Urban Forestry and Landscape Restoration

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Economics, Policy, and Social Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2019) | Viewed by 17978

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agro-Environmental and Territorial Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
Interests: geospatial analysis of landscapes, sustainable forest and biodiversity management, forestry and urban forestry, dendrochronology, dendrochemistry, forest wildfires

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas are complex ecosystems in which forests can act as essential contributors to their environmental and economic values. Often, grey, blue, and green infrastructures are artificially integrated to build systems that provide quality natural environments in man’s daily life for his well-being and mitigate inequalities and conflicts within urbanized societies. With the continuous growth and fragmentation of urban areas, the management and planning of urban forests have been addressed to restore deforested or degraded landscapes, to regain their ecological functions, and to enhance human well-being. Achieving these goals requires the broadest possible support in terms of knowledge exchange and expertise and sets the scene to improve urban forest and landscape restoration interventions. This support could be crucial to adapt the urban landscape to future scenarios, including climate change effects.

This Special Issue offers the opportunity to describe findings related to the integration issues between forest resources and urban ecosystems. Research articles can focus on any aspect of urban forestry and landscape restoration, such as monitoring, management plans, ecosystem services assessment, ecological functions, human health and wellbeing, and case studies. If you have questions about whether your submission is appropriate, please enquire with the guest editor via email.

Dr. Giuseppe Colangelo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • Sustainable management mitigation
  • Ecosystem services
  • Human well-being
  • Climate change
  • Urbanization.

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

18 pages, 5044 KiB  
Article
Spatio-Temporal Changes of Urban Forests and Planning Evolution in a Highly Dynamical Urban Area: The Case Study of Wrocław, Poland
by Justyna Jaworek-Jakubska, Maciej Filipiak, Adam Michalski and Anna Napierała-Filipiak
Forests 2020, 11(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11010017 - 20 Dec 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4297
Abstract
Knowledge about urban forests in Poland is still limited, as it is primarily based on aggregate, formal data relating to the general area, ignoring the spatial dimension and informal green areas. This article describes and analyses spatio-temporal changes in the actual urban forest [...] Read more.
Knowledge about urban forests in Poland is still limited, as it is primarily based on aggregate, formal data relating to the general area, ignoring the spatial dimension and informal green areas. This article describes and analyses spatio-temporal changes in the actual urban forest resources in Wrocław in 1944–2017, which covers the first period of the city’s rebuilding after its destruction during World War II and its development during the nationalised, centrally-planned socialist economy, as well as the second period of intensive and only partly controlled growth under conditions of market economy. The study is based on current and historical orthophotomaps, which were confronted with cartographic data, as well as planning documents. We found that between 1944 and 2017, the percentage contribution of informal woodlands increased tenfold (from 0.5 to 4.9% of the present total area of the city). The area occupied by such forests has grown particularly during the most recent years of the city’s intensive development. However, the forests have been increasingly fragmented. During the first period, new forest areas were also created in the immediate vicinity of the city centre, while during the second one, only in its peripheral sections. The post-war plans regarding the urban green spaces (UGS), including the current plan, are very conservative in nature. On the one hand, this means no interference with the oldest, biggest, and most valuable forest complexes, but on the other hand, insufficient consideration of the intensive built-up area expansion on former agriculture areas. Only to a limited extent did the above-mentioned plans take into account the informal woodlands, which provide an opportunity for strengthening the functional connectivity of landscape. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forestry and Landscape Restoration)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

26 pages, 2289 KiB  
Review
Management and Social Problems Linked to the Human Use of European Urban and Suburban Forests
by Ewa Referowska-Chodak
Forests 2019, 10(11), 964; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10110964 - 1 Nov 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4109
Abstract
This review regards the management and social problems in European urban and suburban forests linked to their maintenance and human use. They can be divided into major categories: forest management problems (e.g., the low priority of urban forestry, various or diffused urban forest [...] Read more.
This review regards the management and social problems in European urban and suburban forests linked to their maintenance and human use. They can be divided into major categories: forest management problems (e.g., the low priority of urban forestry, various or diffused urban forest management, lack of management plans or lack of sufficient funds); the social reception of forest works and forests (e.g., emotional reactions to total clear-cutting, negative evaluation of logging traces, negative evaluation of poor tourist infrastructure, specific expectations concerning a model forest: e.g., tall, of low density, mixed, old); and relations between forest users (problems related to e.g., crowding, fast-moving people, the presence of dogs, littering, thefts or noisy behaviour). Here, special attention is paid to problems and negative interactions, as they are challenges to forest management, as well as to the development of plans, strategies, and policies, both in relation to existent forests and those planned in various parts of Europe. Taking into account the feelings and expectations of forest users concerning forests, forest works/management, and infrastructure, as well as their attitude to other forest users, may reduce conflicts concerning various kinds of forest perception and use, and (with the support of societal education) may help to increase the sense of social responsibility for the “shared” forests. The presented findings are expected to be practical and useful for the management of urban and suburban forests, regardless of the location, as a type of checklist of possible problems, that may prove to be important and up-to-date in a particular location. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forestry and Landscape Restoration)
Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 1133 KiB  
Review
Pressures and Threats to Nature Related to Human Activities in European Urban and Suburban Forests
by Ewa Referowska-Chodak
Forests 2019, 10(9), 765; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10090765 - 4 Sep 2019
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 8823
Abstract
This review regards the pressures and threats linked with the human use of European urban and suburban forests. They can be divided into the following major categories: urban development, fragmentation, and isolation of forests; human pressures on soil and vegetation (e.g., changes in [...] Read more.
This review regards the pressures and threats linked with the human use of European urban and suburban forests. They can be divided into the following major categories: urban development, fragmentation, and isolation of forests; human pressures on soil and vegetation (e.g., changes in vegetation due to trampling, environmental and especially air pollution); human pressures on animals (e.g., wildlife losses due to collisions, frequent presence of dogs accompanying the visitors); and other threats and damages (e.g., littering and acts of vandalism). The directions of negative relations between people and forests shown in this review draw attention to the high complexity of the discussed issues. Awareness of this complexity (when planning and implementing forest management) can limit or counteract conflicts arising from the use of urban and suburban forests by people. This is of particular importance in the era of progressing urbanization and the evolution of human needs regarding the use of forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Forestry and Landscape Restoration)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop