Abstract
Knowledge about urban forests in Poland is still limited, as it is primarily based on aggregate, formal data relating to the general area, ignoring the spatial dimension and informal green areas. This article describes and analyses spatio-temporal changes in the actual urban forest resources in Wrocław in 1944–2017, which covers the first period of the city’s rebuilding after its destruction during World War II and its development during the nationalised, centrally-planned socialist economy, as well as the second period of intensive and only partly controlled growth under conditions of market economy. The study is based on current and historical orthophotomaps, which were confronted with cartographic data, as well as planning documents. We found that between 1944 and 2017, the percentage contribution of informal woodlands increased tenfold (from 0.5 to 4.9% of the present total area of the city). The area occupied by such forests has grown particularly during the most recent years of the city’s intensive development. However, the forests have been increasingly fragmented. During the first period, new forest areas were also created in the immediate vicinity of the city centre, while during the second one, only in its peripheral sections. The post-war plans regarding the urban green spaces (UGS), including the current plan, are very conservative in nature. On the one hand, this means no interference with the oldest, biggest, and most valuable forest complexes, but on the other hand, insufficient consideration of the intensive built-up area expansion on former agriculture areas. Only to a limited extent did the above-mentioned plans take into account the informal woodlands, which provide an opportunity for strengthening the functional connectivity of landscape.
Highlights
During the last century, urbanisation processes have accelerated rapidly, as a result of which over half of the global population is currently living in urban areas [1,2], and the rate in Europe is predicted to reach 83% in 2050 [3]
The goal of this article is to (1) analyse the spatio-temporal changes in urban forests in Wrocław from the completion of the steps related to the creation of a comprehensive urban greenery system, through the city’s reconstruction after World War II (WWII) and its development during the period of centralised socialist economy, until the period of transformation and formation of a modern city in free-market economy (1989–2018); (2) examine the urban development plans of 1924, 1998, and 2018 in terms of formation of urban forest resources and structure, as well as their connection with the city’s green system
In 1994, the corresponding figures amounted to 0.27 ha and 0.38 ha, and in 2016, nearly 0.23 ha and 0.37 ha. This shows that taking into account or not taking into account of informal woodlands has a significant impact on the trend in changes to Wrocław’s tree cover
Summary
Urbanisation processes have accelerated rapidly, as a result of which over half of the global population is currently living in urban areas [1,2], and the rate in Europe is predicted to reach 83% in 2050 [3]. Urban forests that create islands in the fragmented urban environment are the most common natural habitats in urban areas [10] Their resources are small when compared with the total forest area in Europe, they offer many benefits and services to society [11,12]. Forests and green areas greatly contribute to the adaptation of urban areas to climate changes, [13,14,15,16,17,18], as well as to the protection of biodiversity [16,19,20] They provide economic benefits in the form of increased real property prices [21,22,23,24] and a number of socio-cultural services [16,25,26] essential for the well-being of humans [27]. Forests improve physical health and mental well-being [28,29,30,31]
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