Urban Green Space and Sustainable Forest Management

Dear Colleagues,

The main scope of this Special Issue is to combine the topic of urban green spaces (UGSs)—urban parks and gardens, woodlots, etc.—with the specifics of the sustainable management of municipal forests.

Historically, the principle of sustainability indicates that a forest’s production should be managed to a specific limit in order to prevent as much undesirable damage as possible to the residual stand and overall ecosystem, and the detailed regulations (such as annual allowable cut, improving logging methods, and forest zoning) are determined based on the concepts of guiding principles [5]. Ecologists, economists, landscape architects and planners, as well as social scientists agreed on the broad definition of urban green spaces (UGSs), which contain public and private open spaces in urban areas primarily covered by vegetation and directly (e.g., active or passive recreation) or indirectly (e.g., positive influence on the urban environment) available for the users [1]. Globally, a dramatic demographic shift towards urbanization is occurring [2]. Between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of people living in urban areas is projected to rise from 46.6 to 69.6% [3]. The following fulfil a vital role in the relationship between citizens and urban green: (a) behavior pattern; (b) the level of perception on the part of the residents towards the green system in their city; and (c) the social representations which they construct within their social context [4].

The European Commission has adopted the New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 [6] as a flagship initiative of the European Green Deal [7]. The New EU Forest Strategy for 2030 aims to “set a vision and concrete actions to improve the quantity and quality of EU forests and strengthen their protection, restoration and resilience”. The Strategy places forest demands in the context of changing environmental conditions due to climate change and meeting socio-economic needs.

The articles published in this Special Issue will present new ideas in urban green areas and forest management.

Reference:

1. Tuzin, B.; Leeuwen, E.; Rodenburg, C.; Peter, N. The Pulsar Effect. Proceedings of the 38th International Planning Congress on Planning with Peaks, Athens, Greece, 21–26 September 2002.
2. Galea, S; Vlahov, D. Urban health: evidence, challenges and directions. Annu. Rev. Public Health  2005, 26, 341–65.
3. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision.  Available online: https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/unpd_egm_200801_presentation_heilig.pdf (accessed on 1 February 2023).
4. Lalli, P. L’ecologia del pensatore dilettante. Rappresentazioni sociali della natura e dell’ambiente; Clueb: Bologna, Italy, 1995.
5. Ong, R.C.; Lagan, P.M.; Glauner, R.; Kleine, M.; Uebelhör, K. Examples of sustainability criteria for dipterocarp forest management. In Dipterocarp forest ecosystem: towards sustainable management; Schulte, A., Schöne, D., Eds.; World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.: Singapore, 1996, pp. 274–292.
6. New EU Forest Strategy for 2030. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, COM(2021) 572 Final; European Commission: Brussels, Belgium, 2021. Available online: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52021DC0572&from=EN (accessed on 1 February 2023).
7. The European Green Deal. COM(2019) 640 Final; European Commission: Brussels, Belgium, 2019. Available online: https://www.eea.europa.eu/policy-documents/com-2019-640-final (accessed on 1 February 2023).

Dr. Jitka Fialova
Dr. Jan Łukaszkiewicz
Guest Editors

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