Exploring global scientific discourses on urban forestry

Abstract

The concept of urban forestry is addressed from a discursive perspective, with focus on identifying and describing various scientific discourses, their strength and development over time and on different continents. This work can help obtain a deeper understanding of the scientific discourses in terms of identifying research trends and reasons behind these trends, as a possible way forward for research. Scientific publications (N=519) issued during the period 1988–2014 (and as listed in the SCOPUS database) were analysed with the aims to 1) systematically identify and describe scientific urban forestry discourses, 2) discuss implications of these findings for scientific practice, and 3) propose ways forward. Six discourses of various strength and geographical distribution were identified. Scientific production was found to be dominated by North American and European authors with modest contributions from authors from other continents. Scientific discourses proved mostly expert driven and reflecting the positivist scientific paradigm. Prevailingly managerial orientation and absence of qualitative approaches indicate a lack of deeper understanding of human-environment relations. Studies related to active participation of citizens and partnerships in urban forestry have been missing. More emphasis should be placed on the testing of existing, and developing new methods and modalities of public participation, and on the value of civic involvement for the decision making. Moreover, a more solid evidence base is needed for benefits from urban forests, while economic aspects of biodiversity and other ecosystem services are still insufficiently explored. Study findings also call for more research on urban forest governance and relation between urban forest benefits and existing policies (e.g. climate change adaptation, energy policy or health).