Community perceptions of ecosystem services and disservices linked to urban tree plantings

Abstract

The planting of trees in streets and parks is critical for urban greening efforts that seek to improve climate-change resilience in cities around the world. Ecosystem services provided by urban trees range from mitigating urban heat island effects to enhancing human well-being and conserving native biodiversity. At the same time, such tree services trade off with disservices that include risk to human safety from falling branches and infrastructure damage from root growth. Here, we performed a survey of residents of a sub-tropical region in eastern Australia to determine community perceptions of the ecosystem services and disservices linked to urban tree plantings. Our aim was to better understand the diverse perceptions of the community, prior to on-the-ground implementation of urban greening, to help guide planting programs in streets and parklands that are vulnerable to UHI effects in the region. We found strong evidence for a high level of public awareness about the beneficial ecosystem services that urban trees can provide. A broad spectrum of beneficial tree services were valued highly by the community in their urban environment including the planting of native trees that can attract and provide food for preferred wildlife; provide shade and reduce heat; allow for a strong connection with nature; have the potential to store carbon to mitigate climate change; provide a level of protection from bushfires; have aesthetically pleasing properties; and produce food for people. At the same time, however, community concerns about tree disservices were concentrated primarily on root damage to infrastructure as well as property damage and injury from falling branches. Our elicitation of community attitudes to tree services and disservices will allow for residents’ most important values and strongest concerns about trees to be explicitly taken into account when establishing a community-inclusive approach to urban tree planting.