Social Sustainability
Urban Forestry
Definition
Urban forestry is the planning, planting, care and management of all trees and associated vegetation in and around a city — street trees, park trees, woodlands and private gardens treated as a single canopy. Urban trees deliver measurable services: surface cooling of several degrees beneath canopy, stormwater interception, air filtration, carbon storage, property value and mental health benefits; canopy cover targets (the "3-30-300" rule: three trees visible from every home, 30% canopy per neighbourhood, 300 metres to green space) increasingly guide policy.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Urban Forestry” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
The discipline structures city canopy strategies, Tree Cities of the World recognition, heat action planning, and biodiversity net gain in urban development.
Why it matters
A city's trees are its oldest, cheapest climate adaptation infrastructure; urban forestry is how they are kept alive long enough to work.