Benefits of urban forest slides
- 1. URBAN FORESTS OF THE WORLD Group Members: NG SHI HUI NOR ATIQAH JAMALUDDIN SITI SHUHADA MOKTHAR INTAN NOORANISA BT MASUD JOYCE LING SHIN YING
- 2. ABSTRACT Urban forests play important roles in our environmental and economic benefits in the form of purifying the air, mitigating climate change, purifying water into ground by removing the pollutants collected, reduced heating by shading buildings and etc. Urban forests are reserved and protected through urban forestry, careful care and management of urban forests. However, there are some challenges facing by the urban foresters today such as climate change rapidly in different countries, pollution and etc. Although there are such many challenges that haven’t been recovered so far, but the improvement of urban forestry is still going on because urban forests have bring a variety of benefits not only to our environment and also in economic.
- 3. KEYWORDS Urban; forest; benefits; importance; environment; challenges; Malaysia; Finland; Australia
- 4. INTRODUCTION Urban forest issue is not a new concept, but it does have growing potential. Although the term “urban forestry” was invented in the 20th century, but researchers have found the proof about the urban forestry in some of the world’s oldest civilizations. Urban forestry was theorized in the late 1960s in North America, and it was originally termed as environmental forestry. Miller defined the urban forestry as an incorporated, city wide method to the planting, care and management of trees in the city to protect multiple environmental and social benefits for urban inhabitants.
- 5. In more detailed definition, we can understand it as follows, “Urban forestry is the management of trees for their contribution to the physiological, sociological, and economic well-being of urban society. Urban forestry deals with woodlands, groups of trees, and individual trees, where people live - it is multifaceted, for urban areas include a great variety of habitats (streets, parks, derelict corners, etc) where trees bestow a great variety of benefits and problems.” Denne, pers. comm. (adapted from Grey and Deneke, 1986)
- 6. The early Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Chinese and Romans all concerned for greenspaces within the expanses of their protuberant cities. Some of them build gardens and groves around their places of worship and planted trees around buildings. During middle age urban green spaces such as botanical gardens were cultivated for medicinal purposes and scientific experiments in Renaissance. Then, in Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, botanical gardens were cultivated as arboriculture and horticulture. In the 1800s, the design of landscape began to gain more attention in Paris, as a military strategy to regulate troop movement and offer defensive structures.
- 7. In the 19th century, American becomes the first horticultural societies. By the middle of the century, the effort to start using Native American trees and plants such as maples, oaks and elms was leading by Andrew Jackson Downing in place of imported species. He also collaborated with Frederick Olmsted, who is known as the father of landscape architecture and urban parks and their contemporaries continued into the 20th century, as community forestry and urban forestry in America had grown further.
- 8. In this report, we elaborate our research findings about the benefits of urban forest in developing counties such as Malaysia, Finland and Australia. Besides, we also explain the importance of urban forest, state on how to apply the urban forest and discuss the current issue or challenges on implementing the urban forest in the developing countries. Next, we also discuss and conclude overall information based on our research findings and we also give some suggestion or idea for improvements regarding urban forest.
- 9. DISCUSSION From the reading research that we have done, we found out that the advantages of urban forest outweigh the disadvantages of urban forest. The high appreciation of the amenity benefits of urban forests and the low priority given to the timber production function stress the importance and need for multi-objective urban forest policies and management plans in Finnish municipalities. Numerous benefits of forests and trees in an urban environment have been variously reported (Table 1).
- 11. Making trees a visible part of your city's infrastructure is one of today's public works challenges. Municipal forestry programs that provide the benefits residents want from their trees while not straining city budgets usually have three things in common (Table 2):
- 13. CONCLUDING REMARKS Construction of urban forest provides many positive implications. For example, urban forest assist in controlling environmental pollution, recreation, learning, beautify the environment and help the climate change that occurred in certain areas. In Malaysia, Finland and Australia, urban forest helps to beautify the surroundings and hence it act as a park or recreation area for the people living in that area.
- 14. In addition, for countries like Finland and Australia, the existence of urban forests helps in controlling climate change that happens there. For example, the urban forest in Finland acts as wind protection. In Australia, the Evergreen trees contribute to reduce the cooling costs during the hotter season through shading and evapotranspiration. Other than that, urban forest in Malaysia, Finland and Australia assist in protecting the environment and reduce the environmental pollution. Furthermore, the existence of the urban forest is to educate the public about its importance.
- 15. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION 1. Ng Shi Hui •Did the Title, Abstract, Keywords and Content of report •Compilation of report 2. Siti Shuhada Mokthar •Did the Introduction of report 3. Nor Atiqah Jamaluddin •Did the Content and Reference of the report
- 16. 4. Intan Nooranisa binti Masud •Did the Content and Concluding remarks of the report 5. Joyce Ling Shin Ying •Did the Discussion and Author Contribution of report •Did the presentation slides.
- 17. REFERENCES Clive L. Justice. The Concept of the Urban Forest As Applied to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1986. C.L Brack. Pollution Mitigation and Carbon Sequencetration by an Urban Forest in Canberra, Australia. Journal of Environmental Pollution. 2002, 116, S195-S200. Grey, G.W. and Deneke, F.J. Urban Forestry; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: New York, 1978. L.Tryvainen. Economic Valuation of Urban Forest Benefits in Vantaa, Finland. Journal of Environmental Management. 2001, 62, 75-92.
- 18. Nowak, D.J.; Crane, D.E.; and Stevens, J.C. Air Pollution Removal by Urban Trees and Shrubs in the United States. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening. 2006, 4, 115-123. Nowak, D.J. and Crane, D.E. Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Urban Trees in the USA. Environmental Pollution. 2002, 116, 381-389. Tree Planting. The New Jersey Forester. 1895, 1(3), 31. U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Forest Service. Pacific Southwest Research Station. Northeast Community Tree Guide: Benefits, Costs and Strategic Planting. (accessed Oct. 15, 2012)
- 19. U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Forest Service. Pacific Southwest Research Station. Center for Urban Forest Research. Urban Forest Research March 2001. (accessed Oct. 15, 2012). Y. F. Lee, J. Ligunjang& S.C. Yong. Urban Forestry Its Relevance To Tourism Development in Sabah. Forestry Department, Sabah, Malaysia. 2004.