased NEP by 2050. The most important variable for carbon sequestration estimates (net carbon sources and

Comparison of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAHs concentrations in urban and natural forest soils in the Atlantic Forest (São Paulo State

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine Bourotte

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Studies about pollution by Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs in tropical soils and Brazil are scarce. A study was performed to examine the PAHs composition, concentrations and sources in red-yellow Oxisols of remnant Atlantic Forest of the São Paulo State. Sampling areas were located in an urban site (PEFI and in a natural one (CUNHA.The granulometric composition, pH, organic matter content and mineralogical composition were determined in samples of superficial soils. The sum of PAHs (ΣHPAs was 4.5 times higher in the urban area than in the natural one. Acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene and fluoranthene have been detected in the soils of both areas and presented similar concentrations. Acenaphthene and fluorene were the most abundant compounds. Pyrene was twice more abundant in the soils of natural area (15 µg.kg-1 than of the urban area and fluoranthene was the dominant compound (203 µg.kg-1 in urban area (6.8 times higher than in the natural area. Some compounds of higher molecular weight, which are tracers of vehicular emissions showed significant concentrations in urban soils. Pyrene represented 79% of ΣPAHs whereas it has not been detected in natural soils. The results showed that forest soils in urban area are characterized by the accumulation of high molecular weight compounds of industrial and vehicular origin.Estudos sobre a poluição por Hidrocarbonetos Policíclicos Aromáticos (HPAs são escassos em solos tropicais e no Brasil. Um estudo foi realizado para examinar a composição, as concentrações e fontes de HPAs encontrados em Latossolos vermelho-amarelo (Oxissolos, remanescentes de Mata Atlântica no Estado de São Paulo. As áreas de estudos localizaram-se em um sítio urbano (PEFI e um natural (CUNHA. A composição granulométrica, pH, teor de matéria orgânica e composição mineralógica foram determinados em amostras de solo superficial. A soma dos HPAs analisados (ΣHPAs foi 4,5 vezes mais

Urban fuel demand in Ethiopia: an almost‐ideal demand system ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper investigates the opportunities for reducing the pressure of urban centers on rural forest areas, using a dataset of 350 urban households in Tigrai in northern Ethiopia. We applied an almost‐ideal demand system to fuels. The results suggest that reducing the pressure of urban centers on local forests cannot be ...

Regeneration Through Hidden Historical Landscape of Lecco. Urban Course Design Process

OpenAIRE

Colucci, Angela; Kolmogorova, Anna; Kraja, Benida; Ziyaee, Maryam

2017-01-01

The article focus on the role of Historical Urban Heritage in Urban Design through the presentation of the integrated learning  path developed for Urban Design and Urban Design Studio classes of Lecco Campus of Politecnico of Milan (school of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering, master degree in Building and Architectural Engineering - BAE and Architectural-Engineering– EDA). The first part of paper presents the general learning process characterizing Urban Design course a...

Physiological and psychological effects of walking in stay-in forest therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Bum-Jin; Tsunetsugu, Yuko; Morikawa, Takeshi; Kagawa, Takahide; Lee, Juyoung; Ikei, Harumi; Song, Chorong; Miyazaki, Yoshifumi

2014-01-01

To provide scientific evidence of the physiological and psychological effects of forest and urban environments on 47 young male adults undergoing stay-in forest therapy. Field experiments were conducted at four sites in Japan. At each site, 12 subjects participated in the experiment. The experiments were conducted in forest and urban environments, and the subjects' physiological and psychological responses to these environments were compared. On the first day, six subjects were sent to a forest area, and the other six were sent to an urban area as controls. The groups were switched the next day. Heart rate variability and heart rate were measured to assess physiological responses. The semantic differential method for assessing emotions, the reports of "refreshed" feeling, and the Profile of Mood States (POMS) were used to assess psychological responses. The physiological and psychological responses of each subject were recorded during and after walking, and the differences in indices were compared between the two environments. The forest environment was associated with a higher parasympathetic nervous activity, a lower sympathetic nervous activity, and a lower heart rate than the urban environment. The subjective evaluation scores were generally in accordance with the physiological reactions and were significantly higher in the forest environment than in the urban environment. POMS measurements showed that the forest environment was psychologically relaxing and enhanced psychological vigor. This study provided clear scientific evidence of the physiological effects of forest therapy. The results will contribute to the development of forest therapy research and support the inclusion of forest therapy in preventive medicine.

Urbanization effects on leaf litter decomposition, foliar nutrient dynamics and aboveground net primary productivity in the subtropics

Science.gov (United States)

Heather A. Enloe; B. Graeme Lockaby; Wayne C. Zipperer; Greg L. Somers

2015-01-01

Urbanization can alter nutrient cycling. This research evaluated how urbanization affected nutrient dynamics in the subtropics. We established 17–0.04 ha plots in five different land cover types—slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantations (n=3), rural natural pine forests (n= 3), rural natural oak forests (n=4), urban pine forests (n=3) and urban oak forests (n=4) in the...

Toxicity of sediments from a mangrove forest patch in an urban area in Pernambuco (Brazil).

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, D D; Souza-Santos, L P; Silva, H K P; Macedo, S J

2014-06-01

Industrial and urban residues are discharged every day to the rivers and may arrive at the mangrove forest and prejudice the quality of the environment and the organisms present there. The mangrove forest patch studied is encircled by an urban area of the city of Recife (Brazil) that has approximate 1.5 million inhabitants and is one of the most industrialized centers in Northeast Brazil. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the sediments of this mangrove patch in terms of metal contamination and ecotoxicology. Samples of surface sediment were collected in six stations for toxicological tests and trace metal determination (Cr, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, Pb, Co and Ni), in July and August, 2006 (rainy season); and in January and February 2007 (dry season). Toxicity tests with solid-phase sediments were carried out with the copepod Tisbe biminiensis in order to observe lethal and sub-lethal endpoints and correlate them with chemical data. In June, there were no observed lethal effect, but two stations presented sub-lethal effects. In January, lethal effect occurred in three stations and sub-lethal in one station. The levels for Zn and Cr were at higher levels than international proposed guidelines (NOAA). There was a negative significant correlation between the copepods׳ fecundity, and Zn and Cr concentrations. Therefore, the studied sediments can be considered to have potential toxic to benthos due to the high content of Zn and Cr. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How to restore dry forest ecosystems

OpenAIRE

Nalvarte, Jaime

2012-01-01

AIDER is a Peruvian non-governmental organization working since 1992 on forest management activities, watershed management and urban forest management on tropical humid and dry forest at a national level. AIDER and the José Ignacio Távara Pasapera rural community have been working on dry forest management and recovery since 1992. This paper summarizes the activity of AIDER in the dry forests for the purpose of recovering degraded forest areas and conserve existing forests by developing sustai...

Interaction between forest biodiversity and people's use of forest resources in Roviana, Solomon Islands: implications for biocultural conservation under socioeconomic changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Furusawa, Takuro; Sirikolo, Myknee Qusa; Sasaoka, Masatoshi; Ohtsuka, Ryutaro

2014-01-27

In Solomon Islands, forests have provided people with ecological services while being affected by human use and protection. This study used a quantitative ethnobotanical analysis to explore the society-forest interaction and its transformation in Roviana, Solomon Islands. We compared local plant and land uses between a rural village and urbanized village. Special attention was paid to how local people depend on biodiversity and how traditional human modifications of forest contribute to biodiversity conservation. After defining locally recognized land-use classes, vegetation surveys were conducted in seven forest classes. For detailed observations of daily plant uses, 15 and 17 households were randomly selected in the rural and urban villages, respectively. We quantitatively documented the plant species that were used as food, medicine, building materials, and tools. The vegetation survey revealed that each local forest class represented a different vegetative community with relatively low similarity between communities. Although commercial logging operations and agriculture were both prohibited in the customary nature reserve, local people were allowed to cut down trees for their personal use and to take several types of non-timber forest products. Useful trees were found at high frequencies in the barrier island's primary forest (68.4%) and the main island's reserve (68.3%). Various useful tree species were found only in the reserve forest and seldom available in the urban village. In the rural village, customary governance and control over the use of forest resources by the local people still functioned. Human modifications of the forest created unique vegetation communities, thus increasing biodiversity overall. Each type of forest had different species that varied in their levels of importance to the local subsistence lifestyle, and the villagers' behaviors, such as respect for forest reserves and the semidomestication of some species, contributed to

Unraveling Landscape Complexity: Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Landscape Pattern Dynamics (1954-2008) in Contrasting Peri-Urban and Agro-Forest Regions of Northern Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Smiraglia, D; Ceccarelli, T; Bajocco, S; Perini, L; Salvati, L

2015-10-01

This study implements an exploratory data analysis of landscape metrics and a change detection analysis of land use and population density to assess landscape dynamics (1954-2008) in two physiographic zones (plain and hilly-mountain area) of Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. The two areas are characterized by different landscape types: a mixed urban-rural landscape dominated by arable land and peri-urban settlements in the plain and a traditional agro-forest landscape in the hilly-mountain area with deciduous and conifer forests, scrublands, meadows, and crop mosaic. Urbanization and, to a lesser extent, agricultural intensification were identified as the processes underlying landscape change in the plain. Land abandonment determining natural forestation and re-forestation driven by man was identified as the process of change most representative of the hilly-mountain area. Trends in landscape metrics indicate a shift toward more fragmented and convoluted patterns in both areas. Number of patches, the interspersion and juxtaposition index, and the large patch index are the metrics discriminating the two areas in terms of landscape patterns in 1954. In 2008, mean patch size, edge density, interspersion and juxtaposition index, and mean Euclidean nearest neighbor distance were the metrics with the most different spatial patterns in the two areas. The exploratory data analysis of landscape metrics contributed to link changes over time in both landscape composition and configuration providing a comprehensive picture of landscape transformations in a wealthy European region. Evidence from this study are hoped to inform sustainable land management designed for homogeneous landscape units in similar socioeconomic contexts.

Symptomatic Raccoon Dogs and Sarcoptic Mange Along an Urban Gradient.

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Masayuki U; Sonoda, Yoichi

2017-06-01

We quantitatively evaluated the effects of landscape factors on the distribution of symptomatic raccoon dogs with sarcoptic mange along an urban gradient. We used 246 camera traps (182 traps from April 2005 to December 2006; 64 traps from September 2009 to October 2010) to record the occurrence of asymptomatic and symptomatic raccoon dogs at 21 survey sites along an urban-rural gradient in the Tama Hills area of Tokyo. Each occurrence was explained in terms of the surrounding forest, agricultural, and grassland areas and additional factors (i.e., seasonal variations and survey methods) at various spatial scales using a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM). In our analysis, a 1000-m radius was identified as the important spatial scale for asymptomatic and symptomatic raccoon dog occurrence. The peak of the predicted occurrence probability of asymptomatic raccoon dogs appeared in the intermediate forest landscape as opposed to non-forest and forest landscapes. However, a high occurrence probability of symptomatic raccoon dogs was detected in non-forest and intermediate forest landscapes (i.e., urban and suburban) as opposed to a forest landscape, presumably because of animals occurring at much higher densities in more urbanized areas. Therefore, our results suggest that human-modified landscapes play an important role in the high occurrence of sarcoptic mange in raccoon dogs.

An urban-forest control measure for ozone in the Sacramento, CA federal non-attainment area (SFNA) Sustainable Cities and Society

Science.gov (United States)

Haider Taha; James Wilkinson; Robert Bornstein; Qingfu Xiao; E. Gregory McPherson; Jim Simpson; Charles Anderson; Steven Lau; Janice Lam; Cindy Blain

2015-01-01

Urban forest strategies of gradually replacing high emitters of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) with low-emitting species are being considered as voluntary or emerging control measures for maintenance of the 8-h ozone standard in the Sacramento Federal Non-Attainment Area (SFNA). We describe a regulatory modeling study demonstrating the air-quality impacts...

Quantifying urban forest structure, function, and value: the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project

Science.gov (United States)

E. Gregory McPherson; David Nowak; Gordon Heisler; Sue Grimmond; Catherine Souch; Rich Grant; Rowan Rowntree

1997-01-01

This paper is a review of research in Chicago that linked analyses of vegetation structure with forest functions and values. During 1991, the region's trees removed an estimated 5575 metric tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing worth $9.2 million. Each year they sequester an estimated 315 800 metric tons of carbon. Increasing tree cover 10% or planting...

OPS Master

Data.gov (United States)

US Agency for International Development — OPS Master is a management tool and database for integrated financial planning and portfolio management in USAID Missions. Using OPS Master, the three principal...

Daily Cycle of Air Temperature and Surface Temperature in Stone Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, K.; Li, Y.; Wang, X.; Yuan, M.

