Chapter 12 - Climate change and urban forests

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Climate change impacts us all regardless of whether we live in a city or not. Trees and greenspace have the ability to provide relief from climate change impacts like the urban heat island. Given global urbanization trends, where approximately 68% of the global population will reside in cities by 2050, the most common direct human experience of forests will occur in cities. The urban forest (all trees within a city’s boundaries) has no direct analog in rural forestry. Trees in cities are heavily influenced by anthropogenic factors, both direct and indirect. Within any given city there are different types of greenspaces containing trees. These include street trees, trees in landscaped parks, residential trees, and forested natural areas. Our changing climate impacts each of these in different ways. Consequently, different strategies are needed to make these greenspaces more resilient and to maximize ecosystem services to reduce climate change impacts to the people who live in cities. Many cities are establishing canopy cover goals and are creating new greenspaces. In many cities the majority of trees can be found within forested natural areas, places that look and behave much like rural forests. To manage this urban forest-type cities are beginning to consider a systems approach to management or the creation of an urban silviculture which is modeled after rural silvicultural practices but will necessarily take into account the intense anthropogenic factors that occur in cities. Lastly, thinking of the urban forest as a social–ecological system, which is increasingly impacted by climate change, helps inform management and practice in profound ways that go beyond biophysical considerations.