A Study on Street Tree Maintenance: Focusing on Suseong-gu, Daegu in South Korea

Abstract

Purpose: In urban society, street trees are closely related to our lives. However, many people do not recognize the existence and necessity of street trees on ordinary days. This study investigated the changes in the growth of street trees exposed to environmental damage and artificial management due to street maintenance. This paper aims to provide necessary data for street tree management by analyzing changes in the growth of street trees according to the road size in terms of temporal change and management of street trees.
 Method: Field surveys were conducted from June to September 2021 to identify the direction of maintenance for street trees by road size. The researchers collected and analyzed data on street tree roads and basic plan data on street trees in Suseong-gu in 1997. This paper conducted One-way ANOVA by six items(tree height, root-collar diameter, crown width, diameter at breast height, degree of tree health, and degree of environmental damage). Microsoft Office Excel 2007 program and Spss Statistics 21 statistical program were used for statistical analysis.
 Results: As a result of analyzing the current state of street trees in 2021 and the change amount by road size in 1997 data, on average, the tree height increased by 5.4m, the root-collar diameter increased by 22.3cm, the crown width increased by 2.1m, and the diameter at breast height increased by 12.8cm. The degree of tree health decreased by 0.2 points, and the degree of environmental damage decreased by 1.1 points.
 Conclusion: The tree form of street trees did not have a natural tree shape due to artificial management, and street trees were damaged due to lack of management and damage from surrounding shops. The analysis results show that the appearance of street trees has grown, but street trees' growth aspects(tree health, environmental damage) have regressed due to incorrect pruning work with tall trees according to laws and ordinances. This paper suggests that street trees' species selection and improvement supplement work should be done through continuous research in the future, and systematic and efficient management should be continuously carried out for satisfaction with street trees and pedestrians.