2013-12-01

Urbanization is one of the most profound human activities that impact on climate change. In cities, where are highly artificial areas, the conflict between human activity and natural climate is particularly prominent. Urban areas always have the larger area of impervious land, the higher consumption of greenhouse gases, more emissions of anthropogenic heat and air pollution, all contribute to the urban warming phenomena. Understanding the mechanisms causing a variety of phenomena involved in the urban warming is critical to distinguish the anthropogenic effect and natural variation in the climate change. However, the exact dynamics of urban warming were poorly understood, and effective control strategies are not available. Here we present a study of the daily cycle of air temperature and surface temperature in Stone Forest. The specific heat of the stones in the Stone Forest and concrete of the man-made structures within the cities are approximate. Besides, the height of the Stone Forest and the height of buildings within the city are also similar. As a scenic area, the Stone Forest is being preserved and only opened for sightseeing. There is no anthropogenic heat, as well air pollution within the Stone Forest. The thermal environment in Stone Forest can be considered to be a simulation of thermal environment in the city, which can reveal the effect of man-made structures on urban thermal environment. We conducted the field studies and numerical analysis in the Stone Forest for 4 typical urban morphology and environment scenarios, including high-rise compact cities, low-rise sparse cities, garden cities and isolated single stone. Air temperature and relative humidity were measured every half an hour in 15 different locations, which within different spatial distribution of stones and can represent the four urban scenarios respectively. At the same time, an infrared camera was used to take thermal images and get the hourly surface temperatures of stones and

Ensuring Sustainable Development through Urban Planning in Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Qasim

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Urban planning includes land use management and environmental change. It makes arrangement for community facilities and services. Since, sustainable development has been included as a vital end product of all planning goals it also provides for balanced use of land, housing and transportation and better quality of life. Present urban planning in Pakistan is not ensuring sustainable development in Pakistan. This is tested through the case study of master planning in Rawalpindi and its implementation through housing schemes in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Large portions of provisions of master plans are not implemented. This paper explains how the urban planning will be made enabled to ensure sustainable development in Pakistan. Six numbers of housing schemes and two squatter settlements have been surveyed through questionnaires, secondary data, the opinions of the experts from related fields and site observations. Amenities and social services at far distance, very less green area, Less quantity and bad quality of water, absence of comprehensive solid waste management and sewage disposal system and nontreatment of solid waste, effluent and sewage, prevalent unhygienic conditions and air and water pollution are the existing factors effecting the sustainability. There is a need to revisit the urban planning and a comprehensive Urban and Environment Planning Law at national level and at provincial level is recommended to enable the urban planning to ensure the sustainable development in Pakistan

Ensuring sustainable development through urban planing in pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qasim, M.; Zaidi, S.S.U.

2013-01-01

Urban planning includes land use management and environmental change. It makes arrangement for community facilities and services. Since, sustainable development has been included as a vital end product of all planning goals it also provides for balanced use of land, housing and transportation and better quality of life. Present urban planning in Pakistan is not ensuring sustainable development in Pakistan. This is tested through the case study of master planning in Rawalpindi and its implementation through housing schemes in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Large portions of provisions of master plans are not implemented. This paper explains how the urban planning will be made enabled to ensure sustainable development in Pakistan. Six numbers of housing schemes and two squatter settlements have been surveyed through questionnaires, secondary data, the opinions of the experts from related fields and site observations. Amenities and social services at far distance, very less green area, Less quantity and bad quality of water, absence of comprehensive solid waste management and sewage disposal system and non- treatment of solid waste, effluent and sewage, prevalent unhygienic conditions and air and water pollution are the existing factors effecting the sustainability. There is a need to revisit the urban planning and a comprehensive Urban and Environment Planning Law at national level and at provincial level is recommended to enable the urban planning to ensure the sustainable development in Pakistan. (author)

Urban base flow with low impact development

Science.gov (United States)

Bhaskar, Aditi; Hogan, Dianna M.; Archfield, Stacey A.

2016-01-01

A novel form of urbanization, low impact development (LID), aims to engineer systems that replicate natural hydrologic functioning, in part by infiltrating stormwater close to the impervious surfaces that generate it. We sought to statistically evaluate changes in a base flow regime because of urbanization with LID, specifically changes in base flow magnitude, seasonality, and rate of change. We used a case study watershed in Clarksburg, Maryland, in which streamflow was monitored during whole-watershed urbanization from forest and agricultural to suburban residential development using LID. The 1.11-km2 watershed contains 73 infiltration-focused stormwater facilities, including bioretention facilities, dry wells, and dry swales. We examined annual and monthly flow during and after urbanization (2004–2014) and compared alterations to nearby forested and urban control watersheds. We show that total streamflow and base flow increased in the LID watershed during urbanization as compared with control watersheds. The LID watershed had more gradual storm recessions after urbanization and attenuated seasonality in base flow. These flow regime changes may be because of a reduction in evapotranspiration because of the overall decrease in vegetative cover with urbanization and the increase in point sources of recharge. Precipitation that may once have infiltrated soil, been stored in soil moisture to be eventually transpired in a forested landscape, may now be recharged and become base flow. The transfer of evapotranspiration to base flow is an unintended consequence to the water balance of LID.

US Urban Forest Statistics, Values, and Projections

Science.gov (United States)

David J Nowak; Eric J. Greenfield

2018-01-01

U.S. urban land increased from 2.6% (57.9 million acres) in 2000 to 3.0% (68.0 million acres) in 2010. States with the greatest amount of urban growth were in the South/Southeast (TX, FL, NC, GA and SC). Between 2010 and 2060, urban land is projected to increase another 95.5 million acres to 163.1 million acres (8.6%) with 18 states projected to have an increase of...

Urban Sustainability Versus Green-Washing—Fallacy and Reality of Urban Regeneration in Downtown Seoul

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thorsten Schuetze

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the planning paradigm shift related to the contested “urban renaissance” mega-project in Downtown Seoul (Korea. Similar to other global cities, over the last few decades, different mega-projects have been successfully implemented in Seoul. These projects have been considered engines for urban renewals and transformation. This paper builds on the analysis of the failure and re-framing planning strategy for the Green Corridor (GC mega-project, part of the “Urban Renaissance Master Plan for Downtown Seoul”. The GC case reveals various critical insights for urban sustainability: (i the current mega-projects’ sustainability fallacy, related to top-down, technocratic densification, and greening practices; and (ii the untapped potential of Asian traditional and irregular small scale urban patterns, and their related socio-cultural value in addressing the renaissance of the long term urban sustainability. In particular, the discussed research findings point out that urban renaissance enabling sustainability principles requires integrated, small scale, incremental, and adaptive (stepwise urban planning and design processes that go well beyond general strategies following the so-called “green growth” paradigm.

Spatial Modeling of Urban Vegetation and Land Surface Temperature: A Case Study of Beijing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chudong Huang

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The coupling relationship between urban vegetation and land surface temperature (LST has been heatedly debated in a variety of environmental studies. This paper studies the urban vegetation information and LST by utilizing a series of remote sensing imagery covering the period from 1990 to 2007. Their coupling relationship is analyzed, in order to provide the basis for ecological planning and environment protection. The results show that the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, urban vegetation abundance (UVA and urban forest abundance (UFA are negatively correlated with LST, which means that both urban vegetation and urban forest are capable in decreasing LST. The apparent influence of urban vegetation and urban forest on LST varies with the spatial resolution of the imagery, and peaks at the resolutions ranging from 90 m to 120 m.

Mastering the Master Space

CERN Document Server

Forcella, Davide; He, Yang-Hui; Zaffaroni, Alberto

2008-01-01

Supersymmetric gauge theories have an important but perhaps under-appreciated notion of a master space, which controls the full moduli space. For world-volume theories of D-branes probing a Calabi-Yau singularity X the situation is particularly illustrative. In the case of one physical brane, the master space F is the space of F-terms and a particular quotient thereof is X itself. We study various properties of F which encode such physical quantities as Higgsing, BPS spectra, hidden global symmetries, etc. Using the plethystic program we also discuss what happens at higher number N of branes. This letter is a summary and some extensions of the key points of a longer companion paper arXiv:0801.1585.

Forest experiences of fifth-grade Chicago public school students.

Science.gov (United States)

Laura J. Metro; John F. Dwyer; Erwin S. Dreschler

1981-01-01

Analyzes previous visits to a forest and the associated experiences, as well as the expectations of those who had not previously visited a forest. Recommends educational programs that focus on the urban forest.

Influence of urbanization on the original vegetation cover in urban river basin: case study in Campinas/SP, Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Leite Silva, Alessandra; Márcia Longo, Regina

2017-04-01

ABSTRACT: In most Brazilian municipalities, urban development was not based on adequate planning; one of the consequences was the reduction of the original vegetation, limiting the forest formations to scarce and isolated fragments. In Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, the vegetation fragmentation was mainly related to the expeditions and to the cycles of sugar cane and coffee. In this way, the present study aims to identify, quantify and evaluate the remaining arboreal vegetation spatial distribution in the Anhumas River Basin - Campinas/SP, Brazil. This study was developed with the aid of GIS software and field visits in order to construct a diagnosis of these areas and subsidize future actions required and to discuss the influence of urbanization on the original vegetation cover. The area was initially occupied by the Atlantic Forest (semi-deciduous forest) and drains one of the oldest urban occupation areas in the municipality; according to researchers, based on the water and geomorphological conditions of the basin, it can be subdivided into high, medium and low course. With a total area of 156,514 km2, only 16.74% are classified as green areas; where just 1.07% and 6.17% of total area represents forests and reforestation areas, respectively. The remaining green areas consists of: wetlands close to water bodies, but with no presence of trees and shrubs (area of 0.12% of the basin); urban green space, including parks and squares (2.19%); and natural field, constituted by natural non-arboreous vegetation (7.18%). In a scenario like this, a characteristic situation is the forest fragmentation; this process results in native vegetation remnants, isolated and more susceptible to external interference, coming from, for example, the proximity to agricultural areas or others land uses. The ecological knowledge of the remnants and their correct management can not only make it possible to diagnose current problems and to estimate future influences, but also to point out the

Linking Above- and Belowground Dynamics in Tropical Urban Forests

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, E. E.; Marin-Spiotta, E.

2013-12-01

Secondary forests that emerge after a long history of agriculture can have altered plant community composition and relative abundances of different species. These forests can look and behave differently compared to pre-agricultural forests due changes in primary productivity, resource allocation, and phenology, which can significantly affect processes such as carbon accumulation and nutrient availability. Our research explores how alternative successional trajectories following intensive agricultural use affect linkages among the establishment of novel plant communities, soil nutrient availability and turnover, and soil microbial community composition and function. We hypothesize that different plant species composition due to differing land use legacies and successional trajectories would drive changes in soil microbial community structure and function, affecting soil C and N chemistry and turnover. We conducted this research in the subtropical dry forest life zone of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands where island-wide abandonment of sugarcane resulted in a mosaic of sites in different stages of forest succession. We identified replicate sites with the following post-sugarcane trajectories: 1) natural forest regeneration, 2) low intensity pasture use, followed by reforestation with timber plantation, which are no longer being managed, 3) high intensity pasture use and recent natural forest regeneration, and 4) high intensity pasture use and current active grazing. During 2011-2013, we sampled soils seasonally (0-10 cm) and measured tree species composition. The successional trajectories showed distinct tree species composition. The first two trajectories yielded 40-year old mixed-species secondary forest, dominated by the dry forest tree species Melicoccus bijugatas, Guapira fragrans, Maniklara zapota, and Sideroxylon foetidissimum. The tree species Melicoccus bijugatas primarily drove differences between the first two trajectories (natural forest regeneration vs

Southern Forest Resource Assessment - Summary Report

Science.gov (United States)

David N. Wear; John G. Greis

2002-01-01

The Southern Forest Resource Assessment was initiated in 1999 as a result of concerns raised by natural resource managers, the science community, and the public regarding the status and likely future of forests in the South. These included changes to the region’s forests brought about by rapid urbanization, increasing timber demand, increasing numbers of...

Recreational transformation of the herbaceous layer in an urban forest ecosystem of Central Podolia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. I. Blinkova

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This article examines the impact of recreational activities on herbaceous cover of forests on the example of an urban environment in Central Podolia. The features of changes in environmental conditions of ecotypes of an urban forest have been shown through the systematic, biomorphological and ecomorphic structure of the herbaceous cover, the ratio of ecological groups, changes in type of ecological strategy of species, assessment of ecological fractions valences, and phytodiversity. We found 78 species of vascular plants. The most diverse families are Asteraceae, Poaceae and Lamiaceae. The biomorphological range of phytodiversity of the intensive recreational zone is characterized by a high proportion of adventive and ruderal species, dominance of vegetative mobile species, forming of monodominant groups and disturbed distribution of all spectrum types for coenotic morphs. Perennial hemicryptophytes dominate in the spectrum of life forms. The share of therophytes increased along the gradient of recreational transformation. Unrosellate herbal plants dominate in the structure of aboveground shoots and leaf placement, plants that don’t have special modifications dominate in the structures of underground shoots. Helophytes dominated in the analysis of heliomorphic plants. Mesophytes dominated almost everywhere. The share of hydrocontrastophobes increased with a gradual removal from places of recreation. Changes in acidomorphic and nitromorphic structures of plants were not found. Types of transitional groups of ecological strategies, including CR-, CS-, and CRS-strategies prevailed. The share of patiens diminished. Exsplerents from all types of primary ecological strategies dominated. Analysis of ecological valence fractions showed that species of hemi-euryvalent and euryvalent fractions dominate among hydromorphs, hemi-euryvalent species dominate among ecogroups of scale variability humidification of soil, hemystenovalences species dominate among

CityZoom UP (Urban Pollution): a computational tool for the fast generation and setup of urban scenarios for CFD and dispersion modelling simulation

OpenAIRE

Grazziotin, Pablo Colossi

2016-01-01

This research presents the development of CityZoom UP, the first attempt to extend existing urban planning software in order to assist in modelling urban scenarios and setting up simulation parameters for Gaussian dispersion and CFD models. Based on the previous capabilities and graphic user interfaces of CityZoom to model and validate urban scenarios based on Master Plan regulations, new graphic user interfaces, automatic mesh generation and data conversion algorithms have been created to se...

Interior design. Mastering the master plan.

Science.gov (United States)

Mesbah, C E

1995-10-01

Reflecting on the results of the survey, this proposed interior design master planning process addresses the concerns and issues of both CEOs and facility managers in ways that focus on problem-solving strategies and methods. Use of the interior design master plan process further promotes the goals and outcomes expressed in the survey by both groups. These include enhanced facility image, the efficient selection of finishes and furnishings, continuity despite staff changes, and overall savings in both costs and time. The interior design master plan allows administrators and facility managers to anticipate changes resulting from the restructuring of health care delivery. The administrators and facility managers are then able to respond in ways that manage those changes in the flexible and cost-effective manner they are striving for. This framework permits staff members to concentrate their time and energy on the care of their patients--which is, after all, what it's all about.

Could Sacredness Contribute To Forest Conservation In African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Attention is presently paid to forest conservation because of its potential for the sequestration of carbon. More than rural forest, urban forest is of greater utility because of it can serve as a natural low cost laboratory for pedagogic activities of several schools. Unfortunately those forests are regressing in Benin. The objective of ...

