Cecil Konijnendijk

Nature Based Solutions Institute

City leaders are setting ambitious plans to achieve critical urban sustainability goals such as reducing urban heat, mitigating flooding during storms, and conserving biodiversity, and increasingly rely on urban forests as a key nature‐based solution to such challenges. Current paradigms of urban forest management typically prioritize goals like in...

Urban forest governance comprises the formal and informal rules, institutions, and processes that influence collective decision-making in urban forest management. As such, it shapes key processes and outcomes that are implicated in urban environmental justice, including whose priorities and values are reflected in urban forest management and how an...

Urban forests are gaining recognition as a nature-based solution to climate change and other social-environmental issues in cities. Yet, the integration of urban forests may conflict with other climate measures such as urban densification, which may create hostile growing conditions for trees and lead to tree decline or loss. While previous studies...

Abstract. Background: Public engagement is needed to make sure urban forestry management efforts align with the values of the public being served. Noting this, we determined current and desired urban forest access of Florida (United States) residents using the criteria from the 3-30- 300 rule (i.e., 3 trees visible from home, 30% urban tree canopy...

As cities face climate change, public health crises, biodiversity loss, and other challenges, there is an increasing focus on urban green spaces as providing part of the solution. This book argues that we need to rethink urban green spaces if we want to ensure that they meet the many demands urban societies place upon them. Rethinking relates to th...

As cities attempt to ameliorate urban green inequities, a potential challenge has emerged in the form of green gentrification. Although practitioners are central to urban greening and associated gentrification, there has yet to be an exploration of practitioner perspectives on the phenomenon. We fill this gap with an online survey of 51 urban green...

The 3-30-300 rule offers benchmarks for cities to promote equitable nature access. It dictates that individuals should see three trees from their dwelling, have 30 % tree canopy in their neighborhood, and live within 300 m of a high-quality green space. Implementing this demands thorough measurement, monitoring, and evaluation methods, yet little g...

Nature-based solutions including urban forests and wetlands can help communities cope better with climate change and other environmental stressors by enhancing social-ecological resilience. Natural ecosystems, settings, elements and affordances can also help individuals become more resilient to various stressors, although the mechanisms underpinnin...

The 3-30-300 rule offers benchmarks for cities to promote equitable nature access. It dictates that individuals should see three trees from their dwelling, have 30% tree canopy in their neighborhood, and live within 300 meters of a high-quality green space. Implementing this demands thorough measurement, monitoring, and evaluation methods. Seven da...

Background: Public engagement is needed to make sure urban forestry management efforts align with the values of the public being served. Noting this, we determined current and desired urban forest access of Florida (United States) residents using the criteria from the 3-30-300 rule (i.e., 3 trees visible from home, 30% canopy in neighborhood, and a...

This chapter gives an overview of five categories of response options available to secure health benefits of forests, trees and green spaces: the management of access; spatial dimensions; design, communications and education; and governance and economics. Across these areas, some common solutions emerge, although response options differ between set...

Urban green spaces are getting smaller and more fragmented due to urbanisation. Thus their capability to serve as habitats for wildlife is threatened. However, there is a lack of in-depth discussion on biodiversity in small urban green spaces in tropical countries. This study analyses the attributes of biodiversity and ecological functions in small...

Green (and blue) spaces receive attention as important components of cities that can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, support biodiversity and improve public health. Green space planning aims to transform cities towards urban sustainability and resilience. In a longitudinal study, representatives from eleven European municipalities t...

Report can be downloaded from: https://www.uforest.eu/news/project-updates/innovation-report/ Urbanisation is a global trend: according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), today 55.5% of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this number is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. Increasing urbanisation...

The important contributions of urban trees and green spaces to for example, climate moderation and public health are widely recognized. This paper discusses guidelines and norms that promote the benefits of viewing green, living amongst green, and having easy access to green spaces for recreational use. Having trees and other vegetation in sight fr...

The greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the European Union (EU) are mainly caused by human activity from five sectors-power, industry, transport, buildings, and agriculture. To tackle all these challenges, the EU actions and policies have been encouraging initiatives focusing on a holistic approach but these initiatives are not enough coordinated a...

OVERVIEW OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE This special issue of Arboriculture & Urban Forestry addresses current knowledge gaps by exploring how the planning, design, management, and use of urban trees, urban forests, and green infrastructure can be integrated into smart-city planning. It includes a range of contributions, geographically and thematically, at...

While national parks (NPs) have for a long time made substantial contributions to visitor well-being, many spaces remain out of reach of people with disabilities (PwDs). This is partly due to a lack of policies that take accessibility for broader intersectional audiences into consideration. This paper evaluates governance and legal frameworks in NP...

