More than half the world's population now lives in cities. Creating sustainable, healthy and aesthetic urban environments is therefore a major policy goal and research agenda. This comprehensive handbook provides a global overview of the state of the art and science of urban forestry. It describes the multiple roles and benefits of urban green areas in general and the specific role of trees, including for issues such as air quality, human well-being and stormwater management. It reviews the various stresses experienced by trees in cities and tolerance mechanisms, as well as cultural techniques for either pre-conditioning or alleviating stress after planting. It sets out sound planning, design, species selection, establishment and management of urban trees. It shows that close interactions with the local urban communities who benefit from trees are key to success. By drawing upon international state-of-art knowledge on arboriculture and urban forestry, the book provides a definitive overview of the field and is an essential reference text for students, researchers and practitioners.

This hands-on guidebook provides practical, applied information on design considerations, site planning and understand-ing, plant selection, installation, and maintenance of trees in challenging urban environments.

There is a growing evidence base that documents the social, environmental and economic benefits that urban trees can deliver. Trees are, however, under threat today as never before due to competition for space imposed by development, other hard infrastructures, increased pressure on the availability of financial provision from local authorities and a highly cautious approach to risk management in a modern litigious society. It is, therefore, incumbent upon all of us in construction and urban design disciplines to pursue a set of goals that not only preserve existing trees where we can, but also ensure that new plantings are appropriately specified and detailed to enable their successful establishment and growth to productive maturity. Aimed at developers, urban planners, urban designers, landscape architects and arboriculturists, this book takes a candid look at the benefits that trees provide alongside the threats that are eliminating them from our towns and cities. It takes a simple, applied approach that explores a combination of science and practical experience to help ensure a pragmatic and reasoned approach to decision-making in terms of tree selection, specification, placement and establishment. In this way, trees can successfully be incorporated within our urban landscapes, so that we can continue to reap the benefits they provide.

Resource added for the Landscape Horticulture Technician program 100014.