URBAN FORESTRY AND ITS PRACTICES IN ARTVIN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sinan Güner

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Urban population expansion is taking place most rapidly in Turkey, and cities are experiencing some serious problems: deterioration of air quality, higher air temperatures, increased noise levels, greater psychological stress and a decreased sense of community. Urban forests are all the trees and other vegetation growing in and close to urban areas, and it should be managed for their economic, environmental and social benefits. The amount, type, location and condition of urban vegetation directly affect the amount of benefits derived from the vegetation and their associated costs. Trees and green spaces help keep cities cool, act as natural filters and noise absorbers; improve microclimates and protect and improve the quality of natural resources, including soil, water, vegetation and wildlife. Trees contribute significantly to the aesthetic appeal of cities, thereby helping to maintain the psychological health of their inhabitants. Beyond ecological and aesthetic benefits, urban forestry has a role in helping resource-poor populations meet basic needs, particularly but not exclusively in developing countries. The city of Artvin isn’t rich in urban trees which are those in street trees and in local parks but rich in those along greenspace areas around city. But, trees and green spaces didn’t play an important role in improving city living conditions. Thus, urban forests in Artvin should become an integral part of the efforts to improve the quality of life in Artvin. Forest General Directorate established an “urban forest” in Artvin in 2006 and this area contains more than 95 plant species.

Austin's urban FIA: seamless rural to urban resource monitoring in Texas

Science.gov (United States)

Chris Edgar; Burl. Carraway

2015-01-01

In 2014 Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis (Urban-FIA) was implemented for the first time ever in Austin, Texas. Work was accelerated and a full complement of plots in the city was measured in six months. In 2015 results are to be released in an FIA report and data made available in a publicly accessible database. In this presentation we discuss the importance of...

Carbon dioxide reduction through urban forestry: guidelines for professional and volunteer tree planters

Science.gov (United States)

E. Gregory McPherson; James R. Simpson

1999-01-01

Carbon dioxide reduction through urban forestry—Guidelines for professional and volunteer tree planters has been developed by the Pacific Southwest Research Station’s Western Center for Urban Forest Research and Education as a tool for utilities, urban foresters and arborists, municipalities, consultants, non-profit organizations and others to...

Climate change, human communities, and forests in rural, urban, and wildland-urban interface environments

Science.gov (United States)

David N. Wear; Linda A. Joyce

2012-01-01

Human concerns about the effects of climate change on forests are related to the values that forests provide to human populations, that is, to the effects on ecosystem services derived from forests. Service values include the consumption of timber products, the regulation of climate and water quality, and aesthetic and spiritual values. Effects of climate change on...

Flux-based Enrichment Ratios of Throughfall and Stemflow Found to Vary Significantly within Urban Fragments and Along an Urban-to-Rural Gradient

Science.gov (United States)

Dowtin, A. L.; Levia, D. F., Jr.

2017-12-01

Throughfall and stemflow are important inputs of water and solutes to forest soils in both rural and urban forests. In metropolitan wooded ecosystems, a number of factors can affect flux-based enrichment ratios, including combustion of fossil fuels and proximity to industry. Use of flux-based enrichment ratios provides a means by which this modification of net precipitation chemistry can be quantified for both throughfall and stemflow, and allows for a characterization of the relative contributions of stemflow and throughfall in the delivery of nutrients and pollutants to forest soils. This study utilizes five mixed deciduous forest stands along an urban-to-rural gradient (3 urban fragments, 1 suburban fragment, and a portion of 1 contiguous rural forest) within a medium-sized metropolitan region of the United States' Northeast megalopolis, to determine how the size, shape, structure, and geographic context of remnant forest fragments determine hydrologic and solute fluxes within them. In situ observations of throughfall and stemflow (the latter of which is limited to Quercus rubra and Quercus alba) within each study plot allow for an identification and characterization of the spatial variability in solute fluxes within and between the respective sites. Preliminary observations indicate significant intra-site variability in solute concentrations as observed in both throughfall and stemflow, with higher concentrations along the respective windward edges of the study plots than at greater depths into their interiors. Higher flux-based stemflow enrichment ratios, for both Q. rubra and Q. alba, were also evident for certain ions (i.e., S2-, NO3-) in the urban forest fragments, with significantly lower ratios observed at the suburban and rural sites. Findings from this research are intended to aid in quantifying the spatial variability of the hydrologic and hydrochemical ecosystem service provisions of remnant metropolitan forest fragments. This research is supported in

Biologia e ecologia de Anthodioctes moratoi Urban (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae, Anthidiini em matas contínuas e fragmentos na Amazônia Central, Brasil Biology and ecology of Anthodioctes moratoi Urban (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae, Anthidiini in continuous forests and forest fragments in Central Amazonia, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elder Ferreira Morato

2001-09-01

Full Text Available Anthodioctes moratoi Urban, 1999 was described based on specimens collected in tlhe state of Amazonas during a study of the ecology of trap-nesting bees and wasps. Sampling was done between 1988 and 1990 north of Manaus, in areas of the "Forest Fragment Biological Dynamics Project". Wooden trap-nests were set in different heights inside continuous forests, forest fragments of different sizes, natural gaps inside continuous forest, and in cleared areas between forest fragments. A total of 61 nests were collected from which 33 males and 46 females emerged. The majority of nests was collected in continuous forests, at 15 m height, in holes 4.8 mm in diameter. No nest was collected in cleared areas. There was no correlation, neither between number of nests and monthly precipitation, nor between the monthly number of nests constructed in the two consecutive years. No nest was constructed between January and June 1989. Overall, this coincided with the period of least activity of other trap-nesting bees in the studied areas. The nests consisted of a linear series of brood cells with walls made of resinous material mixed with small wood chips. The average length of the provisioned cell was 13,4 mm. Half of this length was occupied by a pollen mass. The number of provisioned cells varied between two and nine. In 52% of the nests there was brood mortality in at least one cell. The phorid fly Phalacrotophora (Omapanta sp. was the only nest associate, emerged, from just one cell.

The Moving Edge: Perspectives on the Southern Wildland-Urban Interface

Science.gov (United States)

Martha C. Monroe; Alison W. Bowers; L. Annie Hermansen

2003-01-01

To better understand the wildland-urban interface across the 13 Southern States and to identify issues to be covered in the USDA Forest Service report, "Human Influences on Forest Ecosystems: The Southern Wildland-Urban Interface Assessment," 12 focus groups were conducted in 6 of the Southern States in May and June 2000. The groups were guided through a...

Regional Master on Medical Physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gutt, F.

2001-01-01

It points out: the master project; the master objective; the medical physicist profile and tasks; the requirements to be a master student; the master programmatic contents and the investigation priorities [es

Spatiotemporal throughfall patterns beneath an urban tree row

Science.gov (United States)

Bogeholz, P.; Van Stan, J. T., II; Hildebrandt, A.; Friesen, J.; Dibble, M.; Norman, Z.

2016-12-01

Much recent research has focused on throughfall patterns in natural forests as they can influence the heterogeneity of surface ecohydrological and biogeochemical processes. However, to the knowledge of the authors, no work has assessed how urban forest structures affect the spatiotemporal variability of throughfall water flux. Urbanization greatly alters not only a significant portion of the land surface, but canopy structure, with the most typical urban forest configuration being landscaped tree rows along streets, swales, parking lot medians, etc. This study examines throughfall spatiotemporal patterns for a landscaped tree row of Pinus elliottii (Engelm., slash pine) on Georgia Southern University's campus (southeastern, USA) using 150 individual observations per storm. Throughfall correlation lengths beneath this tree row were similar to, but appeared to be more stable across storm size than, observations in past studies on natural forests. Individual tree overlap and the planting interval also may more strongly drive throughfall patterns in tree rows. Meteorological influences beyond storm magnitude (intensity, intermittency, wind conditions, and atmospheric moisture demand) are also examined.

Population-Based Study on the Effect of a Forest Environment on Salivary Cortisol Concentration.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Hiromitsu; Song, Chorong; Ikei, Harumi; Park, Bum-Jin; Lee, Juyoung; Kagawa, Takahide; Miyazaki, Yoshifumi

2017-08-18

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a forest environment on salivary cortisol concentration, particularly on the characteristics of its distribution. The participants were 348 young male subjects. The experimental sites were 34 forests and 34 urban areas across Japan. The subjects viewed the landscape (forest or urban environment) for a period of 15 min while sitting in a chair. Saliva was sampled from the participants at the end of this 15-min period and then analyzed for cortisol concentration. Differences in the skewness and kurtosis of the distributions between the two environments were tested by performing a permutation test. The cortisol concentrations exhibited larger skewness (0.76) and kurtosis (3.23) in a forest environment than in an urban environment (skewness = 0.49; kurtosis = 2.47), and these differences were statistically significant. The cortisol distribution exhibited a more peaked and longer right-tailed curve in a forest environment than in an urban environment.

Elevated Immune Gene Expression Is Associated with Poor Reproductive Success of Urban Blue Tits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pablo Capilla-Lasheras

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Urban and forest habitats differ in many aspects that can lead to modifications of the immune system of wild animals. Altered parasite communities, pollution, and artificial light at night in cities have been associated with exacerbated inflammatory responses, with possibly negative fitness consequences, but few data are available from free-living animals. Here, we investigate how urbanization affects major immune pathways and experimentally test potentially contributing factors in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus from an urban and forest site. We first compared breeding adults by quantifying the mRNA transcript levels of proteins associated with anti-bacterial, anti-malarial (TLR4, LY86 and anti-helminthic (Type 2 transcription factor GATA3 immune responses. Adult urban and forest blue tits differed in gene expression, with significantly increased TLR4 and GATA3, but not LY86, in the city. We then experimentally tested whether these differences were environmentally induced by cross-fostering eggs between the sites and measuring mRNA transcripts in nestlings. The populations differed in reduced reproductive success, with a lower fledging success and lower fledgling weight recorded at the urban site. This mirrors the findings of our twin study reporting that the urban site was severely resource limited when compared to the forest. Because of low urban survival, robust gene expression data were only obtained from nestlings reared in the forest. Transcript levels in these nestlings showed no (TLR4, LY86, or weak (GATA3, differences according to their origin from forest or city nests, suggesting little genetic or maternal contribution to nestling immune transcript levels. Lastly, to investigate differences in parasite pressure between urban and forest sites, we measured the prevalence of malaria in adult and nestling blood. Prevalence was invariably high across environments and not associated with the transcript levels of the studied immune genes. Our

Methodology for Urbanism AR2U090 : Best essays 2010-2012

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rocco, R.C.

2012-01-01

These are essays written by students of the course AR2U090 Research and Design Methodology for Urbanism from 2010 to 2012. This is a 5 ECTS course given within the Masters in Urbanism programme of the TU Delft by Roberto Rocco and Egbert Stolk. At the end of the course students are asked to write an

Private forests, public benefits: increased housing density and other pressures on private forest contributions

Science.gov (United States)

Ronald E. McRoberts; Lisa G. Mahal; Mary A. Carr; Ralph J. Alig; Sara J. Comas; David M. Theobald; Amanda. Cundiff

2009-01-01

Over half (56 percent) of America’s forests are privately owned and managed and provide a vast array of public goods and services, such as clean water, timber, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities. These important public benefits are being affected by increased housing density in urban as well as rural areas across the country. The Forests on the Edge...

Beyond passive consumption : Dis/ordering water supply and sanitation at Hanoi’s urban edge

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schramm, S.; Wright-Contreras, Lucía

2017-01-01

In Hanoi people access, expand and create water and sanitation infrastructures in multiple ways that include, but are not restricted to, external provision of networked services. Urban master planning and the construction of large technological networks aim at integrating the urban region based on

Urban policies and citizenship. Some mechanisms for the production of urban space in the city of Sao Paulo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto Rocco

1997-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the historical reasons for the present conditions in the city of Sao Paolo, attempts at managing the place, preparation of the master plan, problems with establishment of particular mechanisms for creating urban space and reasons for success or failure of particular endeavours. An important aspect in solving physical problems of future development is prevention of social and physical segregation. Urban policies are presented with three types of measures. In conclusion, two examples of policy implementation are shown.

Urban forestry research needs: a participatory assessment process

Science.gov (United States)

Kathleen L. Wolf; Linda E. Kruger

2010-01-01

New research initiatives focusing on urban ecology and natural resources are underway. Such programs coincide with increased local government action in urban forest planning and management, activities that are enhanced by scientific knowledge. This project used a participatory stakeholder process to explore and understand urban forestry research and technology transfer...

Urban forestry and carbon: what the reporting protocol means to you

Science.gov (United States)

E.G. McPherson

2008-01-01

Urban forests have a role to play in reducing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere (Abdollahi et al. 2000; Pataki et al. 2006). However, very few tree planting projects have been undertaken because of the uncertainty regarding their performance and permanence. The Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol was developed to reduce...

Shaping forest safety nets with markets: Adaptation to climate change under changing roles of tropical forests in Congo Basin

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nkem, J.; Kalame, F.B.; Idinoba, M.; Somorin, O.A.; Ndoye, O.; Awono, A.

2010-01-01

Tropical forests hold several goods and services used by forest-dependent people as safety nets to traverse difficult periods of resource supply. These same goods and services are constantly surrounded by emerging markets linking remote communities with major urban centers nationally and

Inventory and change detection of urban land cover in Illinois using Landsat Thematic Mapper data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cook, E.A.; Iverson, L.R.