Urban forests are increasingly recognized and integrated into cities’ climate policies as a nature-based solution to climate change. However, the integration of urban forests may conflict with other climate measures. Densification of urban areas, a common approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet other goals, can create hostile growing c...

Green Space System Planning (GSSP), taking all the green space within the city administrative area as a complete and comprehensive system, is a kind of official statutory planning that the Chinese government requires all the cities to draw up as a supplement for cities' Master Planning. It is the primary legal basis for green space protection and c...

Although people have always been aware of the role and importance of green space, trees, and other nature in cities, wider recognition and policy support is of a much more recent date, for example in the context of current climate and public health challenges. The nature-based solutions concept has emerged as a strong, recent attempt for “mainstrea...

The sustainable provision of urban forest benefits can be threatened by the occurrence of sudden, major disturbance events, such as forest fires, insect outbreaks, and extreme weather events, which are considered to be “pulse” disturbance events from a socio-ecological systems perspective. Sound urban forestry programs are needed to prepare for the...

China's Green Space System Planning (GSSP) research has gradually expanded from central urban areas to municipal and provincial scales in recent years. Besides, the research on the role of green space in the water environment has also attracted much attention. However, the study of green corridors usually ignored hydrological data, which widespread...

This study assessed the contributions of urban green spaces on mental health with joint consideration of people’s physiological and psychological responses. The psychological and physiological responses of participants aged between 22 and 28, who visited green spaces in a low-density area of Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China, were measured using Perce...

Forest ecosystem resilience is of considerable interest worldwide, particularly given the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and recent instances of zoonotic diseases linked to deforestation and forest loss. Novel, digital-based technologies are also increasingly ubiquitous. We provide a more comprehensive understanding of how these new technologie...

Record climate extremes are reducing urban liveability, compounding inequality, and threatening infrastructure. Adaptation measures that integrate technological, nature-based, and social solutions can provide multiple co-benefits to address complex socioecological issues in cities while increasing resilience to potential impacts. However, there rem...

The aim of this study was to examine whether personality traits, health status, and moods are systematically related to perceived urban mountain park quality and recreation satisfaction. Previous studies on park-related satisfaction have typically tried to understand the effects of environmental attributes on people’s recreation satisfaction. Howev...

Recent studies have supported the proposition that place attachment positively contributes to psychological restoration. However, fewer studies have been conducted regarding the relationships between place attachment and restorative components within China. This study explores residents’ ratings of urban parks and natural settings for restorative p...

While being major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, cities also suffer some of the most severe climate change impacts. Urban forests have gained increasing recognition as nature-based solutions to climate change via the various benefits they provide, such as carbon sequestration and temperature regulation. Many cities have developed climate change and...

The spatial variation of poplars’ reproductive phenology in Beijing’s urban area has aggravated the threat of poplar fluff (cotton-like flying seeds) to public health. This research explored the impact of microclimate condition on the spatial variation of reproductive phenology of female Populus tomentosa in Taoranting Park, a micro-scale green spa...

Urban forests provide a wide range of essential benefits. Current global challenges, such as climate change, environmental degradation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, have resulted in increased awareness of the importance of urban trees and green spaces. When working with cities, national governments, and international organisations, I am often asked f...

Bioacoustic methods analyze sounds to monitor wildlife in forests, providing novel perspectives to understand the relationship between forest vegetation structure and wildlife species. Bioacoustic studies differ from traditional field surveys that are often more visual and require work in the daytime. A sampling of acoustic signals is possible to e...

The People's Republic of China (PRC) has faced rapid urbanization, especially during recent decades. Urban green spaces have received more attention than before, but the planning and construction of cities’ green space systems (GSSs) have faced many challenges. As many countries worldwide are faced with similar challenges, we review the history and...

How does the CO2 budget in coastal wetlands respond to dynamic and composite agroforestry reclamations is unclear. For six consecutive years, CO2 flux data were measured using the eddy covariance (EC) technique to determine the CO2 budget changes and the key factors controlling the variations of net CO2 ecosystem exchange (NEE) over a reclaimed coa...

The biomass represented by urban trees is important for urban decision-makers, green space planners, and managers seeking to optimize urban ecosystem services. Carbon storage by urban trees is one of these services. Suitable methods for assessing carbon storage by urban trees are being explored. The latest technologies in remote sensing and data an...

Introduction: Although Brownfield greening (BG) can be a crucial solution to green space deficiency in dense urban areas, the potential benefits of different BG initiatives have rarely been quantitatively pre-evaluated. Here, the concept and main features of BG and its costs and benefits are firstly depicted. Next, a conceptual framework is present...

Urban heat island (UHI) attenuation is an essential aspect for maintaining environmental sustainability at a local, regional, and global scale. Although impervious surfaces (IS) and green spaces have been confirmed to have a dominant effect on the spatial differentiation of the urban land surface temperature (LST), comprehensive temporal and quanti...

