Happy Christmas from the EFUF team! Our Christmas present to our followers is the extended deadline for submitting abstracts for the upcoming EFUF2020 conference in Manchester.
Please see our original post on the topics and requirements.
Title: Health Benefits of City Trees: Research Evidence & Economic Values
Date & Time: Tuesday, 19 November, 7:00PM BST, 8:00PM CEST, 9:00PM EEST.
Dear Colleagues:
An ever-growing, international body of research points to many human health and wellness benefits that result from nearby nature experiences. But what about trees? Two recent reviews have explored, first, the studies that focus on the urban forest and health response, and second, on the economics of human health effects. In this webinar, co-sponsored by Utah State University Forestry Extension and the Tree Fund, Dr. Kathleen Wolf will share the highlights of both reviews.
View Dr. Wolf’s research focused on human dimensions of urban forestry and urban ecosystems at www.naturewithin.info; and the Green Cities: Good Health project at: www.greenhealth.washington.edu
Presented by: Dr Kathleen Wolf, Research Social Scientist, College of the Environment , University of Washington – Seattle.
Where: PRE-REGISTRATION is required for this session in order to provide the most streamlined user experience. TO REGISTER, PLEASE VISIT https://extension.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TMumkji3S9-t5Jih7FJUSw
The 2020 European Forum on Urban Forestry invites researchers and urban forest professionals to submit abstracts for contributions. This includes – but is not limited to – applied as well as academic research, and perspectives/experience reports of professionals and practitioners. EFUF emphasizes the connection of practice and scientific knowledge, encouraging a variety of possible formats to contribute to the conference.
In 2020 we are encouraging contributions that explore the urban forest through three themes:
We accept oral talks, posters and other non-commercial contributions. Abstracts (maximum 2500 characters including spaces) are only accepted in English language. They must not include figures, tables or attachment and should be related to one of the above themes. Deadline for submission is 1st of February 2020 (extended deadline).
For abstract submission, please use the online system: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=efuf2020. You will have to setup an account (accounts from previous conferences can be re-used).
The programme committee will determine whether a work will be accepted for presentation, considering the significance and/or the innovative character of the contribution. Authors will be informed on the acceptance of their contribution by the 21st of February 2020.
At least one of the authors should register for the conference, and should have their fee settled by 30 April 2020.
Read the flyer for more details.
Attendance at EFUF 2020 is also an opportunity to learn more about the new Sino-Europe CLEARING HOUSE project which is exploring the role of urban forestry as a nature based solution. Key team members will be present to answer your questions and explain more about the four year project.
August 2019 UF Webinar
Title: Quantifying Rainfall Interception in the Urban Canopy
Date & Time: Wednesday, 14 August, 6:00PM BST, 7:00PM CEST, 8:00PM EEST.
Urban stormwater is a major contributor to surface water degradation, prompting cities to invest in green infrastructure – methods that naturally capture, store, and slowly release runoff, such as urban trees.
While rainfall interception for full canopy environments is well studied, limited research is available that characterizes the interception of open-grown trees, which are commonly found in urban areas.
Join Jon Hathaway as he shares preliminary results from his research that studies the effect of rainfall event duration, intensity and seasonal variations on the interception potential of urban trees in Knoxville Tennessee.
Presenter: Jon Hathaway, University of Tennessee, USDA Forest Service National Urban Forest Technology & Science Delivery Team
Connect to the webinar via the following link 15 minutes before start of Webinar:
![European Forum on Urban Forestry [EFUF] 2019 – Conference summary](https://efuf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dsc_0698-scaled.jpg)
Summary written by Clive Davies, Chair of EFUF International Steering Group.
Following a welcome reception on the previous evening in the Brauhaus Paeffgen; delegates attending EFUF2019 (held at the German Sport University in Cologne, Germany from the 22 – 25th May 2019), were, following an opening ceremony, welcomed to the Forum by dignitaries representing the Ministry for Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection of the Federal State of North Rhine Westphalia, the City of Cologne and the German Sport University, Cologne. In her speech, the Lord Mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker, highlighted how important the greenspaces and forests of the city are, and that along with the River Rhine and the City’s long and notable history, are the ‘signatures’ of the city.
The venue for EFUF 2019, the German Sport University, Cologne is located within the City’s greenbelt and is abundantly provided with urban trees and also offers direct access to many paths and trails. As Renate Späth, one of the organiser’s said, on her first visit to the campus, “I was completely struck about how ideal the venue was for EFUF – a university located in the middle of an urban forest”. Indeed, the location was good given that most of the excursions during the Forum were undertaken directly from the University on foot or bicycle.