1991-01-01

In order to provide information about urban forests and other vegetative land cover in Illinois cities, Landsat TM data from June 17, 1988, were classified for the Chicago metropolitan region and five urban areas of central Illinois. Ten land cover classes were identified, including three types of forestland, cropland, two grassland categories, two urban classes, water, and miscellaneous vegetation. The cities inventoried have a significantly higher proportion of forests and forested residential areas than the surrounding rural areas because of preservation measures and accruement of tree cover from landscaping. Short-term change in land cover for the Chicago region was also assessed by postclassification comparison of the 1988 data with similarly derived data from a June 3, 1985, TM scene. The largest single category of change in the six-county area was cropland to urban land use. A majority of cover loss was conversion of forested tracts to residential areas, and forest cover increase was negligible. 16 refs

The Impact of Charcoal Production on Forest Degradation: a Case Study in Tete, Mozambique

Science.gov (United States)

Sedano, F.; Silva. J. A.; Machoco, R.; Meque, C. H.; Sitoe, A.; Ribeiro, N.; Anderson, K.; Ombe, Z. A.; Baule, S. H.; Tucker, C. J.

2016-01-01

Charcoal production for urban energy consumption is a main driver of forest degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. Urban growth projections for the continent suggest that the relevance of this process will increase in the coming decades. Forest degradation associated to charcoal production is difficult to monitor and commonly overlooked and underrepresented in forest cover change and carbon emission estimates. We use a multi-temporal dataset of very high-resolution remote sensing images to map kiln locations in a representative study area of tropical woodlands in central Mozambique. The resulting maps provided a characterization of the spatial extent and temporal dynamics of charcoal production. Using an indirect approach we combine kiln maps and field information on charcoal making to describe the magnitude and intensity of forest degradation linked to charcoal production, including aboveground biomass and carbon emissions. Our findings reveal that forest degradation associated to charcoal production in the study area is largely independent from deforestation driven by agricultural expansion and that its impact on forest cover change is in the same order of magnitude as deforestation. Our work illustrates the feasibility of using estimates of urban charcoal consumption to establish a link between urban energy demands and forest degradation. This kind of approach has potential to reduce uncertainties in forest cover change and carbon emission assessments in sub-Saharan Africa.

Accounting for urban biogenic fluxes in regional carbon budgets.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardiman, Brady S; Wang, Jonathan A; Hutyra, Lucy R; Gately, Conor K; Getson, Jackie M; Friedl, Mark A

2017-08-15

Many ecosystem models incorrectly treat urban areas as devoid of vegetation and biogenic carbon (C) fluxes. We sought to improve estimates of urban biomass and biogenic C fluxes using existing, nationally available data products. We characterized biogenic influence on urban C cycling throughout Massachusetts, USA using an ecosystem model that integrates improved representation of urban vegetation, growing conditions associated with urban heat island (UHI), and altered urban phenology. Boston's biomass density is 1/4 that of rural forests, however 87% of Massachusetts' urban landscape is vegetated. Model results suggest that, kilogram-for-kilogram, urban vegetation cycles C twice as fast as rural forests. Urban vegetation releases (R E ) and absorbs (GEE) the equivalent of 11 and 14%, respectively, of anthropogenic emissions in the most urban portions of the state. While urban vegetation in Massachusetts fully sequesters anthropogenic emissions from smaller cities in the region, Boston's UHI reduces annual C storage by >20% such that vegetation offsets only 2% of anthropogenic emissions. Asynchrony between temporal patterns of biogenic and anthropogenic C fluxes further constrains the emissions mitigation potential of urban vegetation. However, neglecting to account for biogenic C fluxes in cities can impair efforts to accurately monitor, report, verify, and reduce anthropogenic emissions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[The Effects of Urban Forest-walking Program on Health Promotion Behavior, Physical Health, Depression, and Quality of Life: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Office-workers].

Science.gov (United States)

Bang, Kyung Sook; Lee, In Sook; Kim, Sung Jae; Song, Min Kyung; Park, Se Eun

2016-02-01

This study was performed to determine the physical and psychological effects of an urban forest-walking program for office workers. For many workers, sedentary lifestyles can lead to low levels of physical activity causing various health problems despite an increased interest in health promotion. Fifty four office workers participated in this study. They were assigned to two groups (experimental group and control group) in random order and the experimental group performed 5 weeks of walking exercise based on Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills Model. The data were collected from October to November 2014. SPSS 21.0 was used for the statistical analysis. The results showed that the urban forest walking program had positive effects on the physical activity level (U=65.00, phealth promotion behavior (t=-2.20, p=.033), and quality of life (t=-2.42, p=.020). However, there were no statistical differences in depression, waist size, body mass index, blood pressure, or bone density between the groups. The current findings of the study suggest the forest-walking program may have positive effects on improving physical activity, health promotion behavior, and quality of life. The program can be used as an effective and efficient strategy for physical and psychological health promotion for office workers.

Food Security Attainment Role of Urban Agriculture: A Case Study ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

The information indicated in Adama Master Plan (1995) reveals that the mean annual .... 'access' marks the ability of a household to get command over. '... enough supply of ..... practices, resource utilization and management of urban farming.

Changing perspectives in urban park management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chan, Chung-shing; Marafa, Lawal M.; Konijnendijk, Cecil Cornelis

2015-01-01

managers in Hong Kong have encountered different challenges over time, and the quest for changing park managerial strategies. In 2004, a set of indicators for urban park management in Hong Kong was produced as part of a Master's research. Local park managers were asked about their views on the respective......Urban parks provide numerous benefits to our society. In densely populated metropolises such as Hong Kong, urban parks are in high demand. A variety of indicators can be used as tools for improving park planning and management. Facing a dynamic society and increasing user expectations, urban park...... importance and performance (I–P) of the indicators. In 2012, a follow-up questionnaire survey was conducted with the managers to study if their views regarding these indicators and their performance had changed. Results from the 2004 and 2012 surveys revealed changing perceptions regarding both I...

Assessing ecological sustainability in urban planning - EcoBalance model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wahlgren, I., Email: irmeli.wahlgren@vtt.fi

2012-06-15

Urban planning solutions and decisions have large-scale significance for ecological sustainability (eco-efficiency) the consumption of energy and other natural resources, the production of greenhouse gas and other emissions and the costs caused by urban form. Climate change brings new and growing challenges for urban planning. The EcoBalance model was developed to assess the sustainability of urban form and has been applied at various planning levels: regional plans, local master plans and detailed plans. The EcoBalance model estimates the total consumption of energy and other natural resources, the production of emissions and wastes and the costs caused directly and indirectly by urban form on a life cycle basis. The results of the case studies provide information about the ecological impacts of various solutions in urban development. (orig.)

Preparing Urban Teachers: Uncovering Communities. A Community Curriculum for Interns and New Teachers.

Science.gov (United States)

Shakespear, Eileen; Beardsley, Linda; Newton, Anne

The Urban Teacher Training Collaborative (UTTC) is a school-university, school-based, Master of Arts in Teaching Program developed by Tufts University and three small Boston Public Schools. The program reflects partners' understanding of the needs of urban students and teachers. It presents an innovative model for teacher training similar to the…

Transparency masters for mathematics revealed

CERN Document Server

Berman, Elizabeth

1980-01-01

Transparency Masters for Mathematics Revealed focuses on master diagrams that can be used for transparencies for an overhead projector or duplicator masters for worksheets. The book offers information on a compilation of master diagrams prepared by John R. Stafford, Jr., audiovisual supervisor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Some of the transparencies are designed to be shown horizontally. The initial three masters are number lines and grids that can be used in a mathematics course, while the others are adaptations of text figures which are slightly altered in some instances. The

Demographic change in the northern forest

Science.gov (United States)

Kenneth M. Johnson; Susan I. Stewart; Miranda H. Mockrin

2012-01-01

The Northern Forest spans more than 26 million acres across Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. With densely settled urban cores, sprawling suburbs, struggling industrial and forest products towns, fast growing recreational areas, and isolated rural villages, the region includes many of the diverse strands that together compose the demographic fabric of the...

Carbon storage and sequestration by trees in urban and community areas of the United States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nowak, David J.; Greenfield, Eric J.; Hoehn, Robert E.; Lapoint, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

Carbon storage and sequestration by urban trees in the United States was quantified to assess the magnitude and role of urban forests in relation to climate change. Urban tree field data from 28 cities and 6 states were used to determine the average carbon density per unit of tree cover. These data were applied to statewide urban tree cover measurements to determine total urban forest carbon storage and annual sequestration by state and nationally. Urban whole tree carbon storage densities average 7.69 kg C m −2 of tree cover and sequestration densities average 0.28 kg C m −2 of tree cover per year. Total tree carbon storage in U.S. urban areas (c. 2005) is estimated at 643 million tonnes ($50.5 billion value; 95% CI = 597 million and 690 million tonnes) and annual sequestration is estimated at 25.6 million tonnes ($2.0 billion value; 95% CI = 23.7 million to 27.4 million tonnes). -- Highlights: •Total tree carbon storage in U.S. urban areas (c. 2005) is estimated at 643 million tonnes. •Total tree carbon storage in U.S. urban and community areas is estimated at 1.36 billion tonnes. •Net carbon sequestration in U.S. urban areas varies by state and is estimated at 18.9 million tonnes per year. •Overlap between U.S. forest and urban forest carbon estimates is between 247 million and 303 million tonnes. -- Field and tree cover measurements reveal carbon storage and sequestration by trees in U.S. urban and community areas

Forest medicine research in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyazaki, Yoshifumi; Ikei, Harumi; Song, Chorong

2014-01-01

There has been growing attention on the effects of forest on physiological relaxation and immune recovery, particularly in forest medicine research, from a perspective of preventive medicine. Japan is a world leader in the accumulation of scientific data on forest medicine research. In this review, we summarize the research that has been conducted in this area since 1992. We conducted field experiment, involving 420 subjects at 35 different forests throughout Japan. After sitting in natural surroundings, these subjects showed decrease in the following physiological parameters compared with those in an urban control group: 12.4% decrease in the cortisol level, 7.0% decrease in sympathetic nervous activity, 1.4% decrease in systolic blood pressure, and 5.8% decrease in heart rate. This demonstrates that stressful states can be relieved by forest therapy. In addition, it should be noted that parasympathetic nervous activity was enhanced by 55.0%, indicating a relaxed state. The results of walking experiments provided similar results. Li et al. demonstrated that immune function was enhanced by forest therapy in middle-aged employees who volunteered to participate in these experiments. Natural killer cell activity, an indicator of immune function, was enhanced by 56% on the second day and returned to normal levels. A significant increase of 23% was maintained for 1 month even after returning to urban life, clearly illustrating the preventive benefits of forest therapy. In an indoor room experiment, we conducted tests with the following: 1) olfactory stimulation using wood smell, 2) tactile stimulation using wood, and 3) auditory stimulation using forest sounds. These indoor stimulations also decreased the blood pressure and pulse rate, and induced a physiological relaxation effect. We anticipate that forest medicine will play an increasingly important role in preventive medicine in the future.

Homeowner interactions with residential trees in urban areas

Science.gov (United States)

Jana Dilley; Kathleen L. Wolf

2013-01-01

Urban forests are a critical element in sustainable urban areas because of the many environmental, economic, and social benefits that city trees provide. In order to increase canopy cover in urban areas, residential homeowners, who collectively own the majority of the land in most cities, need to engage in planting and retaining trees on their properties. This...

The forbidden fuel: Charcoal, urban woodfuel demand and supply dynamics, community forest management and woodfuel policy in Malawi

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zulu, Leo Charles

2010-01-01

This article examines woodfuel policy challenges and opportunities in Malawi two decades after woodfuel-crisis narratives and counter-narratives. A nuanced examination of woodfuel supply, demand, use, and markets illuminated options to turn stagnant policies based on charcoal 'bans' and fuel-substitution into proactive, realistic ones acknowledging woodfuel dominance and its socio-economic importance. Findings revealed growing, spatially differentiated woodfuel deficits in southern and central Malawi and around Blantyre, Zomba and Lilongwe cities. Poverty, limited electricity access, reliability and generation exacerbated by tariff subsidies, and complex fuel-allocation decisions restricted energy-ladder transitions from woodfuels to electricity, producing an enduring urban-energy mix dominated by charcoal, thereby increasing wood consumption. Diverse socio-political interests prevented lifting of the charcoal 'ban' despite progressive forest laws. Despite implementation challenges, lessons already learnt, efficiency and poverty-reduction arguments, limited government capacity, growing illegal production of charcoal in forest reserves, and its staying power, make targeted community-based forest management (CBFM) approaches more practical for regulated, commercial production of woodfuels than the status quo. New differentiated policies should include commercial woodfuel production and licensing for revenue and ecological sustainability under CBFM or concessions within and outside selected reserves, an enterprise-based approaches for poverty reduction, smallholder/private tree-growing, woodfuel-energy conserving technologies, improved electricity supply and agricultural productivity.

[Urban and population development of the city of Puebla and its metropolitan area].

Science.gov (United States)

Barbosa Prieto, A

1991-12-01

Metropolitanization has been considered an important problem of regional development in developing countries. Attitudes toward the metropolis have been ambivalent in Latin America. On the 1 hand the metropolis is viewed as an obstacle to development that absorbs resources from the zone of influence and incurs high social costs of urbanization, but on the hand it is also viewed as a form of achieving levels of economic efficiency comparable to those of developed countries. Metropolitan areas should not be viewed as isolated, but rather as important points of demographic and manpower attraction, poles of economic growth and technological and cultural innovation. "Urban areas" and "metropolitan zones" are distinct ways of defining and delimiting urban phenomena. Although there is no consensus as to the exact definitions of these 2 urban units, it is generally accepted that the urban area is the city itself as well as the contiguous built up area reaching in all directions to the onset of nonurban land uses such as forests territorial extension that includes the politico-administrative units with urban characteristics such as work places and residences for nonagricultural workers, and that maintain constant and intense socioeconomic interrelations with the central city. The process of urban planning in the metropolitan zone of Puebla, Mexico, began in institutional form in 1980 with master plans for the population centers of Puebla, Amozoc, San Andres and San Pedro Cholula, and Zacatelco in the state of Tlaxcala. In 1987., an attempt was made by the governments of the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala to develop a plan for the metropolitan zone as a single unit. Population growth was greater within the city of Puebla than in the metropolitan zone from 1960-80, but after 1980 growth in the outlying areas exceeded that in the center city. The population density of the city of Puebla declined from 160/hectare in 1950 to 76/hectare in 1990, the result of progressive dispersion

Hybrid quantum-classical master equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diósi, Lajos

2014-01-01

We discuss hybrid master equations of composite systems, which are hybrids of classical and quantum subsystems. A fairly general form of hybrid master equations is suggested. Its consistency is derived from the consistency of Lindblad quantum master equations. We emphasize that quantum measurement is a natural example of exact hybrid systems. We derive a heuristic hybrid master equation of time-continuous position measurement (monitoring). (paper)

Introducing Urban Food Forestry: A Multifunctional Strategy for Enhancing Urban Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholas, K. A.; Clark, K.