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is a complex, multicultural, and growing metropolis that has been shaped by multiple Indigenous and immigrant cultures. Its recent history presents a microcosm of the many opportunities and challenges faced by cities around the world: colonialism and Indigenous marginalization, multiple waves of immigration, mai...

Recent years have seen a growing body of research on urban forest governance. However, there has been limited empirical research on potential factors that contribute to the success of governance arrangements, models, and actions. The present study investigates which success factors are considered the most important (and are most prioritised) by urb...

Suites of concepts and approaches have been launched during recent years to promote urban nature and greener cities. However, it is doubtable whether tinkering within the current economic and political system can provide adequate solutions. Nature-based Solutions can be seen as a new conceptual approach to the human-ecological connection, and as an...

Soundscape mapping provides a unique perspective to explain the complicated spatial-temporal change of bird activities in urban forests. Most studies of soundscapes have used multi-point distribution to record sounds, which is challenging for explaining complex interferences factors in urban areas. In this study, we used soundscape mapping to explo...

Restrictions on the use of public space and physical distancing have been key policy measures to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and protect public health. At the time of writing, one half of the world’s population has been asked to stay home and avoid many public places. What will be the long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public spa...

In the search for ways to address sustainability challenges, there is growing interest in nature-based solutions. Among these are calls to plant a trillion trees globally, which has been met with mixed responses. In this Voices, we ask researchers about the potential role of trees in mitigating and adapting to global change, as well as doing so in...

Restrictions on the use of public space and social distancing have been key policy measures to reduce the transmission of SAR-CoV-2 and protect public health. At the time of writing, one half of the world's population has been asked to stay home and avoid many public places. What will be the long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public spac...

Green–blue space loss and fragmentation are particularly acute in Chinese cities due to rapid urbanization, large ring-road system and the following city compartments. Therefore, connecting urban green–blue spaces has been recently advocated by central government. This paper revised and applied the recently developed urban green network approach to...

Previous studies have demonstrated place attachment’s potential to contribute to psychological restoration. However, relatively few studies have explored this subject in the context of Chinese natural urban parks. This study explores the relationship between local landscape characteristics, place attachment, and perceived restorativeness using urba...

Sustainable Development Goals: Their Impacts on Forests and People - edited by Pia Katila December 2019

The Fu Forest Trail in the Chinese city of Fuzhou, completed in 2018, is a new pedestrian recreational system in an urban mountain forest area. Construction of the walkway was guided by identification of key sightlines between the mountains and the city. These sightlines controlled the interaction with the skylines around the walkway, building heig...

In the Anthropocene, natural resource management approaches, including forestry, have been incorporating cross-disciplinary, multi-functional, and highly technological endeavors. Urban forestry has emerged as a way of adapting natural resource management to city settings. Here we propose a research agenda for more integrative urban forestry with du...

Smart cities are increasingly part of urban sustainability discourses. There is a growing interest in understanding how citizen engagement, connected technology, and data analytics can support sustainable development. Evidence has also repeatedly shown that green infrastructure such as urban forests address diverse urban challenges and are critical...

Urban forestry and arboriculture are male-dominated industries. Although women have experienced current and historical marginalization in these industries, recent years have seen more young women embrace opportunities and pursue careers in these fields. In order to understand and enhance women’s participation in urban forestry and arboriculture, th...

Large-scale urban afforestation projects are increasingly used as a way to enhance urban sustainability. Governance of such projects is challenging yet few studies have examined this topic. Between 2012 and 2015, Beijing City implemented the One Million-Mu (666 km2) Plain Afforestation Project, which has led to over 50 million trees being planted i...

Food forests are burgeoning in urban areas of Northern America and Europe. A growing body of scientific literature is addressing the potential of urban food forests for improving and/or diversifying ecosystem services (ES) and biodiversity. However, this research is challenged by the inconsistent articulation of the concept of urban food forestry....

The concept of National Forest Park (NFP) is mainly used in mainland China. Originating in 1982, NFP embodies a “top-down” concept and associated program launched by the Chinese government. It is aimed at promoting forest-based tourism and economic development under the premise of protecting forest resources. After 30 years of development, NFPs hav...

Air pollution has become a critical issue in the urban areas of southeastern China in recent years. A complete understanding of the tempo-spatial characteristics of air pollution can help the public and governmental bodies manage their lives and work better. In this study, data for six criteria air pollutants (including particulate matter (PM2.5, P...

Green structure has undergone many changes during the process of urban development. This paper compares Stockholm, Sweden, and Xi’an, China, in order to illustrate these changes over time and how they reflect the deeper human–nature relationship. This type of analysis can uncover the cultural identity of different cities and clarify urban forms tha...