The first plenary speaker, Dr Joachim Bauer, from the City of Cologne, gave a wide overview along with a detailed historical explanation of the City’s green infrastructure, especially focused on the urban forest. Repeated instances of the creation and subsequent de-militarisation of training and defence areas especially after the 1st and 2nd World Wars had given the city an outstanding green infrastructure network. The result is that there are now three discernible green belts, most visible in the west of the city (left bank) comprised of an inner ring, outer ring and more recently a peripheral ring the latter devised in cooperation with adjacent local administrations.
On the first day of the Forum three plenary presentations by Roland Gustavsson, Arne Arnberger, Michela Conigliaro & Fabio Salbitano focused delegates’ attention on landscape and forest laboratories, urban outdoor health benefits and the outcomes of the WFUF meeting in Mantova in November 2018 respectively. Key points to emerge from Roland Gustavsson was that landscape and forest laboratories are ideal areas to ‘test drive the urban forest’, that woodlands ‘between 10 and 20 years old have as many teenager problems as young people do’ and that (in jest) ‘whereas a forester loves his chainsaw an urban forester loves forest design’. A key point to emerge from Arne Arnberger was that the journey ‘to and from’ an area of outdoor recreation, provide many of the benefits in terms of exercise and recreation and are hence, an equal part of the recreation and health benefits, especially if this return journey is undertaken on a green route. Michela Conigliaro and Fabio Salbitano talked about the first World Forum on Urban Forestry (WFUF) held in Mantova in November 2018. They drew attention to the ‘call for action’ issued at that meeting saying that it should be considered as a manifesto for cities and announced that a second World Forum on Urban Forestry will take place in 2022. In the meantime, it is planned to hold an annual workshop in Milan, Italy. Later on, day 1 delegates moved out of doors for excursions in the urban forest.
On the first evening the annual meeting of the EFUF International Steering Group (ISG) was held. The organisers had earlier apologized to delegates as the published programme had implied this was a private rather than an open meeting. The latter was true. The ISG meeting discussed amongst other items; venues for future Forums up to 2024, a possible Urban Forestry presence along with others at Floriade 2022 in the Netherlands, ‘how to organise an EFUF’ guidelines and potential future governance arrangements for EFUF.
Day 2 of EFUF 2019 started with a plenary session with speakers, Frank Lohrberg, Bianca Bärlocher and Lorien Nesbit. Frank Lohrberg introduced the Waldlabor (woodland laboratory) in the Cologne greenbelt and invited delegates to visit the site where students from France and Germany were working on projects to coincide with the Forum. Bianca Bärlocher focused on public narratives, collective actions and digital story-telling and used the person of Naomi Zürcher – a well-known EFUF attendee – to tell a digital story. Finally, in this session Lorien Nesbit spoke about co-creation, nature-based solutions and urban green equity.
After the day 2 plenary session had finished, poster presenters had one minute each to present their poster. Twenty-four (24) posters were available for viewing in the University lobby throughout the duration of the Forum. Delegates were overheard commenting that the standard of posters was extremely high, both in terms of presentation and intellect.
The core part of each EFUF is the parallel sessions. This year more than 50 speakers, across nine streams and over two days gave oral presentations. Many of the speakers represented larger groups of researchers and/or practitioners. Each session had a theme and were chaired by an eminent person in each field.
In addition to the parallel sessions, there was also an outdoor demonstration led by Steffen RUST (University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Göttingen, Germany); a side session titled: ‘A stick or a carrot?’ – How can cities retain existing trees and plant more trees on private lands? convened by Camilo ORDÓÑEZ (University of Melbourne, Australia); an excursion to the nature reserve Wahner Heide and Gut Leidenhausen; a session titled the ‘Learning Forest – Environmental Education’ at Gut Leidenhausen led by Stefanie STEINEBACH (University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Göttingen, Germany) & Anna COKER (Office for Landscape Management and Green Areas of the City of Cologne) and a ‘Forest Mind Workshop’ at Gut Leidenhausen with Katriina KILPI (ForestMinded, Belgium & Finland).