2012-12-01

We propose combining elements of urban agriculture and urban forestry into what we call "urban food forestry" (UFF), the practice of growing perennial woody food-producing species ("food trees") in cities. We used four approaches at different scales to gauge the potential of UFF to enhance urban sustainability, in the context of trends including increasing urbanization, resource demands, and climate change. First, we analyzed 37 current international initiatives based around urban food trees, finding that core activities included planting, mapping, and harvesting food trees, but that only about a quarter of initiatives engaged in more than one of these activities necessary to fully utilize the food potential of urban trees. Second, we analyzed 30 urban forestry master plans, finding that only 13% included human food security among their objectives. Third, we used Burlington, Vermont as a case study to quantify the potential caloric output of publicly accessible open space if planted with Malus domestica (the common apple) under 9 different scenarios. We found that the entire caloric deficit of the very low food security population could be met on as few as 29 hectares (representing 16% of total open space), and that 98% of the daily recommended minimum intake of fruit for the entire city's population could be met under the most ambitious planting scenario. Finally, we developed a decision-making tool for selecting potential food trees appropriate for temperate urban environments, the Climate-Food-Species Matrix. We identified a total of 70 species, 30 of which we deemed "highly suitable" for urban food forestry based on their cold hardiness, drought tolerance, and edibility. We conclude that urban food forestry provides multiple pathways for building urban sustainability through local food production, and that our framework can be used to increase the coordination between and effectiveness of a growing number of related initiatives.

McMaster Mesonet soil moisture dataset: description and spatio-temporal variability analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. C. Kornelsen

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces and describes the hourly, high-resolution soil moisture dataset continuously recorded by the McMaster Mesonet located in the Hamilton-Halton Watershed in Southern Ontario, Canada. The McMaster Mesonet consists of a network of time domain reflectometer (TDR probes collecting hourly soil moisture data at six depths between 10 cm and 100 cm at nine locations per site, spread across four sites in the 1250 km2 watershed. The sites for the soil moisture arrays are designed to further improve understanding of soil moisture dynamics in a seasonal climate and to capture soil moisture transitions in areas that have different topography, soil and land cover. The McMaster Mesonet soil moisture constitutes a unique database in Canada because of its high spatio-temporal resolution. In order to provide some insight into the dominant processes at the McMaster Mesonet sites, a spatio-temporal and temporal stability analysis were conducted to identify spatio-temporal patterns in the data and to suggest some physical interpretation of soil moisture variability. It was found that the seasonal climate of the Great Lakes Basin causes a transition in soil moisture patterns at seasonal timescales. During winter and early spring months, and at the meadow sites, soil moisture distribution is governed by topographic redistribution, whereas following efflorescence in the spring and summer, soil moisture spatial distribution at the forested site was also controlled by vegetation canopy. Analysis of short-term temporal stability revealed that the relative difference between sites was maintained unless there was significant rainfall (> 20 mm or wet conditions a priori. Following a disturbance in the spatial soil moisture distribution due to wetting, the relative soil moisture pattern re-emerged in 18 to 24 h. Access to the McMaster Mesonet data can be provided by visiting www.hydrology.mcmaster.ca/mesonet.

Removal of Ozone by Urban and Peri-Urban Forests: Evidence from Laboratory, Field, and Modeling Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Carlo Calfapietra; Arianna Morani; Gregorio Sgrigna; Sara Di Giovanni; Valerio Muzzini; Emanuele Pallozzi; Gabriele Guidolotti; David Nowak; Silvano Fares

2016-01-01

A crucial issue in urban environments is the interaction between urban trees and atmospheric pollution, particularly ozone (O3). Ozone represents one of the most harmful pollutants in urban and peri-urban environments, especially in warm climates. Besides the large interest in reducing anthropogenic and biogenic precursors of O3...

Potential availability of urban wood biomass in Michigan: Implications for energy production, carbon sequestration and sustainable forest management in the U.S.A

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MacFarlane, David W.

2009-01-01

Tree and wood biomass from urban areas is a potentially large, underutilized resource viewed in the broader social context of biomass production and utilization. Here, data and analysis from a regional study in a 13-county area of Michigan, U.S.A. are combined with data and analysis from several other studies to examine this potential. The results suggest that urban trees and wood waste offer a modest amount of biomass that could contribute significantly more to regional and national bio-economies than it does at present. Better utilization of biomass from urban trees and wood waste could offer new sources of locally generated wood products and bio-based fuels for power and heat generation, reduce fossil fuel consumption, reduce waste disposal costs and reduce pressure on forests. Although wood biomass generally constitutes a 'carbon-neutral' fuel, burning rather than burying urban wood waste may not have a net positive effect on reducing atmospheric CO 2 levels, because it may reduce a significant long term carbon storage pool. Using urban wood residues for wood products may provide the best balance of economic and environmental values for utilization

Evaluation of Urban Planning Projects Criteria Using Fuzzy AHP Technique

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Walid Mustafa Kamas

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In this research, Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process technique is applied (Fuzzy AHP which is one of multi-criteria decision making techniques to evaluate the criteria for urban planning projects, the project of developing master plan of Al-Muqdadiyah city to 2035 has been chosen as a case study. The researcher prepared a list of criteria in addition to the authorized departments criteria and previous researches in order to choose optimized master plan according to these criteria. This research aims at employing the foundations of (Fuzzy AHP technique in evaluating urban planning criteria precisely and flexible. The results of the data analysis to the individuals of the sample who are specialists, in this aspect. The land use criteria are more important than the rest of the criteria in these projects, where it received the relative importance with percentile (42.1 %.

Southern forests: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Science.gov (United States)

R. Neil Sampson

2004-01-01

In the 20th century, southern forests changed dramatically. Those changes pale, however, when compared to what happened to the people of the region. In addition to growing over fourfold in numbers, the South's population has urbanized, globalized, and intellectualized in 100 years. Rural and isolated in the 19th century, they are today urban and cosmopolitan. One...

Cellular Automata as a learning process in Architecture and Urban design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Mads Brath; Foged, Isak Worre

2014-01-01

. An architectural methodological response to this situation is presented through the development of a conceptual computational design system that allows these dynamics to unfold and to be observed for architectural design decision taking. Reflecting on the development and implementation of a cellular automata based...... design approach on a master level urban design studio this paper will discuss the strategies for dealing with complexity at an urban scale as well as the pedagogical considerations behind applying computational tools and methods to a urban design education....

Urban College Graduates: Their Investments in and Returns for Strong Quantitative Skills, Social Capital Skills, and Soft Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Haynes, Marie Ellen

2010-01-01

This case study examined strong quantitative skills, social capital skills, and soft skills of urban college graduates using data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality Household Survey. The urban college graduates lived in Atlanta, Boston, or Los Angeles and had bachelor's, master's, PhD, and professional degrees. Among the three skills…

The value of ancient architecture for educational program of masters of architectural space design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prishchepa Aleksandr

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The existence of archaeological sites of ancient Greek colony-towns and medieval fortresses gives a real insight into the interaction of all spheres of human activity in ancient times. Ancient Greek Emporium is a vivid example of the architecture, art, archaeology and urban planning synthesis. Archaeological excavations provide an opportunity to study the artefacts of the ancient world belonging to several fields, such as sculpture, decorative arts, fashion design and household. Studying history of archaeology right on the place of excavation of an ancient city masters can imagine the scale of buildings, streets layout and location of business, administrative and residential buildings. It allows students to form professional way of thinking in a short period in order to gather the material and work on the master thesis.

EXPERIENCE NETWORKING UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION TRAINING MASTERS SAFETY OF LIFE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elvira Mikhailovna Rebko

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The article discloses experience networking of universities (Herzen State Pedagogical University and Sakhalin State University in the development and implementation of joint training programs for master’s education in the field of life safety «Social security in the urban environment». The novelty of the work is to create a schematic design of basic educational training program for master’s education in the mode of networking, and to identify effective instructional techniques and conditions of networking.Purpose – present the results of the joint development of a network of the basic educational program (BEP, to identify the stages of networking, to design a generalized scheme of development and implementation of a network of educational training program for master’s education in the field of life safety.Results generalized model of networking partner institutions to develop and implement the basic educational program master.Practical implications: the education process for Master of Education in the field of health and safety in Herzen State Pedagogical University and Sakhalin State University.

Characteristics, sources and evolution of fine aerosol (PM1) at urban, coastal and forest background sites in Lithuania

Science.gov (United States)

Masalaite, A.; Holzinger, R.; Remeikis, V.; Röckmann, T.; Dusek, U.

2017-01-01

The chemical and isotopic composition of organic aerosol (OA) samples collected on PM1 filters was determined as a function of desorption temperature to investigate the main sources of organic carbon and the effects of photochemical processing on atmospheric aerosol. The filter samples were collected at an urban (54°38‧ N, 25°18‧ E), coastal (55°55‧ N, 21°00‧ E) and forest (55°27‧ N, 26°00' E) site in Lithuania in March 2013. They can be interpreted as winter-time samples because the monthly averaged temperature was -4 °C. The detailed chemical composition of organic compounds was analysed with a thermal desorption PTR-MS. The mass concentration of organic aerosol at the forest site was roughly by a factor of 30 lower than at the urban and coastal site. This fact could be an indication that in this cold month the biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation was very low. Moreover, the organic aerosol collected at the forest site was more refractory and contained a larger fraction of heavy molecules with m/z > 200. The isotopic composition of the aerosol was used to differentiate the two main sources of organic aerosol in winter, i.e. biomass burning (BB) and fossil fuel (FF) combustion. Organic aerosol from biomass burning is enriched in 13C compared to OA from fossil fuel emissions. δ13COC values of the OA samples showed a positive correlation with the mass fraction of several individual organic compounds. Most of these organic compounds contained nitrogen indicating that organic nitrogen compounds formed during the combustion of biomass may be indicative of BB. Other compounds that showed negative correlations with δ13COC were possibly indicative of FF. These compounds included heavy hydrocarbons and were on the average less oxidized than the bulk organic carbon. The correlation of δ13COC and the O/C ratio was positive at low but negative at high desorption temperatures at the forest site. We propose that this might be due to

Urban land use in Natura 2000 surrounding areas in Vilnius Region, Lithuania.

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, Paulo; Misiūnė, Ieva; Depellegrin, Daniel

2015-04-01

regarding the land use of the Natura 2000 buffer areas is contributing to the degradation of the services provide by these areas. Acknowledgments RECARE (Preventing and Remediating Degradation of Soils in Europe Through Land Care, FP7-ENV-2013-TWO STAGE), funded by the European Commission, for the COST action ES1306 (Connecting European connectivity research) and COST Action IS1204 Tourism, Wellbeing and Ecosystem Services (TObeWELL) References Dasselaar, I.V. (2013) The impact of a buffer zone. The influence of the introduction of buffer zones surrounding Natura 2000 areas on local actors, the case of het Boetelerveld in the Netherlands. Master Thesis Forest and Nature Conservation, Forest and Nature Conservation Policy group, 69 p. Hansen, A.J. (2007) Ecological mechanisms linking protected areas to surrounding lands. Ecological Applications, 17, 974-978. McDonald, R.I., Kareiva, P., Forman, R.T.T. (2008) The implications of current and future urbanization for global protected areas and biodiversity conservation. Biological Conservation, 141, 1695-1703. Pereira, P., Monkevicius, A., Siarova, A. (2014) Public perception of the Environmental, Social and Economic impacts of Urban Sprawl in Vilnius. Societal Studies, 6, 256-290. Salvati, L., Sabbi, A. (2011) Exploring long-term land cover changes in an urban region of southern of Europe. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 18, 273-282.

MASTER-ICATE constraints on the outburst time of OGLE-2012-NOVA-002

Science.gov (United States)

Levato, H.; Saffe, C.; Mallamaci, C.; Lopez, C.; Denisenko, F. Podest D.; Gorbovskoy, E.; Lipunov, V.; Balanutsa, P.; Tiurina, N.; Kornilov, V.; Belinski, A.; Shatskiy, N.; Chazov, V.; Kuznetsov, A.; Zimnukhov, D.; Krushinsky, V.; Zalozhnih, I.; Popov, A.; Bourdanov, A.; Punanova, A.; Ivanov, K.; Yazev, S.; Budnev, N.; Konstantinov, E.; Chuvalaev, O.; Poleshchuk, V.; Gress, O.; Parkhomenko, A.; Tlatov, A.; Dormidontov, D.; Senik, V.; Yurkov, V.; Sergienko, Y.; Varda, D.; Sinyakov, E.; Shumkov, V.; Shurpakov, S.; Podvorotny, P.

2012-10-01

MASTER-ICATE very wide field camera (72-mm f/1.2 lens + 11 Mpx CCD) located at Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA) near San Juan, Argentina, has observed the position of possible Nova OGLE-2012-NOVA-002 reported by L. Wyrzykowski et al. (ATel #4483) several times before 2012 May 20 and then again after 2012 July 03. MASTER-WFC is continuously imaging the areas of sky (24x16 sq. deg. field of view) with 5-sec unfiltered exposures.

Streams in the urban heat island: spatial and temporal variability in temperature

Science.gov (United States)

Somers, Kayleigh A.; Bernhardt, Emily S.; Grace, James B.; Hassett, Brooke A.; Sudduth, Elizabeth B.; Wang, Siyi; Urban, Dean L.

