Biomass Allometries for Urban Trees: A Case Study in Athens, Greece

Abstract

Urban street trees often exhibit distinct architectural characteristics compared to their counterparts in natural forests. Allometric equations for the stem (MS), branches (MB), and total dry aboveground biomass of urban trees (MT) were developed, based on 52 destructively sampled specimens, belonging to 10 different species, growing in the Municipality of Athens, Greece. Linear, log-linear, and nonlinear regression analyses were applied, and fit statistics were used to select the most appropriate model. The results indicated that diameter at breast height (D1.3) and tree height (H) are needed for accurately predicting MS, while MB may be estimated based on D1.3. To circumvent the caveat of the additivity property for estimating the biomass of different tree component, nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression (NSUR) was implemented. The 95% prediction intervals for MS, MB, and MT efficiently captured the variability of the sampled trees. Finally, the predictions were compared with estimates from i-Tree, the most widely used model suite for urban and rural forestry analysis, and a mean deviation of 134% (ranging from 3% to 520%) was reported. Therefore, in the absence of urban-specific allometries, the obtained empirical models are proposed for estimating biomass in street trees, particularly in cities with Mediterranean-like climatic influences.