On day 3, in the final session of EFUF 2019, Clive Davies, Chair of the EFUF International Steering Group summarised key outcomes from EFUF 2019 and thanked the principal support organisations by name: the Municipality of Cologne – Office for Landscape Management and Green Areas; the German Sport University Cologne; RWTH Aachen University – Institute of Landscape Architecture; Ministry for Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection of the Federate State of North Rhine-Westphalia; University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Göttingen; and the European Forest Institute (EFI). He thanked all delegates whether they were presenters or not for their input and special mention went to Rik De Vresse, his colleagues at EFI Bonn and the students from IFSA for their conference organisation and unstinting helpfulness.
Alan Simson then presented the venue and themes for EFUF 2020. This will be held at the ‘Innside’ Manchester (north west England) between the 19th and 22nd May 2020. The conference themes will be based around issues of ‘resilience’. Delegates were urged to block out these dates in their diaries and also book early to avoid disappointment.
Clive Davies then presented the prestigious award of European Young Urban Forester of the Year (sponsored by MD2 Consulting Ltd and Urban Forestry & Urban Greening Journal) to Thomas Campagnaro and a certificate of commendation to Rocco Pace; both of whom had been very strong candidates.
Finally, Frank Lohrberg invited delegates to visit the Waldlabor to see the results of the students work and enjoy some food and local beer. Following lunch, delegates walked to the Waldabor. The visit was very well received, and the students had created many interesting installations within the energy forest areas. They clearly enjoyed spending time together and their enthusiasm was very clearly demonstrated.
For those who had booked, on Saturday 25th May there was a post conference excursion to Drachenfels near Bonn and a visit to the EFI Bonn offices for a presentation on the work of the Institute.
This summary is not conference proceedings.
Photo credits to: Joshua Amaitum, Andreas Bernasconi, Vera Knill, Silvio Oggioni, Maria Schlossmacher, Annebel Soer
Extended information on the venue, excursion sites and presentations, including abstracts, can be found at the EFUF2019 website. For further pictures, check the EFUF Facebook site. Stay tuned and see you in EFUF2020 Manchester!
A recent study by Boston University suggests that “tree planting initiatives alone may not be sufficient to maintain urban canopies”.
Ian Smith and his colleagues indicate that “efforts to aid in the establishment and preservation of tree health are imperative for increasing urban tree cover and maximizing the wide range of ecosystem services provided by the urban canopy”.
Check out the short summary by The Public Library of Science for a quick overview of their research!
This post has been written by Itziar Aguinaga Gil and was orginally published at EFI’s Resilience Blog.
Every couple of years, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO) publishes a series of reports under the name of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO). These documents compile current information on key issues concerning the forest sector to facilitate decision-making and management processes in relation to the world’s forests.
The last SOFO, published in 2018, for the first time ever discusses the role of urban forests under the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In response to the accelerated urbanisation coupled with climate change dynamics, urban forests are viewed as a valuable contribution to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” (SDG 11). Both in theory and practice, urban forests and trees have a positive impact on urban environmental conditions and citizens´ livelihoods and well-being.
The potential value of urban forests for urban areas depends on whether their management is integrated in the urban planning dynamics early on. An early integration allows an equitable distribution of green areas across the urban landscape and enhances the resilience of the city on the long run. As such, the city should invest in financial resources to provide the proper implementation of urban forestry projects and its monitoring over time.
Several tools have been developed to quantify the environmental and sociocultural benefits of urban forests and trees. For instance, i-Tree Eco, a software developed by the US Forest Service, is considered one of the most promising tools to assess both the composition and ecosystem services provided by urban forests and trees in monetary terms. Thanks to this tool, it has been estimated that the annual pollution removal effect of urban trees in London is worth 126 million GBP (Rogers et al., 2015).
Another tool to evaluate the benefits of urban forests is to assess the tree cover of cultural heritage sites that include natural elements. In fact, many cultural sites (which also embrace UNESCO World Heritage Sites) tend to have a high percentage of forest and tree cover that is highly valued by its visitors. This aesthetic benefit can greatly contribute to the sense of identity and attachment of urban dwellers by creating positive connections with local landmarks.
Urban forests and trees are also considered as an important factor enhancing local biodiversity. They provide habitats for numerous species and provide natural networks within the fragmented urban landscape. The importance of restoring local biodiversity through urban greening is evident in the light of the increase of urban natural protected areas during the last 15 years in countries like Germany, South Korea and Brazil (WDPA, 2017). Such areas do not only provide cities with ecosystem services, but also allow citizens to connect with natural habitats. Human-nature connections weaken over time in urban settings, and thus, urban natural protected areas help to “provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces” (SDG 11.7).