2013-01-01

Streams draining urban heat islands tend to be hotter than rural and forested streams at baseflow because of warmer urban air and ground temperatures, paved surfaces, and decreased riparian canopy. Urban infrastructure efficiently routes runoff over hot impervious surfaces and through storm drains directly into streams and can lead to rapid, dramatic increases in temperature. Thermal regimes affect habitat quality and biogeochemical processes, and changes can be lethal if temperatures exceed upper tolerance limits of aquatic fauna. In summer 2009, we collected continuous (10-min interval) temperature data in 60 streams spanning a range of development intensity in the Piedmont of North Carolina, USA. The 5 most urbanized streams averaged 21.1°C at baseflow, compared to 19.5°C in the 5 most forested streams. Temperatures in urban streams rose as much as 4°C during a small regional storm, whereas the same storm led to extremely small to no changes in temperature in forested streams. Over a kilometer of stream length, baseflow temperature varied by as much as 10°C in an urban stream and as little as 2°C in a forested stream. We used structural equation modeling to explore how reach- and catchment-scale attributes interact to explain maximum temperatures and magnitudes of storm-flow temperature surges. The best predictive model of baseflow temperatures (R2  =  0.461) included moderately strong pathways directly (extent of development and road density) and indirectly, as mediated by reach-scale factors (canopy closure and stream width), from catchment-scale factors. The strongest influence on storm-flow temperature surges appeared to be % development in the catchment. Reach-scale factors, such as the extent of riparian forest and stream width, had little mitigating influence (R2  =  0.448). Stream temperature is an essential, but overlooked, aspect of the urban stream syndrome and is affected by reach-scale habitat variables, catchment-scale urbanization

Bayesian methods to estimate urban growth potential

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Jordan W.; Smart, Lindsey S.; Dorning, Monica; Dupéy, Lauren Nicole; Méley, Andréanne; Meentemeyer, Ross K.

2017-01-01

Urban growth often influences the production of ecosystem services. The impacts of urbanization on landscapes can subsequently affect landowners’ perceptions, values and decisions regarding their land. Within land-use and land-change research, very few models of dynamic landscape-scale processes like urbanization incorporate empirically-grounded landowner decision-making processes. Very little attention has focused on the heterogeneous decision-making processes that aggregate to influence broader-scale patterns of urbanization. We examine the land-use tradeoffs faced by individual landowners in one of the United States’ most rapidly urbanizing regions − the urban area surrounding Charlotte, North Carolina. We focus on the land-use decisions of non-industrial private forest owners located across the region’s development gradient. A discrete choice experiment is used to determine the critical factors influencing individual forest owners’ intent to sell their undeveloped properties across a series of experimentally varied scenarios of urban growth. Data are analyzed using a hierarchical Bayesian approach. The estimates derived from the survey data are used to modify a spatially-explicit trend-based urban development potential model, derived from remotely-sensed imagery and observed changes in the region’s socioeconomic and infrastructural characteristics between 2000 and 2011. This modeling approach combines the theoretical underpinnings of behavioral economics with spatiotemporal data describing a region’s historical development patterns. By integrating empirical social preference data into spatially-explicit urban growth models, we begin to more realistically capture processes as well as patterns that drive the location, magnitude and rates of urban growth.

PHYTOCOENOSES OF URBAN RIPARIAN FORESTS ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE LAS OSOBOWICKI FOREST (WROCŁAW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ewa Stefańska-Krzaczek

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The Las Osobowicki forest is remnant riparian woodland of the Odra valley. Floristic data were collected from circular 100m2 plots (with a radius of 5.64m which were systematically chosen in forest communities. Four plant communities were determined within data set. They were represented Fagetalia order and Querco-Fagetea class. Flood prevention caused disappearance of riparian forest species, expansion of common hornbeam and Norway maple expansion and a decrease of species richness. However, spatial distribution of phytocoenoses proves the river influence on the vegetation.

Distribution of Wild Mammal Assemblages along an Urban–Rural–Forest Landscape Gradient in Warm-Temperate East Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Masayuki; Koike, Fumito

2013-01-01

Urbanization may alter mammal assemblages via habitat loss, food subsidies, and other factors related to human activities. The general distribution patterns of wild mammal assemblages along urban–rural–forest landscape gradients have not been studied, although many studies have focused on a single species or taxon, such as rodents. We quantitatively evaluated the effects of the urban–rural–forest gradient and spatial scale on the distributions of large and mid-sized mammals in the world's largest metropolitan area in warm-temperate Asia using nonspecific camera-trapping along two linear transects spanning from the urban zone in the Tokyo metropolitan area to surrounding rural and forest landscapes. Many large and mid-sized species generally decreased from forest landscapes to urban cores, although some species preferred anthropogenic landscapes. Sika deer (Cervus nippon), Reeves' muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), Japanese squirrel (Sciurus lis), Japanese marten (Martes melampus), Japanese badger (Meles anakuma), and wild boar (Sus scrofa) generally dominated the mammal assemblage of the forest landscape. Raccoon (Procyon lotor), raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), and Japanese hare (Lepus brachyurus) dominated the mammal assemblage in the intermediate zone (i.e., rural and suburban landscape). Cats (feral and free-roaming housecats; Felis catus) were common in the urban assemblage. The key spatial scales for forest species were more than 4000-m radius, indicating that conservation and management plans for these mammal assemblages should be considered on large spatial scales. However, small green spaces will also be important for mammal conservation in the urban landscape, because an indigenous omnivore (raccoon dog) had a smaller key spatial scale (500-m radius) than those of forest mammals. Urbanization was generally the most important factor in the distributions of mammals, and it is necessary to consider the spatial

Geographical information systems (GIS), a great tool for urban silviculture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Otaya Burbano, Leodan Andres; Sanchez Zapata, Robinson de Jesus; Morales Soto, Leon; Botero Fernandez, Veronica

2006-01-01

As a pilot phase, to acquire experience, define methodologies and determine the advantages of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for applying to urban silviculture and inventory, diagnosis, management plan and economic appraisal were made for the urban forest in the Magnolia neighborhood of the Envigado municipality, department of Antioquia, Colombia. for the management and analysis of the data collected in field, a database was designed using the software microsoft Access. The species inventoried were mapped digitally and the conditions there were analyzed using some tools and extensions of technological architecture ArcGIS 8.3 such as: characteristics, silviculture practices required, and environmental conflicts. It was determined that the GIS analysis of the urban forest conducted for a specific neighborhood can be a tool that permits environmental authorities and interested researchers to have agile and easy access to the information stored in it; it permits programming of required silviculture activities; it also permits having a general vision of the urban forest according to the infrastructure of the neighborhood, complemented by photographs of the area for improved illustration; it permits the inclusion or elimination of information in a rapid and simple manner, thus facilitating decision making with relation to management of the urban woodland and for comparison with other similar studies

Master-slave manipulator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haaker, L.W.; Jelatis, D.G.

1981-01-01

A remote control master-slave manipulator for performing work on the opposite side of a barrier wall, is described. The manipulator consists of a rotatable horizontal support adapted to extend through the wall and two longitudinally extensible arms, a master and a slave, pivotally connected one to each end of the support. (U.K.)

Effects of Forest Bathing on Cardiovascular and Metabolic Parameters in Middle-Aged Males

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qing Li

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In the present study, we investigated the effects of a forest bathing on cardiovascular and metabolic parameters. Nineteen middle-aged male subjects were selected after they provided informed consent. These subjects took day trips to a forest park in Agematsu, Nagano Prefecture, and to an urban area of Nagano Prefecture as control in August 2015. On both trips, they walked 2.6 km for 80 min each in the morning and afternoon on Saturdays. Blood and urine were sampled before and after each trip. Cardiovascular and metabolic parameters were measured. Blood pressure and pulse rate were measured during the trips. The Japanese version of the profile of mood states (POMS test was conducted before, during, and after the trips. Ambient temperature and humidity were monitored during the trips. The forest bathing program significantly reduced pulse rate and significantly increased the score for vigor and decreased the scores for depression, fatigue, anxiety, and confusion. Urinary adrenaline after forest bathing showed a tendency toward decrease. Urinary dopamine after forest bathing was significantly lower than that after urban area walking, suggesting the relaxing effect of the forest bathing. Serum adiponectin after the forest bathing was significantly greater than that after urban area walking.

Human impacts on genetic diversity in forest ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

F. Thomas Ledig

1992-01-01

Humans have converted forest to agricultural and urban uses, exploited species, fragmented wildlands. changed the demographic structure of forests, altered habitat, degraded the environment with atmospheric and soil pollutants, introduced exotic pests and competitors, and domesticated favored species. None of they activities is new; perhaps with the exception of...

Master Veteran Index (MVI)

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Veterans Affairs — As of June 28, 2010, the Master Veteran Index (MVI) database based on the enhanced Master Patient Index (MPI) is the authoritative identity service within the VA,...

Using occupancy models of forest breeding birds to prioritize conservation planning

Science.gov (United States)

De Wan, A. A.; Sullivan, P.J.; Lembo, A.J.; Smith, C.R.; Maerz, J.C.; Lassoie, J.P.; Richmond, M.E.

2009-01-01

As urban development continues to encroach on the natural and rural landscape, land-use planners struggle to identify high priority conservation areas for protection. Although knowing where urban-sensitive species may be occurring on the landscape would facilitate conservation planning, research efforts are often not sufficiently designed to make quality predictions at unknown locations. Recent advances in occupancy modeling allow for more precise estimates of occupancy by accounting for differences in detectability. We applied these techniques to produce robust estimates of habitat occupancy for a subset of forest breeding birds, a group that has been shown to be sensitive to urbanization, in a rapidly urbanizing yet biological diverse region of New York State. We found that detection probability ranged widely across species, from 0.05 to 0.8. Our models suggest that detection probability declined with increasing forest fragmentation. We also found that the probability of occupancy of forest breeding birds is negatively influenced by increasing perimeter-area ratio of forest fragments and urbanization in the surrounding habitat matrix. We capitalized on our random sampling design to produce spatially explicit models that predict high priority conservation areas across the entire region, where interior-species were most likely to occur. Finally, we use our predictive maps to demonstrate how a strict sampling design coupled with occupancy modeling can be a valuable tool for prioritizing biodiversity conservation in land-use planning. ?? 2009 Elsevier Ltd.

Agricultural Abandonment, Suburban Growth, and Forest Expansion in Puerto Rico between 1991 and 2000

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabel K. Parés-Ramos

2008-12-01

Full Text Available The response of local economies to the globalization process can have a large effect on population and land-use dynamics. In countries with a high population density and relatively high levels of education, the globalization process has resulted in a shift in the local economy from agriculture to manufacturing, technology, and service sectors. This shift in the economy has impacted land-use dynamics by decreasing agricultural lands, increasing urban growth, and in some cases, increasing forest cover. This process of economic and forest transition has been well documented in Puerto Rico for the period 1950 to 1990, but some authors predicted that poor planning and continued urban growth would eliminate the gains in forest cover. To investigate the impacts of recent economic changes, we evaluated demographic and land-use changes for 880 "barrios" (i.e., neighborhoods, the smallest administrative unit, in Puerto Rico using government census data from 1990 and 2000 and land-cover classifications from 1991 and 2000. During this period, the population increased by 284 127 people (8.2%. Most of the growth was in the suburban barrios, whereas urban barrios lost population. This shift was reflected by the construction of more than 100 000 housing units in suburban barrios. Although urban sprawl is perceived as the major land-cover change, urban cover only increased from 10% to 11% between 1990 and 2000, whereas the increase in forest cover was much greater (28% to 40%. Grasslands and shrublands were the major sources of new urban and forest areas in 2000. Although these results are encouraging in terms of increasing forest cover, most of the new development has been concentrated in the coastal plains, which are the location of most of the remaining agricultural areas, a few protected areas, and threatened ecosystems (e.g., mangroves.

Master classes - What do they offer?

OpenAIRE

Hanken, Ingrid Maria; Long, Marion

2012-01-01

Master classes are a common way to teach music performance, but how useful are they in helping young musicians in their musical development? Based on his experiences of master classes Lali (2003:24) states that “For better or for worse, master classes can be life-changing events.” Anecdotal evidence confirm that master classes can provide vital learning opportunities, but also that they can be of little use to the student, or worse, detrimental. Since master classes are a common component in ...

Very Bright CV discovered by MASTER-ICATE (Argentina)

Science.gov (United States)

Saffe, C.; Levato, H.; Mallamaci, C.; Lopez, C.; Lipunov, F. Podest V.; Denisenko, D.; Gorbovskoy, E.; Tiurina, N.; Balanutsa, P.; Kornilov, V.; Belinski, A.; Shatskiy, N.; Chazov, V.; Kuznetsov, A.; Yecheistov, V.; Yurkov, V.; Sergienko, Y.; Varda, D.; Sinyakov, E.; Gabovich, A.; Ivanov, K.; Yazev, S.; Budnev, N.; Konstantinov, E.; Chuvalaev, O.; Poleshchuk, V.; Gress, O.; Frolova, A.; Krushinsky, V.; Zalozhnih, I.; Popov, A.; Bourdanov, A.; Parkhomenko, A.; Tlatov, A.; Dormidontov, D.; Senik, V.; Podvorotny, P.; Shumkov, V.; Shurpakov, S.

2013-06-01

MASTER-ICATE very wide-field camera (d=72mm f/1.2 lens + 11 Mpix CCD) located near San Juan, Argentina has discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 14h 20m 23.5s -48d 55m 40s on the combined image (exposure 275 sec) taken on 2013-06-08.048 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 12.1m (limit 13.1m). There is no minor planet at this place. The OT is seen in more than 10 images starting from 2013-06-02.967 UT (275 sec exposure) when it was first detected at 12.4m.

