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A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Forestry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2022) | Viewed by 28775

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Dr. Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez

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Guest Editor

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, NSW 2753, Australia
Interests: climate change; vulnerability; plant ecophysiology; ecology; species distribution modelling; urban ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Tina Harrison

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Guest Editor

Dept Ecol Evolut & Nat Resources, Rutgers State University New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Interests: global change; biodiversity; community ecology; urban ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban forests are a priority for basic and applied forest research, because they are intimately connected with people’s physical, cultural, and economic well-being in the urban environment, and can also be important reservoirs of biodiversity. Landscape ecology provides a critical perspective for understanding and managing urban forests. Like all forests, urban forests exist in spatially complex configurations that affect key processes, including growth, reproduction, and interactions with animal mutualists and commensals, which also link forests to surrounding non-forest habitats. Therefore, urbanization’s direct impacts on forests are modified (and often compounded) by concurrent, indirect impacts via changes to forests’ spatial configurations and surrounding habitats. To promote a better understanding of urban forests and landscape ecology, we invite all studies (1) set in urban forests and (2) focused on some spatially explicit process, to contribute to this Special Issue. Landscape and urban ecology are both highly interdisciplinary, so a wide range of research approaches (experiments, models, remote sensing, sociological, or economic collaborations) are welcome. We particularly encourage studies from rapidly urbanizing areas in the global South and developing countries that are underrepresented in the current literature.

Dr. Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez
Dr. Tina Harrison
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

global change
fragmentation
edge effects
meta-community
meta-population
connectivity
urbanization
remote sensing

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Editorial

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2 pages, 617 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology

by Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez and Tina Harrison

Forests 2021, 12(12), 1620; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121620 - 24 Nov 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1797

Abstract

Urbanization has become a dominant driver of landscape transformation across the world, with cities representing centers of economic and socio-cultural development [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

12 pages, 2479 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Nature and Size Fractions of Particulate Matter Deposited on Leaves of Four Tree Species in Beijing, China

by Huixia Wang, Yan Xing, Jia Yang, Binze Xie, Hui Shi and Yanhui Wang

Forests 2022, 13(2), 316; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13020316 - 15 Feb 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2259

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) in different size fractions (PM_0.1–2.5, PM_2.5–10 and PM_>10) accumulation on four tree species (Populus tomentosa, Platanus acerifolia, Fraxinus chinensis, and Ginkgo biloba) at two sites with different pollution levels was examined in Beijing, China. Among the tested tree species, P. acerifolia was the most efficient species in capturing PM, followed by F. chinensis, G. biloba, and P. tomentosa. The heavily polluted site had higher PM accumulation on foliage and a higher percentage of PM_0.1–2.5 and PM_2.5–10. Encapsulation of PM within cuticles was observed on leaves of F. chinensis and G. biloba, which was further dominated by PM_2.5. Leaf surface structure explains the considerable differences in PM accumulation among tree species. The amounts of accumulated PM (PM_0.1–2.5, PM_2.5–10, and PM_>10) increased with the increase of stomatal aperture, stomatal width, leaf length, leaf width, and stomatal density, but decreases with contact angle. Considering PM accumulation ability, leaf area index, and tolerance to pollutants in urban areas, we suggest P. acerifolia should be used more frequently in urban areas, especially in “hotspots” in city centers (e.g., roads/streets with heavy traffic loads). However, G. biloba and P. tomentosa should be installed in less polluted areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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22 pages, 7802 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Structure and Ecological Function of an Extreme Landscape in a Tropical Region of West Java, Indonesia

by Susanti Withaningsih, Parikesit Parikesit, Annas Dwitri Malik and Muthi’ah Aini Rahmi

Forests 2022, 13(1), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13010115 - 13 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2519

