IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v10y2021i8p809-d606712.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Developing a Metropolitan-Wide Urban Forest Strategy for a Large, Expanding and Densifying Capital City: Lessons from Melbourne, Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Hartigan

    (The Nature Conservancy, Suite 2-01, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton 3053, Australia
    Resilient Melbourne, City of Melbourne, GPO Box 1603, Melbourne 3001, Australia)

  • James Fitzsimons

    (The Nature Conservancy, Suite 2-01, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton 3053, Australia
    School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood 3125, Australia)

  • Maree Grenfell

    (Resilient Melbourne, City of Melbourne, GPO Box 1603, Melbourne 3001, Australia)

  • Toby Kent

    (Resilient Melbourne, City of Melbourne, GPO Box 1603, Melbourne 3001, Australia)

Abstract

Urban forests provide many ecosystem services, such as reducing heat, improving air quality, treatment of stormwater, carbon sequestration, as well as biodiversity benefits. These benefits have resulted in increasing demand for urban forests and strategies to maintain and enhance this natural infrastructure. In response to a broader resilience strategy for Melbourne, Australia, we outline how a metropolitan-wide urban forest strategy ( Living Melbourne ) was developed, encompassing multiple jurisdictions and all land tenures. To this end, we mapped tree cover within the Melbourne metropolitan area, modelled potential habitat for some bird species, and investigated the role of tree cover for urban heat island mitigation. We outline the consultation and governance frameworks used to develop the strategy, the vision, goals and actions recommended, including canopy and shrub cover targets for different parts of the metropolitan area. The metropolitan-wide urban forest strategy acts as an overarching framework to guide local government authorities and various stakeholders towards a shared objective of increasing tree cover in Melbourne and we discuss the outcomes and lessons from this approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Hartigan & James Fitzsimons & Maree Grenfell & Toby Kent, 2021. "Developing a Metropolitan-Wide Urban Forest Strategy for a Large, Expanding and Densifying Capital City: Lessons from Melbourne, Australia," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:809-:d:606712
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/809/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/809/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert I. McDonald & Andressa V. Mansur & Fernando Ascensão & M’lisa Colbert & Katie Crossman & Thomas Elmqvist & Andrew Gonzalez & Burak Güneralp & Dagmar Haase & Maike Hamann & Oliver Hillel & Kangn, 2020. "Research gaps in knowledge of the impact of urban growth on biodiversity," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 16-24, January.
    2. Sebastian Fastenrath & Lars Coenen & Kathryn Davidson, 2019. "Urban Resilience in Action: the Resilient Melbourne Strategy as Transformative Urban Innovation Policy?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-10, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Licia Felicioni & Antonín Lupíšek & Petr Hájek, 2020. "Major European Stressors and Potential of Available Tools for Assessment of Urban and Buildings Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-27, September.
    2. Yu-Hsiang Huang & Tzu-Sheng Shen, 2021. "An Article on Green Firefighting Equipment in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-12, November.
    3. Albert Sanghoon Park, 2023. "Building resilience knowledge for sustainable development: Insights from development studies," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-33, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Margaret Yejide Onanuga & Adebayo Oluwole Eludoyin & Ifeanyi Emmanuel Ofoezie, 2022. "Urbanization and its effects on land and water resources in Ijebuland, southwestern Nigeria," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 592-616, January.
    5. Lingyue Li & Xiaohu Zhang, 2020. "Spatial Evolution and Critical Factors of Urban Innovation: Evidence from Shanghai, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, January.
    6. Yong Zhang & Chao Jiang & Sheng Chen & Yuanyuan Zhang & Hui Shi & Bin Chen & Lingfeng Mao, 2021. "Effects of Landscape Attributes on Campuses Bird Species Richness and Diversity, Implications for Eco-Friendly Urban Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-11, May.
    7. Huiwen Gong & Robert Hassink & Juntao Tan & Dacang Huang, 2020. "Regional Resilience in Times of a Pandemic Crisis: The Case of COVID‐19 in China," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(3), pages 497-512, July.
    8. Amy K. Hahs & Bertrand Fournier & Myla F. J. Aronson & Charles H. Nilon & Adriana Herrera-Montes & Allyson B. Salisbury & Caragh G. Threlfall & Christine C. Rega-Brodsky & Christopher A. Lepczyk & Fra, 2023. "Urbanisation generates multiple trait syndromes for terrestrial animal taxa worldwide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Marianne Sensier & Elvira Uyarra, 2020. "Investigating the Governance Mechanisms that Sustain Regional Economic Resilience and Inclusive Growth," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2005, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    10. Ratzke, Leonie, 2023. "Revealing preferences for urban biodiversity as an environmental good," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    11. Sylvia Croese & Cayley Green & Gareth Morgan, 2020. "Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals Through the Lens of Urban Resilience: Lessons and Learnings from 100 Resilient Cities and Cape Town," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-16, January.
    12. Beaudet, Chloé & Tardieu, Léa & David, Maia, 2022. "Are citizens willing to accept changes in public lighting for biodiversity conservation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    13. John B. Vogler & Jelena Vukomanovic, 2021. "Trends in United States Human Footprint Revealed by New Spatial Metrics of Urbanization and Per Capita Land Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-22, November.
    14. Song, Weize & Yang, Wenqing & Wang, Na & Wang, Can & Li, Zheng & Ou, Yifu & Zhang, Xiaoling, 2024. "How does industrial transformative process shape the spatial dynamics of urban development?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    15. Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel, 2020. "Ecological Prototypes: Initiating Design Innovation in Green Construction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-17, July.
    16. Wang, Bo & Liang, Youjia & Peng, Shouzhang, 2022. "Harnessing the indirect effect of urban expansion for mitigating agriculture-environment trade-offs in the Loess Plateau," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    17. Roshan Bhandari & Wenchao Xue & Salvatore G. P. Virdis & Ekbordin Winijkul & Thi Phuoc Lai Nguyen & Suraj Joshi, 2023. "Monitoring and Assessing Urbanization Progress in Thailand between 2000 and 2020 Using SDG Indicator 11.3.1," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-13, June.
    18. Koen De Vos & Charlotte Janssens & Liesbet Jacobs & Benjamin Campforts & Esther Boere & Marta Kozicka & David Leclère & Petr Havlík & Lisa-Marie Hemerijckx & Anton Van Rompaey & Miet Maertens & Gerard, 2024. "African food system and biodiversity mainly affected by urbanization via dietary shifts," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(7), pages 869-878, July.
    19. Strong, Michael & Silva, Julie A., 2021. "‘We would like this place to be a town’: The benefits and challenges of rural development near protected areas," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:809-:d:606712. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.