Information for urban forest planning and management

Abstract

Different traditions of management, planning and design of urban forests and other green spaces each have their own specific information needs and knowledge cultures (see Chap. 13). Management strategies provide a framework for management decisions, based on available information, which means that reliable, comparable and up-to-date information is crucial for decision making. The need for reliable information on various aspects of urban forest resources and their use has led to the development of different methods, tools and systems to help collect, compile and use available information. Information in urban forestry is needed to develop management concepts (see Chap. 13), make policy decisions (see Chap. 5), to determine the benefits of urban green space (see Chap. 4), to determine how green space should look (see Chap. 6), to decide which trees to plant where and how (see Chap. 9-12), and for many other reasons. However, depending on its purpose information is needed on different scales and in different levels of detail. Local, more detailed information about, for example: tree and plant species, the number of users, and management costs, is primarily useful for green-space and tree management. An overview of all green space in a city is more useful for city development plans and city green-space policies. Information on national or even international level can be used in urban development strategies, health strategies, etc. Besides the difference in scale, information is quite often available and used for certain topics only. For example, information on the biodiversity of a city's green spaces can be available and used in great detail, while information on environmental benefits such as reduction of air-pollution is virtually non-existent in the same city. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.