In addition, together with cultural heritage sites, natural protected areas and safe and accessible green spaces such as urban forests contribute to the sense of belonging and identification of local communities. This may translate, among others, into improved well-being of citizens through enhancing recreational actives and aesthetic values.
In a nutshell, urban citizens have more demands, but cities’ capacities are declining, so local surroundings need to improve through adequate urban planning. When positively integrated and monitored, urban forests can contribute to the sustainable development of cities by upgrading the livelihoods and well-being of urban dwellers. The benefits come both in the form of additional ecosystem services and improved socio-cultural factors.
There are many success stories around the world involving forests and cities, yet there may be more win-win solutions to come!
Would you like to learn more on how urban forests contribute to liveable cities? Check out the latest news through the European Forum on Urban Forestry 2019 at http://2019.efuf.org.
For further reading: check out guidelines on urban forestry and inspiring stories around the world.
The Nature of Cities TNOC Summit will take place in Paris during 4-7 June 2019. Seed and skill sessions, paired dialogues, workshops and field trips are on the agenda of this international platform for transdisciplinary dialogue on urban solutions. The topics include inter-alia urban greening, ecosystem services provided by urban trees, smarter trees, green justice, participation and nature-based solutions.
TNOC Summit is all about sparking conversations for knowledge exchange and collaborative networking. It aims to build a movement for green cites where resilience, sustainability, health, livability, and environmental justice are addressed. As such, TNOC Summit provides an arena where different professionals like leaders, practitioners, policy makers and academics interact and work towards common grounds.
If you are interested in getting involved in the latest discussions about solutions to urban challenges, make sure to stay tuned and register for the event!
Early bird registrations open until 8 April
Proposals for short talks and posters open until 15 April
Title: i-Tree 2019 Workshop Series: I-TREE QUICK TOPICS WORKSHOP
Date & Time: Thursday, 28 March, 5:00PM BST, 6:00PM CEST, 7:00PM EEST.
The workshop will focus on the top three ideas expressed during February’s Round Table.
i-Tree allows any community to conduct and analyze a sample, or complete street tree inventory data, and make estimates of the structure, function, and value of these components of your Urban Forest. Baseline data can be used to effectively manage the resource, develop policy and set priorities. Looking at information collected on existing street trees, this software allows managers to evaluate current benefits, costs, and management needs. These sessions are very informative, providing important feedback to the i-Tree team, and allow your ideas to be brought into future planning efforts. Please be sure to join us for this informative Workshop.
PRE-REGISTRATION is required for this session in order to provide the most streamlined user experience. TO REGISTER, PLEASE VISIT
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/i-tree-workshop-series-march-2019-session-tickets-59127482893?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MTYxNjEyNjcvdHJlZXJhcEBzcHJpbnRtYWlsLmNvbS8w%0A&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformalv2&utm_term=attend
there is a place
where children who have never walked, find freedom
where children who have never talked, find words
and more often than not, where every child finds a smile
In this blogpost, we celebrate the 21st of March, which is not only International Day of Forest 2019 but also World Down Syndrome Day. We look how three EFUF partners implemented forest education for children with special needs, including children with Down Syndrome.
Playing and learning in forest and nature stimulates the imagination, creativity and entrepreneurship. Besides, nature is a great place to gain experience for the development of social and motor skills. The positive impact of a green learning environment is even more significant when working with children with cognitive disabilities, learning disorders, attention disabilities (such as ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders. In an informal natural environment, these children learn better than in a classroom. A green learning environment therefore increases their chances in society meaningfully. From this determination, EFUF partners BOS+ (Belgium), GOZDIS (Slovenian Forestry Institute) and Merseyforest (UK), together with schools and partners from Slovenia and England, has been executing the Green Learning Environments project, with co-funding from the ERASMUS+ programme from the European Commission and EPOS-Vlaanderen.
Based on the experiences and expertise gathered during the three year project, the project has published a Policy Brief. With this document they aim to raise awareness on the concept of Green Learning Environments and the positive impacts of green environments on learning outcomes for children with mental disabilities. The brief starts with sketching the background and some scientific evidence on the topic, describes obstacles for implementing green learning with children with mental issues, sketches the project findings, and ends with recommendations for practice and policy.
The policy recommendations are particularly interesting, as they sketch how joint efforts by the education and urban greening sectors can ameliorate the lives of children with special educational needs. These recommendations include:
Next to the policy brief, the project also also published a searchable database with good examples, a toolbox for teachers and educators, and a comprehensive pedagogical approach that includes interesting background information about the advantages of green learning environments.