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The role of urban forests and urban trees in creating vibrant and resilient cities is widely recognised. Urban forest governance as the strategic decision and rule making for urban tree resources is no longer solely the domain of governmental actors, but occurs rather often as network governance also involving businesses and civic society. However, governance theory usually does not consider the role of non-human agency, which can be considered problematic due to, for example, the important role of urban trees in place making. The purpose of this paper is to provide further insight into the importance of considering tree agency in governance.

Taking an environmental governance and actor network theory perspective, the paper presents a critical view of current urban forest governance, extending the perspective to include not only a wide range of human actors, but also trees as important non-human actors.

Urban forest governance has become more complex and involves a greater range of actors and actor networks. However, the agency of trees in urban forest governance is seldom well developed. Trees, in close association with local residents, create places, something which needs to be better recognised in governance. Case studies show that this type of non-reflexive agency of urban trees often has emerged in the case of acute threats to urban trees or woodlands. New approaches such as those of biophilic urbanism and biocultural diversity can assist with better integration of tree agency in governance.

Urban forest governance is an emerging field of research which has seldom addressed tree agency. Thus the perspective on urban forest governance is enriched, beyond the dominant post-neoliberal and anthropocentric perspective.

In cities with high density, heat is often trapped between buildings which increases the frequency and intensity of heat events. Researchers have focused on developing strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of heat in cities. Adopting green infrastructure and cooling pavements are some of the many ways to promote thermal comfort against heat. The purpose of this study is to improve microclimate conditions and thermal comfort levels in high-density living conditions in Seoul, South Korea.

This study compares six design alternatives of an apartment complex with different paving and planting systems. It also examines the thermal outcome of the alternatives under normal and extreme heat conditions to suggest strategies to secure acceptable thermal comfort levels for the inhabitants. Each alternative is analyzed using ENVI-met, a software program that simulates microclimate conditions and thermal comfort features based on relationships among buildings, vegetation and pavements.

The results indicate that grass paving was more effective than stone paving in lowering air temperature and improving thermal comfort at the near-surface level. Coniferous trees were found to be more effective than broadleaf trees in reducing temperature. Thermal comfort levels were most improved when coniferous trees were planted in paired settings.

Landscape elements show promise for the improvement of thermal conditions because it is much easier to redesign landscape elements, such as paving or planting, than to change fixed urban elements like buildings and roads. The results identified the potential of landscape design for improving microclimate and thermal comfort in urban residential complexes.

The results contribute to the literature by examining the effect of tree species and layout on thermal comfort levels, which has been rarely investigated in previous studies.

The purpose of this study is to consider how a local government authority may present a tree asset register of street trees for the decision-making of the authority's stakeholders.

Using the tenets of population density theory, urban form theory and social stratification theory, the approach of the study is to develop a tree asset register in a local government authority's setting that could be modelled using many different attributes to derive important information for decision-making purposes.

Tree asset registers represent a critical tool in managing street trees across local government authorities.

Although the efficacy of an asset tree register may be curtailed by lack of internal audit or yearly updates, the practical consequence of an asset tree register is that local administrators may use the register to gather summarised, organised and parsimonious measures of a wide range of environmental, historical, cultural, aesthetic and scientific values of street trees.

Tree asset registers affords ratepayers, developers, tree managers and valuers a technology to plan, coordinate and manage street trees to support ecosystem services.

Asset tree registers offer planners a means to bring about sustainable change management.

The originality of the study rests in introducing tree registers as a means to meet diverse strategies for street tree management by interested stakeholders.

How are our cities confronting the challenges posed by a warming climate, the loss of biodiversity, and the increasing urban heat island effect? ― This chapter discusses the opportunities and benefits of applying the concepts of renaturalization and rewilding of cities. It introduces nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban planning that are integrated with the aim to enhance urban resilience and to slow down the biodiversity decline, which can be applied in two areas: through the conception of new green neighborhoods and through the regeneration and regreening of existing but neglected parts of the city, such as postindustrial brownfields or economically weak districts.

Contact to nature is essential for human existence, urban well-being, and a good quality of life. Green spaces in cities – big or small – all contribute to health and well-being. However, many cities do not offer residents easy access to green space within the city. Improving better access and extending gardens and parks will deliver a large number of benefits, such as ecosystem services, better water management for enhanced urban flood control, and slowing down the biodiversity loss, with the potential to restore damaged ecosystems. Furthermore, additional green space and NBS help to keep cities cool during heat waves and improve the urban microclimate.

In this context, NBS and regreening can generate significant benefits for citizens, improve urban health and well-being, and offer an opportunity to effectively deploy nature to resolve major societal challenges ― such as social inclusion, food security, and disaster risk reduction. However, it is essential that the design of NBS is fully integrated with other complementary planning interventions and seeks synergies across all sectors.

Urbanization is characterized mainly by changes in land use and conversion of natural areas into built environments, as well as by a series of impacts, such as loss of biodiversity, which interfere with the proper functioning of ecological networks.

Thus, the authors apply a bibliometric analysis using the term “Urban Trees” in the “Web of Science” database, between 2009 and 2019, as a keyword to include all urban green structures and identify the main aspects of urban ecological relationships. They found 8,367 published articles.