Abstract

An extreme landscape is a spatially heterogeneous area with unusual topography that is prone to natural disasters but still exhibits interrelated structures and functions. One of the important functions of an extreme landscape is its ecological function. This study aimed to determine the structure and reveal the ecological functions of an extreme landscape in a tropical region of West Java, with special reference to Rongga Sub-district. The method used was a combination of remote sensing techniques and geographic information systems, which were required to process, analyze, and interpret Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS data. The landscape structure was quantified by landscape metrics, after which an analysis of ecological functions was carried out based on the constituent elements of the landscape. The results showed that the landscape structure of Rongga Sub-district consists of various elements of agroforestry land, open fields, settlements, shrubs, plantations, and rainfed and irrigated rice fields. Additionally, secondary forest land acted as a landscape matrix where rivers crossed as natural corridors. The amount of each element varied; agroforestry land had the highest value, indicating that this element showed a high degree of human intervention. Each patch was adjacent to other patch types, and the landscape diversity was quite high. The extreme topography of Rongga Sub-district supports the landscape connectivity and consequently the presence of wild animals in this area. Therefore, Rongga Sub-district has an essential ecological function as a refuge for protected animals living in non-conservation areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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15 pages, 2124 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Determinants of Urban Green Space Utilization Based on Microblog Check-In Data in Shanghai, China

by Dan Chen, Xuewen Long, Zhigang Li, Chuan Liao, Changkun Xie and Shengquan Che

Forests 2021, 12(12), 1783; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121783 - 16 Dec 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3667

Abstract

Urban green space has significant social, ecological, cultural and economic value. This study uses social media data to examine the spatiotemporal utilization of major parks in Shanghai and explore the determinants of their recreational attraction. Methods: Based on microblog check-in data between 2012 and 2018 across 17 parks in Shanghai, we investigated the patterns at different temporal scales (weekly, seasonal and annual) and across workdays and weekends by using log-linear regression models. Results: Our findings indicate that both internal and external factors affect park utilization. In particular, the presence of sports facilities significantly contributes to higher visit frequency. Factors such as the number of subway stations nearby, scenic quality and popularity have a positive impact on check-in numbers, while negative factors affecting park use are number of roads, ticket price and average surrounding housing price. Across different temporal scales, the use patterns of visitors have obvious seasonal and monthly tendencies, and the differences of workday and weekend models lie in external factors’ impacts. Conclusions: In order to achieve the goal of better serving the visitors, renewal of urban green spaces in megacities should consider these influential factors, increase sports facilities, subway stations nearby and improve scenic quality, popularity and water quality. This study on spatiotemporal utilization of urban parks can help enhance comprehensive functions of urban parks and be helpful for urban renewal strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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16 pages, 7484 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Response of Spatio-Temporal Differentiation Characteristics of Habitat Quality to Land Surface Temperature in a Fast Urbanized City

by Yongge Hu, Enkai Xu, Gunwoo Kim, Chang Liu and Guohang Tian

Forests 2021, 12(12), 1668; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121668 - 30 Nov 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2300

Abstract

The degradation and loss of global urban habitat and biodiversity have been extensively studied as a global issue. Urban heat islands caused by abnormal land surface temperature (LST) have been shown to be the main reason for this problem. With the accelerated urbanization process and the increasing possibility of abnormal temperatures in Zhengzhou, China, more and more creatures cannot adapt and survive in urban habitats, including humans; therefore, Zhengzhou was selected as the study area. The purpose of this study is to explore the response of urban habitat quality to LST, which provides a basis for the scientific protection of urban habitat and biodiversity in Zhengzhou from the perspective of alleviating heat island effect. We used the InVEST-Habitat Quality model to calculate the urban habitat quality, combined with GIS spatial statistics and bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis, to explore the response of habitat quality to LST. The results show the following: (1) From 2000 to 2015, the mean value of urban habitat quality gradually decreased from 0.361 to 0.304, showing a downward trend as a whole. (2) There was an obvious gradient effect between habitat quality and LST. Habitat quality’s high values were distributed in the central and northern built-up area and low values were distributed in the high-altitude western forest habitat and northern water habitat. However, the distribution of LST gradient values were opposite to the habitat quality to a great extent. (3) There were four agglomeration types between LST and habitat quality at specific spatial locations: the high-high type was scattered mainly in the western part of the study area and in the northern region; the high-low type was mainly distributed in the densely populated and actively constructed central areas; the low-low type was mainly distributed in the urban-rural intersections and small and medium-sized rural settlements; and the low-high type was mainly distributed in the western mountainous hills and the northern waters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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20 pages, 5642 KiB

