Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 46(3): May 2020 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2020. 46(3):185–196 URBAN FORESTRY ARBORICULTURE Scientific Journal of the International Society of Arboriculture & A Literature Review of Resilience in Urban Forestry By Emily S. Huff, Michelle L. Johnson, Lara A. Roman, Nancy F. Sonti, Clara C. Pregitzer, Lindsay K. Campbell, and Heather McMillen Abstract. Urban forests provide many benefits to residents and may also improve cities’ resilience, the overall capacity to recover from anthro- pogenic and natural disturbances. Resilience is often considered from an ecological, social, or social-ecological perspective. In this literature review, we synthesize past studies (n = 31) to explore resilience in urban forests and green spaces and to understand how social or ecological perspectives have been considered. We found studies that combine resilience and urban forests have been increasing over time. Definitions of both resilience and urban forests are highly variable, but generally the studies increasingly focus on a social-ecological systems approach. The most common theoretical framework applied to understanding urban forests and resilience is a risk and vulnerability assessment approach. Studies were spread across geographies, with some concentration near major research stations and universities with scientists who specialize in resilience and urban green spaces. As more attention is focused on the role of green infrastructure in contributing to urban resilience, we encourage the adoption of consistent definitions, theories, and indicators. Keywords. Adaptive Capacity; Resilience; Social-Ecological Systems; Urban Forestry; Vulnerability. 185 INTRODUCTION Resilience is an emerging policy goal for cities world- wide, as cities struggle to recover from both chronic and acute stressors. Trees and forests are critical com- ponents of the urban ecosystem, providing many ben- efits to residents within cities and contributing to the resilience of the larger social-ecological system. These benefits include, but are not limited to, reducing storm- water runoff, shade and cooling, and human well-being benefits derived from cultural ecosystem services such as aesthetic enjoyment, improved cognitive function, place attachment (the bonding of people to places, Altman and Low 2012), identity, and space for recre- ation (Roy et al. 2012). Many of these ecosystem ser- vices relate to a city’s ability to be resilient, however, some ecosystem services have only been modeled (rather than empirically measured) and much remains unknown about their value (Pataki et al. 2011). Trees in urban settings experience distinct growing conditions due to fragmented landscapes, challenging site conditions, altered climatic conditions, and dis- turbance regimes (Pretzsch et al. 2017; Scharenbroch et al. 2017). In some cases, these conditions have negative effects, like compacted soils that could reduce the sustainability of the forest and reduce the potential opportunities for forests and trees to provide benefits. In other cases, the urban context can present advan- tages, like access to light and greater potential for increased stewardship (e.g., street trees) than would be the case in a closed-canopy forest (Hunter 2011). For urban forest managers, it is critical to strategize how to maximize ecosystem services while also addressing urban forest system vulnerabilities and ecosystem disservices (Dobbs et al. 2011; von Döhren and Haase 2015; Steenberg et al. 2017). The literature on urban forestry and resilience is relatively small compared to the literature on urban resilience more broadly, which was found to include over 300 articles in various fields like agricultural and biological science, engineering, and social science (Meerow et al. 2016). Our broad goal was to compile and synthesize the available literature to determine: (1) the state of the current knowledge on what makes urban forests and green spaces resilient; (2) the extent to which social, ecological, and institutional perspec- tives are considered in urban forest and green space ©2020 International Society of Arboriculture
May 2020
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