This review identified the main countries and research institutions that operate in urban afforestation. In general, developing countries seek to understand the environmental benefits that urban afforestation can provide, demonstrating the importance of maintaining existing green areas in urban centers to promote the balance of the ecosystem. It depends directly on the flow of ecosystem services provided by green infrastructures in the city, contributing significantly to carbon sequestration, retention of particulate matter, mitigation of heat islands and reduction of surface runoff, directly favoring the health and well-being of the population. The authors conclude that the actions currently implemented in urban afforestation, especially to increase the richness and abundance of species, will be decisive for the future of urban centers and the construction of more sustainable and egalitarian cities.

This work sought to develop a bibliographic research based on information obtained by bibliometric analysis that has the ability to identify trends and volumes of scientific production in a given area of knowledge.

William R. Freudenburg conceived “the double diversion” as the simultaneous process of diverting environmental resources or rights shared by all to a small group of social actors, which was made possible by a second diversion – the acceptance of the taken-for-granted assumption that environmental harms benefit the common good. In doing so, Freudenburg was among the first to note the importance of looking at not only the distribution of environmental harms but also environmental privileges. In this chapter, we extend the conceptualization of the double diversion to include an instance where rather than framing environmental harm as being a public good, environmental action is framed as benefiting the public writ large, while larger issues of environmental injustice are ignored. In particular, we look at the disproportionate distribution of the urban tree canopy in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the framing of the mitigation of the environmental threat of the Asian Longhorned Beetle as a problem for the commons. Through an analysis of media, we demonstrate that organizations and social actors who have tried to address the effects of this particular ecological threat have nonetheless ignored previous disproportionalities in the environment–society relationship.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) generate different impacts at the urban scale, such as the ability to regulate water or store carbon, comparable to traditional, gray infrastructures in a more cost-efficient way. On the other hand, by their intrinsic nature, NBS do deliver a series of other services that are commonly defined as social, economic, and environmental cobenefits. These benefits are not always valued in a consistent and complete way, so there is the need to compile a more comprehensive evidence base on the social, economic, and environmental effectiveness of NBS. The chapter attempts to identify a categorization of the existing NBS and define the ecosystem services (ES) provided by them. Furthermore, starting from the results achieved through the definition of the existing NBS frameworks assessment, the chapter will identify a set of key performance indicators KPIs, based on the ES produced by NBS, to measure the economic, social, and environmental benefits generated in by NBS at the urban level taking into account their multifunctional character. In total, 66 key performance indicators have been individuated: 3 for provisioning services, 38 for regulating services, 17 for cultural services, and 8 for supporting services. Each indicator has been associated to a category of ES in order to measure and evaluate the performances of NBS implemented in cities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of peri‐urban forests to the process of urban growth. The article aims at providing a brief description of peri‐urban forests' contribution to the improvement of people's prosperity in urban centres by means of reducing the negative effects due to urbanisation and improving the standard of living. Design/methodology/approach – The article adopts a descriptive approach and not a specific methodology. It focuses on providing a general review about the usefulness of peri‐urban forests in relation to urban development. In addition, there are presented figures about the number of peri‐urban forests in Greece as well as forest management issues. Findings – The environmental importance of peri‐urban forests is highlighted as well as their contribution to the reduction of soil erosion and the protection of inhabited areas. It also presents their importance to social growth and to the change in land prices in areas adjacent to peri‐urban forests. Practical implications – The appointment of the usefulness of peri‐urban forests for the improvement of the standard of living in urban regions can influence peri‐urban forests' preservation and protection perspectives. Originality/value – This paper provides a general review of the points of view concerning the importance of peri‐urban forests for urban development and the difficulties in managing and protecting them related to administrative and institutional issues in Greece.

The purpose of this paper is to propose PlaceMaker as a method of urban analysis and design which both detects elements that do not feature in traditional mapping and which constitute the contemporary identity of the places, and identifies appropriate project interventions. In order to illustrate the method's potential, the final results of experimentation carried out in the Ramblas in Barcelona are presented.

The proposed method gathers, processes and reconstructs the data deriving from nominal, perceptual, graphic, photographic and video surveys, and compares these data with those provided by an analysis of expectations, an analysis of traditional cartography and two questionnaires administered to local inhabitants. The information collected during the phases of analysis constitutes the basis for constructing guidelines for sustainable design and planning. Two final complex maps – the first of analysis and the second of design – respectively, represent the identity of places and project interventions.

The design orientations took into account liveability, place identity, safety of this place and user preferences in order to mitigate the impact of globalization and achieve sustainable urban development. The experiment shows that the urban identity emerging in the analysis phases is not entirely sustainable: many factors are contributing to transforming it not only through changes in places, but also in habits and perceptions of the huge flow of people who use the Ramblas. The actions proposed are thus designed to enhance the identity of places, albeit not crystallizing it.

PlaceMaker is an original method which is intended for use as a support tool in integrated sustainable project design targeting place identity and as a tool for dynamic and complex place knowledge. The main potential beneficiaries are administrators, urban planners and designers and, in simplified form, citizens, tourists and place users.

This paper aims to assess factors that affect carbon sequestration on green roofs.

The most current academic literature related to carbon sequestration and green roofs carbon sequestration performance was reviewed.

Factors affecting carbon sequestration were discussed and classified into the following factors: plants, physical and maintenance factors. The authors’ findings are significant because they can be used to optimize green roofs performance for carbon sequestration.

Factors affecting carbon sequestration will optimize intensive green roofs performance.