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Concatenated Residual Attention UNet for Semantic Segmentation of Urban Green Space

by Guoqiang Men, Guojin He and Guizhou Wang

Forests 2021, 12(11), 1441; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12111441 - 22 Oct 2021

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3142

Abstract

Urban green space is generally considered a significant component of the urban ecological environment system, which serves to improve the quality of the urban environment and provides various guarantees for the sustainable development of the city. Remote sensing provides an effective method for real-time mapping and monitoring of urban green space changes in a large area. However, with the continuous improvement of the spatial resolution of remote sensing images, traditional classification methods cannot accurately obtain the spectral and spatial information of urban green spaces. Due to complex urban background and numerous shadows, there are mixed classifications for the extraction of cultivated land, grassland and other ground features, implying that limitations exist in traditional methods. At present, deep learning methods have shown great potential to tackle this challenge. In this research, we proposed a novel model called Concatenated Residual Attention UNet (CRAUNet), which combines the residual structure and channel attention mechanism, and applied it to the data source composed of GaoFen-1 remote sensing images in the Shenzhen City. Firstly, the improved residual structure is used to make it retain more feature information of the original image during the feature extraction process, then the Convolutional Block Channel Attention (CBCA) module is applied to enhance the extraction of deep convolution features by strengthening the effective green space features and suppressing invalid features through the interdependence of modeling channels.-Finally, the high-resolution feature map is restored through upsampling operation by the decoder. The experimental results show that compared with other methods, CRAUNet achieves the best performance. Especially, our method is less susceptible to the noise and preserves more complete segmented edge details. The pixel accuracy (PA) and mean intersection over union (MIoU) of our approach have reached 97.34% and 94.77%, which shows great applicability in regional large-scale mapping. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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19 pages, 6256 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Temporal Variation of the Microclimate and Human Thermal Comfort in Urban Wetland Parks: A Case Study of Xixi National Wetland Park, China

by Zhiyong Zhang, Jianhua Dong, Qijiang He and Bing Ye

Forests 2021, 12(10), 1322; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101322 - 28 Sep 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3136

Abstract

As an important part of the ecological infrastructure in urban areas, urban wetland parks have the significant ecological function of relieving the discomfort of people during their outdoor activities. In recent years, the specific structures and ecosystem services of urban wetland parks have been investigated from different perspectives. However, the microclimate and human thermal comfort (HTC) of urban wetland parks have rarely been discussed. In particular, the changing trends of HTC in different seasons and times have not been effectively presented. Accordingly, in this research, a monitoring platform was established in Xixi National Wetland Park, China, to continually monitor its microclimate in the long term. Via a comparison with a control site in the downtown area of Hangzhou, China, the temporal variations of the microclimate and HTC in the urban wetland park are quantified, and suggestions for clothing are also provided. The results of this study demonstrate that urban wetland parks can mitigate the heat island effect and dry island effect in summer. In addition, urban wetland parks can provide ecological services at midday during winter to mitigate the cold island effect. More importantly, urban wetland parks are found to exhibit their best performance in improving HTC during the daytime of the hot season and the midday period of the cold season. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that citizens should take protective measures and enjoy their activities in the morning, evening, or at night, not at midday in hot weather. Moreover, extra layers are suggested to be worn before going to urban wetland parks at night in cold weather, and recreational activities involving accommodation are not recommended. These findings provide not only basic scientific data for the assessment of the management and ecological health value of Xixi National Wetland Park and other urban wetland parks with subtropical monsoon climates, but also a reference for visitor timing and clothing suggestions for recreational activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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16 pages, 2143 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Indicator-Based Approach to Assess the Readiness of Urban Forests for Future Challenges: Case Study of a Mediterranean Compact City

by Mª Fernanda Maradiaga-Marín and Paloma Cariñanos

Forests 2021, 12(10), 1320; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101320 - 27 Sep 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2524

