Abstract
Urban forests provide many ecosystem services, such as reducing heat, improving air quality, treatment of stormwater, carbon sequestration, as well as biodiversity benefits. These benefits have resulted in increasing demand for urban forests and strategies to maintain and enhance this natural infrastructure. In response to a broader resilience strategy for Melbourne, Australia, we outline how a metropolitan-wide urban forest strategy (Living Melbourne) was developed, encompassing multiple jurisdictions and all land tenures. To this end, we mapped tree cover within the Melbourne metropolitan area, modelled potential habitat for some bird species, and investigated the role of tree cover for urban heat island mitigation. We outline the consultation and governance frameworks used to develop the strategy, the vision, goals and actions recommended, including canopy and shrub cover targets for different parts of the metropolitan area. The metropolitan-wide urban forest strategy acts as an overarching framework to guide local government authorities and various stakeholders towards a shared objective of increasing tree cover in Melbourne and we discuss the outcomes and lessons from this approach.
Highlights
It is atypical for urban forest strategies to be undertaken by coalitions of local government authorities (LGA)
In 2014, Resilient Melbourne was established as part of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC)
This senior stakeholder engagement was critical to the success of Living Melbourne as it provided the staff of stakeholder organisations, in particular LGAs, with a mandate to fully engage in the co-design process
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Acknowledging the many benefits of urban vegetation, and trees, many city municipal governments have responded through developing urban forest strategies and targets [11]. It is atypical for urban forest strategies to be undertaken by coalitions of local government authorities (LGA). Australia is no exception to the trends of both urban population growth and densification and responding through developing urban forest strategies. As with other Australian cities, Melbourne has a fragmented governance framework with no single metropolitan authority to coordinate action such as developing integrated urban forests. We describe and discuss the process behind developing a metropolitan-wide urban forest strategy for Melbourne, the rationale behind various elements and outline lessons learnt, from the perspective of the authors of that strategy
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