Abstract
Urban trees are an essential component of urban ecosystems, and management of this resource constitutes an essential element of urban open space management. However, municipal tree inventories in Sweden and elsewhere have received limited attention. It is unknown how common municipal tree inventories are in Sweden, factors governing whether a municipality has an inventory and what the inventories are used for. This study therefore sought to: Create an overview of the state of Swedish municipal tree inventories and determine how municipality size, green space budget and management organisation affect the presence and scope of municipal tree inventories. The research questions examined were: What is the current state of Swedish municipal tree inventories? and what affects the status of these municipal tree inventories? A survey with questions related to strategic and operational perspectives of municipal tree inventories, e.g. how they are conducted and used, together with questions relating to budget and potential use of consultants, was sent to all 290 Swedish municipalities. The response rate was 55.5%. The main findings were that municipality size affects whether a municipality has an urban tree inventory and that the municipal organisation form affects how inventories are used. The existence of an inventory also increased the probability of the municipality having a tree management plan. Based on these results we recommend further research related to strategic management perspectives of tree inventories.
Highlights
Research has clearly shown the importance of urban trees for sustainable urban development through their capacity for delivering numerous important ecosystem services, which include: Provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services and supporting services (Grahn and Stigsdotter 2003; Tyrväinen et al 2005; Gill et al 2007; Jones 2008; Morgenroth et al 2016; Dobbs et al 2017).Another concept gaining attention is ecosystem disservices, defined as Bfunctions or properties of ecosystems that are Management of urban trees is key to sustaining and increasing important ecosystem services (Dobbs et al 2017) and reducing the amount of ecosystem disservices (Lyytimäki 2017), and municipal tree inventories are the foundation on which management of urban trees is based (Kielbaso 2008; Miller et al 2015; Morgenroth et al 2016)
There is no overview of the current state of municipal tree inventories and there is a lack of understanding of how municipality size, green space budget and management organisation affect the presence and state of municipal tree inventories
The relationship between tree inventory and green space budget may be a prerequisite for good tree management, while organisational aspects might be important since there is an obvious need for an inventory if tree maintenance is outsourced (Lindholst 2009; Randrup and Persson 2009)
Summary
Research has clearly shown the importance of urban trees for sustainable urban development through their capacity for delivering numerous important ecosystem services, which include: Provisioning services (e.g. fuel and food), regulating services (e.g. stormwater management, urban heat island mitigation, air pollution regulation), cultural services (e.g. recreation, physical and mental health benefits) and supporting services (e.g. wildlife habitats) (Grahn and Stigsdotter 2003; Tyrväinen et al 2005; Gill et al 2007; Jones 2008; Morgenroth et al 2016; Dobbs et al 2017) Another concept gaining attention is ecosystem disservices, defined as Bfunctions or properties of ecosystems that are Management of urban trees is key to sustaining and increasing important ecosystem services (Dobbs et al 2017) and reducing the amount of ecosystem disservices (Lyytimäki 2017), and municipal tree inventories are the foundation on which management of urban trees is based (Kielbaso 2008; Miller et al 2015; Morgenroth et al 2016). Hauer and Peterson (2016) suggest that the execution of municipal tree inventories can be connected to factors such as size of the municipality, green space budget, or perceived need for the municipality to maintain a high number of urban trees and related records of tree removal and planting
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