Abstract

Urban Forests (UFs) are key elements in Mediterranean compact cities, as they provide numerous ecosystem benefits and increase the resilience of cities against the anticipated impacts of climate change. It is, thus, necessary to review all the aspects that may have a negative effect on their ecosystem functions and the services that they provide. In this paper, a set of indicators is proposed that allow for a preliminary evaluation of some of the main disservices and factors that Mediterranean UFs present and the ways to maximize their benefits for users. For this purpose, 20 indicators, divided into three categories—Biodiversity, Accessibility/Facilities, and Infrastructure—were selected. Within these three categories, a range of values was established, from low to high or absence/presence. The indicators were tested in 24 urban forests of different types, all of which are representative of a medium-sized compact Mediterranean city. The results highlight that the UFs have adequate species richness and diversity, but among the species present are quite a few that emit BVOCs and allergens, as well as some that have invasive behavior. Poor cleaning, absence of night lightning, and scarcity of water points are aspects to improve in a good number of UFs; while a high surface area of impermeable soil, low tree cover, and extensive areas of grass that require large amounts of water for maintenance are the main issues of the infrastructure block that need medium-term planning to be addressed. It can be concluded that the proposed set of indicators allows for a general assessment of the readiness of UFTs in Mediterranean cities for the upcoming climatic, social, and ecological challenges. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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18 pages, 2579 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Noise Pollution in the Bielański Forest NATURA 2000 Area in Light of Existing Avifauna (Warsaw, Poland)

by Agata Pawłat-Zawrzykraj, Paweł Oglęcki and Konrad Podawca

Forests 2021, 12(10), 1316; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12101316 - 26 Sep 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2568

Abstract

There is no doubt that the NATURA 2000 network has been one of the most relevant tools for nature protection. However, the designated areas within the borders of large cities are subjected to many threats. Traffic noise takes on a very important role in this subject, posing the question of whether NATURA 2000 areas should be located in urban areas strongly affected by noise pollution. This particular topic was exposed and analysed at Bielański Forest NATURA 2000 (PLH140041), located in northern Warsaw, where changes in noise distribution for the years 2007–2017 were examined and described by two types of indicators (Lden and Lnight). The data sources used for the analysis were city road noise maps for 2007, 2012 and 2017. Additionally, sound intensity measurements were taken in two separate groups of hot-spots. The first of these comprised locations determined based on an inventory of avifauna; they represented different habitat types, and were characterized by the highest bird activity. The second group of hot-spots consisted of those designated along roads in order to identify the main sources of traffic noise. The obtained results confirmed the high noise-absorbing ability of the existing vegetation. The avifauna surveys covered 19 forest bird species. Five of them were considered to be the most valuable and rare elements of the local avifauna, whereas 14 appeared to be key species for the functioning of biocenosis and, at the same time, determine the uniqueness of the ecosystem. The study showed that the type of habitat rather than differences in noise levels determines the distribution and abundance of key species. Therefore, there is a necessity to focus on actions that guarantee the maintenance of the existing status in order to counteract habitat deterioration. The investigation confirmed the feasibility of creating these kinds of natural protected areas in large cities, despite their exposure to noise pollution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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17 pages, 4643 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Responses of Visual Forms to Neighboring Competition: A Structural Equation Model for Cotinus coggygria var. cinerea Engl.

by Yujuan Cao, Jiyou Zhu, Chengyang Xu and Richard J. Hauer

Forests 2021, 12(8), 1073; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12081073 - 11 Aug 2021

Viewed by 2353

Abstract

Background: The visual forms of individual trees in peri-urban forests are driven by a complex array of simultaneous cause-and-effect relationships. Materials and Methods: Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), as a specialized analytical technique, was used to model and understand the complex interactions. It was applied to find out responses of visual forms to neighboring competition in a peri-urban forest dominated by Cotinus coggygria var. cinerea Engl. in Beijing, China. Research Highlights: Light interception and space extrusion have substantial effects on visual forms, expressed as crown forms and foliage forms. The structural model in SEM tested hypothetical correlations among latent variables, namely neighboring competition, crown forms, and foliage forms. Results: The fitted model suggested a direct negative effect of neighboring competition on crown forms and an insignificant negative direct effect on foliage forms. Moreover, an indirect positive effect on foliage forms mediated by crown forms was revealed. Conclusions: The fitted SEM and associated findings should facilitate peri-urban forest landscape management by providing insight into causal mechanisms of visual forms of individual trees and thereby assisting in the visual quality promotion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forests and Landscape Ecology)

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