What are the benefits of urban forests?

They are dynamic ecosystems that provide critical benefits to people and wildlife.

urban forests

help filter air and water, control stormwater, conserve energy, and provide habitat and shade for animals. They add beauty, form and structure to urban design. Urban forests provide valuable ecosystem services, such as eliminating air pollution, carbon storage, oxygen production and preventing runoff.

Species distribution and tree size are important factors that control the present and future supply of these ecosystem services. Considerable attention is needed in forest establishment selection, protection and management of species to meet current and future demands for ecosystem services. Demand for these ecosystem services is increasing in urban population centers. However, development strategies often encompass natural spaces rather than renovating existing (underutilized) spaces, since new development is less costly than.

Urban forests need management and protection strategies to meet the challenge this presents. The quantification and valuation of ecosystem services are tools that urban forest managers can use to protect mature and high-value trees during development planning. Other benefits of urban forests, such as improved health, emotional well-being and energy savings, should also be included in any assessment of urban forests. Urban environments can contribute to mental fatigue and stress.

Including trees in urban areas can create a restorative and peaceful environment that helps people recover from stress and fatigue. Urban forests can have a positive impact on cities and, especially, on their population. They can contribute to people's physical and mental health by creating spaces for physical activity and cushioning stress. In addition, they can improve air quality by eliminating harmful pollutants, as well as reducing noise.

From a social standpoint, urban forests can support local livelihoods, improve community cohesion, increase food security for marginalized communities, promote urban residents' connection with nature, and improve equity. For example, small land areas reused in pocket parks with trees and seats can become spaces for social interaction. Urban forests, or community forests, are defined as a collection of trees in cities and suburban areas. These forests are estimated to cover 35.1% of urban areas in the United States.

They include trees in residential properties, along city streets, and those planted in parks. Urban trees create 7% reduction in energy used to heat and cool U, S. Researchers in the state of North Carolina continue to find that spending more time in nature can improve mental health. Trees help us relax and urban forests create valuable outdoor spaces for recreation, says Bardon.

Studies have also shown that urban forests help hospital patients recover more quickly. Patients who stay in rooms with windows and views of the surrounding trees recover faster than those who don't have these views, according to Bardon. A mature tree can absorb 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, about the equivalent of driving 50 miles. This carbon remains in the tissues of the tree until it burns or breaks down.

Trees significantly reduce runoff by absorbing water through their roots. In fact, runoff from an area covered by an impermeable surface is five times greater than that of a forest basin of the same size. Reducing runoff leads to better water quality by reducing the amount of contaminated runoff entering our waterways. Urban forests also reduce flood risk and promote groundwater restoration.

In addition to providing economic benefits at the community level, trees also benefit individual owners. Healthy urban forests are also correlated with higher incomes, says Bardon. Academic and Student Services (91) 515-6191 General Inquiries (91) 515-2883. Trees affect energy consumption by shading buildings, providing evaporative cooling, and blocking winter winds. In the summer months, trees tend to reduce the building's energy consumption directly by blocking solar heat gain, which reduces the need for air conditioning.

Trees can indirectly cool urban areas through evapotranspiration, a natural fogging effect, as they release water through their leaves. During the winter months, trees serve as windbreaks, preventing cold air from blowing against buildings. By directly and indirectly reducing the use of heating and cooling energy, urban forests indirectly help improve air quality and reduce carbon emissions. Recognize that the urban environment is a dynamic and complex landscape, where socio-ecological processes interact to provide multiple ecosystem services at multiple scales.

First, urban trees grow in difficult conditions: they are constantly exposed to pollutants, high temperatures, droughts and floods, and the limited space in which they have to grow roots increases susceptibility to insects and diseases. It is also an urban ecosystem, a complex human-environment system, which requires understanding to ensure sustainable urban planning. Urban trees provide physical, mental, emotional and psychological benefits to urban residents (humans and wildlife) and increase the beauty and aesthetics of their local environment and reduce the crime rate, as well as a myriad of other social problems. Another is that municipalities often lack the technical skills and resources they need to manage urban forests.

The Uforest project aims to promote Europe's capacity for innovation among universities, cities and companies to offer a new approach to urban forestry. For example, the arrival of skyscrapers at the end of the 19th century, which soon after lined urban horizons with steel, concrete and glass, has had a direct influence on the need for nearby tree life. This is because they apply to a more modern demographic group, a global community whose desire to have urban forests stems from their aesthetic, environmental, economic and social benefits. We recently spoke with Robert Bardon, associate dean of extension at the College of Natural Resources, to learn more about the many environmental, economic and social benefits these forests provide.

In any city, urban forests seem like a simple idea; however, planning and ongoing maintenance of an urban forest can be quite complicated. Urban forests come in different shapes and sizes, including urban parks, street trees, greenways, river corridors, gardens and wetlands. . .