The forbidden fuel. Charcoal, urban woodfuel demand and supply dynamics, community forest management and woodfuel policy in Malawi

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zulu, Leo Charles [Michigan State University, Department of Geography, 103 Geography Building, East Lansing, MI 48823 (United States)

2010-07-15

This article examines woodfuel policy challenges and opportunities in Malawi two decades after woodfuel-crisis narratives and counter-narratives. A nuanced examination of woodfuel supply, demand, use, and markets illuminated options to turn stagnant policies based on charcoal 'bans' and fuel-substitution into proactive, realistic ones acknowledging woodfuel dominance and its socio-economic importance. Findings revealed growing, spatially differentiated woodfuel deficits in southern and central Malawi and around Blantyre, Zomba and Lilongwe cities. Poverty, limited electricity access, reliability and generation exacerbated by tariff subsidies, and complex fuel-allocation decisions restricted energy-ladder transitions from woodfuels to electricity, producing an enduring urban-energy mix dominated by charcoal, thereby increasing wood consumption. Diverse socio-political interests prevented lifting of the charcoal 'ban' despite progressive forest laws. Despite implementation challenges, lessons already learnt, efficiency and poverty-reduction arguments, limited government capacity, growing illegal production of charcoal in forest reserves, and its staying power, make targeted community-based forest management (CBFM) approaches more practical for regulated, commercial production of woodfuels than the status quo. New differentiated policies should include commercial woodfuel production and licensing for revenue and ecological sustainability under CBFM or concessions within and outside selected reserves, an enterprise-based approaches for poverty reduction, smallholder/private tree-growing, woodfuel-energy conserving technologies, improved electricity supply and agricultural productivity. (author)

The forbidden fuel: Charcoal, urban woodfuel demand and supply dynamics, community forest management and woodfuel policy in Malawi

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zulu, Leo Charles, E-mail: zulu@msu.ed [Michigan State University, Department of Geography, 103 Geography Building, East Lansing, MI 48823 (United States)

2010-07-15

This article examines woodfuel policy challenges and opportunities in Malawi two decades after woodfuel-crisis narratives and counter-narratives. A nuanced examination of woodfuel supply, demand, use, and markets illuminated options to turn stagnant policies based on charcoal 'bans' and fuel-substitution into proactive, realistic ones acknowledging woodfuel dominance and its socio-economic importance. Findings revealed growing, spatially differentiated woodfuel deficits in southern and central Malawi and around Blantyre, Zomba and Lilongwe cities. Poverty, limited electricity access, reliability and generation exacerbated by tariff subsidies, and complex fuel-allocation decisions restricted energy-ladder transitions from woodfuels to electricity, producing an enduring urban-energy mix dominated by charcoal, thereby increasing wood consumption. Diverse socio-political interests prevented lifting of the charcoal 'ban' despite progressive forest laws. Despite implementation challenges, lessons already learnt, efficiency and poverty-reduction arguments, limited government capacity, growing illegal production of charcoal in forest reserves, and its staying power, make targeted community-based forest management (CBFM) approaches more practical for regulated, commercial production of woodfuels than the status quo. New differentiated policies should include commercial woodfuel production and licensing for revenue and ecological sustainability under CBFM or concessions within and outside selected reserves, an enterprise-based approaches for poverty reduction, smallholder/private tree-growing, woodfuel-energy conserving technologies, improved electricity supply and agricultural productivity.

Forest biomass and wood waste resources

Science.gov (United States)

K. Skog; P. Lebow; D.. Dykstra; P.. Miles; B.J. Stokes; R.D. Perlack; M. Buford; J. Barbour; D. McKeever

2011-01-01

This chapter provides estimates of forest biomass and wood waste quantities, as well as roadside costs (i.e., supply curves) for each county in the contiguous United States. Roadside price is the price a buyer pays for wood chips at a roadside in the forest, at a processing mill location in the case of mill residue, or at a landfill for urban wood wastes prior to any...

Urban photovoltaic electricity policies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2009-10-15

This report for the International Energy Agency (IEA) made by Task 10 of the Photovoltaic Power Systems (PVPS) programme takes a look at urban photovoltaic electricity policies. The mission of the Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme is to enhance the international collaboration efforts which accelerate the development and deployment of photovoltaic solar energy as a significant and sustainable renewable energy option. The objective of Task 10 is stated as being to enhance the opportunities for wide-scale, solution-oriented application of photovoltaics in the urban environment. The goal of the study presented was to evaluate a standardised basis for urban policies regarding photovoltaic integration in a set of cities in the countries participating in the IEA's Task 10, Urban Scale PV. The investigation was focused on three topics: the present state of the policies, the prospects for future policies fostering photovoltaic deployment and the prospects for future policies to cope with large-scale photovoltaic integration. The first section analyses the state of the policies; this analysis is then confirmed in section 2, which deals with present obstacles to PV deployment and solutions to overcome them. The third section investigates future prospects for PV deployment with the question of mastering large scale integration. The report concludes that cities could formulate urban solutions by developing integrated, specific provisions for PV deployment in their urban infrastructure planning.

Improving city forests through assessment, modelling and monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

D.J. Nowak

2018-01-01

Urban and peri-urban forests produce numerous benefits for society. These include moderating the climate; reducing energy use in buildings; sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide; improving air and water quality; mitigating rainfall run-off and flooding; providing an aesthetic environment and recreational opportunities; enhancing human health and social well-being;...

Effect of Forest Walking on Autonomic Nervous System Activity in Middle-Aged Hypertensive Individuals: A Pilot Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chorong Song

2015-03-01

Full Text Available There has been increasing attention on the therapeutic effects of the forest environment. However, evidence-based research that clarifies the physiological effects of the forest environment on hypertensive individuals is lacking. This study provides scientific evidence suggesting that a brief forest walk affects autonomic nervous system activity in middle-aged hypertensive individuals. Twenty participants (58.0 ± 10.6 years were instructed to walk predetermined courses in forest and urban environments (as control. Course length (17-min walk, walking speed, and energy expenditure were equal between the forest and urban environments to clarify the effects of each environment. Heart rate variability (HRV and heart rate were used to quantify physiological responses. The modified semantic differential method and Profile of Mood States were used to determine psychological responses. The natural logarithm of the high-frequency component of HRV was significantly higher and heart rate was significantly lower when participants walked in the forest than when they walked in the urban environment. The questionnaire results indicated that, compared with the urban environment, walking in the forest increased “comfortable”, “relaxed”, “natural” and “vigorous” feelings and decreased “tension-anxiety,” “depression,” “anxiety-hostility,” “fatigue” and “confusion”. A brief walk in the forest elicited physiological and psychological relaxation effects on middle-aged hypertensive individuals.

Integral stormwater management master plan and design in an ecological community.

Science.gov (United States)

Che, Wu; Zhao, Yang; Yang, Zheng; Li, Junqi; Shi, Man

2014-09-01

Urban stormwater runoff nearly discharges directly into bodies of water through gray infrastructure in China, such as sewers, impermeable ditches, and pump stations. As urban flooding, water shortage, and other environment problems become serious, integrated water environment management is becoming increasingly complex and challenging. At more than 200ha, the Oriental Sun City community is a large retirement community located in the eastern side of Beijing. During the beginning of its construction, the project faced a series of serious water environment crises such as eutrophication, flood risk, water shortage, and high maintenance costs. To address these issues, an integral stormwater management master plan was developed based on the concept of low impact development (LID). A large number of LID and green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) approaches were designed and applied in the community to replace traditional stormwater drainage systems completely. These approaches mainly included bioretention (which captured nearly 85th percentile volume of the annual runoff in the site, nearly 5.4×10(5)m(3) annually), swales (which functioned as a substitute for traditional stormwater pipes), waterscapes, and stormwater wetlands. Finally, a stormwater system plan was proposed by integrating with the gray water system, landscape planning, an architectural master plan, and related consultations that supported the entire construction period. After more than 10 years of planning, designing, construction, and operation, Oriental Sun City has become one of the earliest modern large-scale LID communities in China. Moreover, the project not only addressed the crisis efficiently and effectively, but also yielded economic and ecological benefits. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Global Forecasts of Urban Expansion to 2030 and Direct Impacts on Biodiversity and Carbon Pools

Science.gov (United States)

Seto, K. C.; Guneralp, B.; Hutyra, L.

2012-12-01

Urban land cover change threatens biodiversity and affects ecosystem productivity through loss of habitat, biomass, and carbon storage. Yet, despite projections that world urban populations will increase to 4.3 billion by 2030, little is known about future locations, magnitudes, and rates of urban expansion. Here we develop the first global probabilistic forecasts of urban land cover change and explore the impacts on biodiversity hotspots and tropical carbon biomass. If current trends in population density continue, then by 2030, urban land cover will expand between 800,000 and 3.3 million km2, representing a doubling to five-fold increase from the global urban land cover in 2000. This would result in considerable loss of habitats in key biodiversity hotspots, including the Guinean forests of West Africa, Tropical Andes, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. Within the pan-tropics, loss in forest biomass from urban expansion is estimated to be 1.38 PgC (0.05 PgC yr-1), equal to approximately 5% of emissions from tropical land use change. Although urbanization is often considered a local issue, the aggregate global impacts of projected urban expansion will require significant policy changes to affect future growth trajectories to minimize global biodiversity and forest carbon losses.

Modelling the influence of peri-urban trees in the air quality of Madrid region (Spain)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alonso, Rocio; Vivanco, Marta G.; Gonzalez-Fernandez, Ignacio; Bermejo, Victoria; Palomino, Inmaculada; Garrido, Juan Luis; Elvira, Susana; Salvador, Pedro; Artinano, Begona

2011-01-01

Tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) is considered one of the most important air pollutants affecting human health. The role of peri-urban vegetation in modifying O 3 concentrations has been analyzed in the Madrid region (Spain) using the V200603par-rc1 version of the CHIMERE air quality model. The 3.7 version of the MM5 meteorological model was used to provide meteorological input data to the CHIMERE. The emissions were derived from the EMEP database for 2003. Land use data and the stomatal conductance model included in CHIMERE were modified according to the latest information available for the study area. Two cases were considered for the period April-September 2003: (1) actual land use and (2) a fictitious scenario where El Pardo peri-urban forest was converted to bare-soil. The results show that El Pardo forest constitutes a sink of O 3 since removing this green area increased O 3 levels over the modified area and over down-wind surrounding areas. - Highlights: → Role of peri-urban vegetation in modifying O 3 pollution in Madrid (Spain). → The CHIMERE air quality model was adapted to Mediterranean conditions. → Preserving the peri-urban forest lowers O 3 concentrations over the surrounding areas. → Evergreen broadleaf and deciduous forests removed more atmospheric O 3 than conifers. - Peri-urban forests contribute to ameliorate ozone air pollution.

Synegies Between Visible/Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometry and the Thermal Infrared in an Urban Environment: An Evaluation of the Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HYSPIRI) Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Dar A.; Quattrochi, Dale A.; Hulley, Glynn C.; Hook, Simon J.; Green, Robert O.

2012-01-01

A majority of the human population lives in urban areas and as such, the quality of urban environments is becoming increasingly important to the human population. Furthermore, these areas are major sources of environmental contaminants and sinks of energy and materials. Remote sensing provides an improved understanding of urban areas and their impacts by mapping urban extent, urban composition (vegetation and impervious cover fractions), and urban radiation balance through measures of albedo, emissivity and land surface temperature (LST). Recently, the National Research Council (NRC) completed an assessment of remote sensing needs for the next decade (NRC, 2007), proposing several missions suitable for urban studies, including a visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectrometer and a multispectral thermal infrared (TIR) instrument called the Hyperspectral Infrared Imagery (HyspIRI). In this talk, we introduce the HyspIRI mission, focusing on potential synergies between VSWIR and TIR data in an urban area. We evaluate potential synergies using an Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and MODIS-ASTER (MASTER) image pair acquired over Santa Barbara, United States. AVIRIS data were analyzed at their native spatial resolutions (7.5m VSWIR and 15m TIR), and aggregated 60 m spatial resolution similar to HyspIRI. Surface reflectance was calculated using ACORN and a ground reflectance target to remove atmospheric and sensor artifacts. MASTER data were processed to generate estimates of spectral emissivity and LST using Modtran radiative transfer code and the ASTER Temperature Emissivity Separation algorithm. A spectral library of common urban materials, including urban vegetation, roofs and roads was assembled from combined AVIRIS and field-measured reflectance spectra. LST and emissivity were also retrieved from MASTER and reflectance/emissivity spectra for a subset of urban materials were retrieved from co-located MASTER and

Experience of Sponge City Master Plan: A Case Study of Nanning City

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhang Wei; Wang Jiazhuo; Che Han; Wang Chen; Zhang Chunyang; Shi Lian; Fan Jin; Li Caige

2017-01-01

As a new urban development pattern, the construction of sponge cities has been deeply integrated into the new urbanization and water safety strategy. Nanning City, as one of the first batch of experimental sponge cities in China, has undertaken exploration and practice on sponge city planning, construction, and management. The sponge city master plan of Nanning City establishes an urban ecological spatial pattern in order to protect the security of the sponge base. The sponge city construction strategy has also proposed an overall construction strategy of a sponge city in line with urban development features. Through the systematic analysis and planning, a “23+10+202” pattern of sponge city construction has been formed. “23” represents 23 drainage basins, in which major sponge facilities such as storage facilities, waterfront buffer zones, wetland parks, ecological rainwater corridor and sponge parks are allocated. “10” represents 10 sponge functional zones, which provide important reference for the establishment of sponge city construction index system. “202” represents 202 management units, which decomposes the general objective and provides technical support not only for sponge city construction and management, but also for the implementation of general objectives in the regulatory plan as well.

An Initial Analysis of LANDSAT-4 Thematic Mapper Data for the Discrimination of Agricultural, Forested Wetland, and Urban Land Covers

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrochi, D. A.

1984-01-01

An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 Thematic Mapper (TM) data for the discrimination of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers is conducted using a scene of data collected over Arkansas and Tennessee. A classification of agricultural lands derived from multitemporal LANDSAT Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data is compared with a classification of TM data for the same area. Results from this comparative analysis show that the multitemporal MSS classification produced an overall accuracy of 80.91% while the TM classification yields an overall classification accuracy of 97.06% correct.

Learning profiles of Master students

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sprogøe, Jonas; Hemmingsen, Lis

2005-01-01

at DPU in 2001 several evaluations and research have been carried out on several topics relating to form, content, and didactics, but one important focus is missing: the research about the psychological profile and learning style of the master student. Knowledge is lacking on how teaching methods......Master education as a part of lifelong learning/education has over the last years increased in Denmark. Danish Universities now offer more than110 different programmes. One of the characteristics of the master education is that the students get credits for their prior learning and practical work...... experiences, and during the study/education theory and practise is combined. At the Master of Adult Learning and Human Resource Development, one of DPU´s master programmes, the students have a very diverse background and have many different experiences and practises. Since the first programme was introduced...

Effects of Forest Fragmentation on Human Risk of Lyme Disease

Science.gov (United States)

Percent forest-herbaceous edge repeatedly explained most of the variability in reported Lyme disease rates within a rural-to-urban study gradient across central Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania. A one-percent increase in forest-herbaceous edge was associated with an increas...

The Effect of Urban Sprawls on Timber Harvesting

Science.gov (United States)

Stephen A. Barlow; Ian A Munn; David A. Cleaves; David L. Evans

1998-01-01

In Mississippi and Alabama, urban population growth is pushing development into rural areas. To study the impact of urbanization on timber harvesting, census and forest inventory data were combined in a geographic information system, and a logistic regression model was used to estimate the relationship between several variables and harvest probabilities....

Urban Quality Development & Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lehmann, Martin; Fryd, Ole

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe and discuss the development and the structure of a new international master on the subject of Urban Quality Development & Management, and explore the potential of the process and the outcome in serving as models adoptable by faculty at other......: Urban quality development and management is dependent on human resource development, institutionalised networks and confident exchange of knowledge, and must identify and incorporate multiple environmental, social, economic and cultural aspects. The authors find that at the core of innovative societies......, an interlinkage exists between practice (business, civil society, governance) and theory (research, education). The case illustrates how a new curriculum takes time to develop and implement and how it relies on confidence and trust between partners, in this case cities and universities, before being able to plant...

Altered vegetative assemblage trajectories within an urban brownfield

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gallagher, Frank J., E-mail: Gallagher@sebs.rutgers.edu [Urban Forestry Program, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, State University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551 (United States); Pechmann, Ildiko; Holzapfel, Claus [Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers, State University, 195 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102 (United States); Grabosky, Jason [Urban Forestry Program, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, State University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551 (United States)

2011-05-15

Recognizing the growing importance of both structure (maintenance of biodiversity) and function (fostering natural cycles) of urban ecologies, we examine coarse scale (herbaceous, shrub and forest) beta guild trajectory in an urban brownfield. The distribution of the pioneer forest assemblage dominated by Betula populifolia Marsh. and Populus spp. could be correlated positively with total soil metal load (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, zinc, lead and vanadium),whereas herbaceous and shrub guilds were negatively correlated. Distinct assemblage development trajectories above and below a critical soil metal threshold are demonstrated. In addition, we postulate that the translocation of metals into the plant tissue of several dominant species may provide a positive feedback loop, maintaining relatively high concentrations of metals in the litter and soil. Therefore assembly theory, which allows for the development of alternate stable states, may provide a better model for the establishment of restoration objectives on degraded urban sites. - Highlights: > Forest distribution and total soil metal load yield strong positive correlations. > Shrub and herbaceous guild distribution and TML are negative and weaker. > Below a critical TML threshold transition between guilds exhibit a standard trajectory. > Above the critical TML threshold the shrub guild is virtually absent. > Metal cycling has the potential to lead to an alternative steady state. - High concentrationsof soil metals, impact the trajectory of vegetative assemblages in an urban brownfield leading to the speculation of an alternate stable state.

Interaction between forest biodiversity and people's use of forest resources in Roviana, Solomon Islands: implications for biocultural conservation under socioeconomic changes.

OpenAIRE

Furusawa, Takuro; Sirikolo, Myknee Qusa; Sasaoka, Masatoshi; Ohtsuka, Ryutaro

2014-01-01

[Background]In Solomon Islands, forests have provided people with ecological services while being affected by human use and protection. This study used a quantitative ethnobotanical analysis to explore the society–forest interaction and its transformation in Roviana, Solomon Islands. We compared local plant and land uses between a rural village and urbanized village. Special attention was paid to how local people depend on biodiversity and how traditional human modifications of forest contrib...

Characteristics of urban woodlands affecting breeding bird diversity and abundance

Science.gov (United States)

N.G. Tilghman

1987-01-01

Breeding bird communities were studied in 32 forest islands surrounded by urban development. These isolated woodlands in Springfield, Massachusetts, provided breeding habitats for a wider variety of birds (77 species) than previously described for other urban habitats (e.g. four times as many species as found in urban residential areas in the same city in a...

The efficacy of economic-development programs in forest-dependent communities

Science.gov (United States)

Rory Fraser

1997-01-01

West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the nation and its rural communities are more hard pressed than their urban counterparts. At the same time, West Virginia is one of the most densely forested states in the USA. The combination of poverty amidst a wealth of forest suggest that economic development based on the forest resource could provide solutions for poor...

20 years of power station master training

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwarz, O.

1977-01-01

In the early fifties, the VGB working group 'Power station master training' elaborated plans for systematic and uniform training of power station operating personnel. In 1957, the first power station master course was held. In the meantime, 1.720 power station masters are in possession of a master's certificate of a chamber of commerce and trade. Furthermore, 53 power station masters have recently obtained in courses of the 'Kraftwerksschule e.V.' the know-how which enables them to also carry out their duty as a master in nuclear power stations. (orig.) [de

How forest context influences the acceptability of prescribed burning and mechanical thinning

Science.gov (United States)

Alan D. Bright; Peter Newman

2006-01-01

We examined how forest factors influenced public perceptions of three fuels management alternatives: prescribed burns, mechanical thinning, or no artificial fire management. The factors included the forest?s proximity to urban areas, primary use, wildfire history, and current fire conditions. Surveying three study strata with different wildfire histories and...

Management of community forests in Tamil Nadu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wilson, J

1986-04-01

The community has greatly benefited from payment of 50 percent of the sale proceeds of the forests. Most of the fuelwood generated in these forests finds its way to urban channels since there is no real fuel scarcity in rural Tamil Nadu. To channelise assets generated in community forests and to meet rural requirements of the people, a reorientation of management practices is necessary. The present rotation period of 10 years designed mainly for the production of fuel wood needs to be lengthened. (Refs. 6).

The impact of urbanization and agricultural development on vultures ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The methodology uses point count surveys of vulture species density along an urban to forest gradient (dense downtown areas, suburbs, rural villages and farms, mixed uninhabited savanna, open and closed forests). The very common Black Vulture and the slightly less common Turkey Vulture were most often recorded in ...

Vascular epiphytic component in an urban forest fragment in Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Telma Elyta Vilhalba Azeredo

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to conduct a floristic and phytosociological survey, as well as analyze the spatial distribution of the vascular epiphytic component in an urban forest fragment belonging to the submontane dense ombrophilous forest in the town of Criciuma, Santa Catarina, Brazil. In addition, information on the ecological groups of epiphytic species and the strategies for pollination and dispersal were also presented. One sampled 60 trees as phorophytes with DBH ≥ 10 cm, through the point-centered quarter method, and the expeditious walking method was used for recording the epiphytic species which weren’t sampled in the phorophytes through the phytosociological method. The frequency was evaluated having the occurrence of epiphytes in the phorophytes and the segments on the bole and crown as a basis. One recorded the presence of epiphytes in the phorophytes in the segments on the bole and crown. One found 65 species distributed into 39 genera and 14 families, out of which 49 were sampled in the phytosociological survey and the remaining ones in the walking survey. Bromeliaceae showed the highest richness, followed by Orchidaceae, and Cactaceae. Tillandsia recurvata (L. L. was firstly mentioned in the southern state. The specific diversity was estimated as H’ = 3.33 and evenness (E was equal to 0.86. The ecological group of holoepiphytes was the most representative one in the area under study. Entomophily and anemochory were the prevailing strategies for pollination and dispersal, respectively. In the phytosociological survey, the number of epiphytic species in the phorophytes ranged from 0 to 21. The highest importance values were those related to Rhipsalis teres (Vell. Steud. and Microgramma vacciniifolia (Langsd. & Fisch. Copel.

Macroinvertebrate assemblages in agricultural, mining, and urban tropical streams: implications for conservation and management.

Science.gov (United States)

Mwedzi, Tongayi; Bere, Taurai; Mangadze, Tinotenda

2016-06-01

The study evaluated the response of macroinvertebrate assemblages to changes in water quality in different land-use settings in Manyame catchment, Zimbabwe. Four land-use categories were identified: forested commercial farming, communal farming, Great Dyke mining (GDM) and urban areas. Macroinvertebrate community structure and physicochemical variables data were collected in two seasons from 41 sites following standard methods. Although not environmentally threatening, urban and GDM areas were characterised by higher conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, magnesium and hardness. Chlorides, total phosphates, total nitrogen, calcium, potassium and sodium were significantly highest in urban sites whilst dissolved oxygen (DO) was significantly higher in the forested commercial faming and GDM sites. Macroinvertebrate communities followed the observed changes in water quality. Macroinvertebrates in urban sites indicated severe pollution (e.g. Chironomidae) whilst those in forested commercial farming sites and GDM sites indicated relatively clean water (e.g. Notonemouridae). Forested watersheds together with good farm management practices are important in mitigating impacts of urbanisation and agriculture. Strategies that reduce oxygen-depleting substances must be devised to protect the health of Zimbabwean streams. The study affirms the wider applicability of the South African Scoring System in different land uses.

Forest Service Global Change Research Strategy, 2009-2019

Science.gov (United States)

Allen Solomon; Richard Birdsey; Linda A. Joyce; Jennifer Hayes

2009-01-01

In keeping with the research goals of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the Research and Development agenda of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), helps define climate change policy and develop best management practices for forests (both rural and urban) and grasslands. These actions are taken to sustain ecosystem health, adjust management...

Front Range Forest Health Partnership Phase 1 feasibility study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Volkin, P

1998-09-01

The Front Range Forest Health Partnership is an alliance of individuals, citizen groups, federal, state, private, and nonprofit organizations that formed to promote forest health restoration and reduce fire risks on Colorado's Front Range. The partnership promotes selective thinning to restore forest health and supports economically feasible end uses for wood waste materials. The Phase I study was initiated to determine the environmental and economic feasibility of using wood wastes from forested and urban areas for the production of fuel-grade ethanol.

Assessing the Sustainability of Agricultural and Urban Forests in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Guy Robertson; Andy. Mason

2016-01-01

The Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), published the National Report on Sustainable Forests-2010 (USDA Forest Service 2011) (hereafter, National Report) several years ago and will be releasing a subsequent version of the report in 2017. Based on the Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators for Forest Sustainability, the National...

Monitoring the Urban Tree Cover for Urban Ecosystem Services - The Case of Leipzig, Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Banzhaf, E.; Kollai, H.

2015-04-01

Urban dynamics such as (extreme) growth and shrinkage bring about fundamental challenges for urban land use and related changes. In order to achieve a sustainable urban development, it is crucial to monitor urban green infrastructure at microscale level as it provides various urban ecosystem services in neighbourhoods, supporting quality of life and environmental health. We monitor urban trees by means of a multiple data set to get a detailed knowledge on its distribution and change over a decade for the entire city. We have digital orthophotos, a digital elevation model and a digital surface model. The refined knowledge on the absolute height above ground helps to differentiate tree tops. Grounded on an object-based image analysis scheme a detailed mapping of trees in an urbanized environment is processed. Results show high accuracy of tree detection and avoidance of misclassification due to shadows. The study area is the City of Leipzig, Germany. One of the leading German cities, it is home to contiguous community allotments that characterize the configuration of the city. Leipzig has one of the most well-preserved floodplain forests in Europe.

Predicting summer site occupancy for an invasive species, the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula, in an urban environment.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amy L Adams

Full Text Available Invasive species are often favoured in fragmented, highly-modified, human-dominated landscapes such as urban areas. Because successful invasive urban adapters can occupy habitat that is quite different from that in their original range, effective management programmes for invasive species in urban areas require an understanding of distribution, habitat and resource requirements at a local scale that is tailored to the fine-scale heterogeneity typical of urban landscapes. The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula is one of New Zealand's most destructive invasive pest species. As brushtail possums traditionally occupy forest habitat, control in New Zealand has focussed on rural and forest habitats, and forest fragments in cities. However, as successful urban adapters, possums may be occupying a wider range of habitats. Here we use site occupancy methods to determine the distribution of brushtail possums across five distinguishable urban habitat types during summer, which is when possums have the greatest impacts on breeding birds. We collected data on possum presence/absence and habitat characteristics, including possible sources of supplementary food (fruit trees, vegetable gardens, compost heaps, and the availability of forest fragments from 150 survey locations. Predictive distribution models constructed using the programme PRESENCE revealed that while occupancy rates were highest in forest fragments, possums were still present across a large proportion of residential habitat with occupancy decreasing as housing density increased and green cover decreased. The presence of supplementary food sources was important in predicting possum occupancy, which may reflect the high nutritional value of these food types. Additionally, occupancy decreased as the proportion of forest fragment decreased, indicating the importance of forest fragments in determining possum distribution. Control operations to protect native birds from possum predation in

Biophysical control of whole tree transpiration under an urban environment in Northern China

Science.gov (United States)

Lixin Chen; Zhiqiang Zhang; Zhandong Li; Jianwu Tang; Peter Caldwell; et al

2011-01-01

Urban reforestation in China has led to increasing debate about the impact of urban trees and forests on water resources. Although transpiration is the largest water flux leaving terrestrial ecosystems, little is known regarding whole tree transpiration in urban environments. In this study, we quantified urban tree transpiration at various temporal scales and examined...