Environment, Behavior, and Design Research on Urban Forests

Abstract

To many people the term urban forest seems incongruous and contradictory. But a look around any major city quickly reveals that trees and other vegetation are an important feature in many urban settings. For example, an aerial photo survey of Dayton, Ohio, showed that 22% of the city's land area is covered with trees, and that 35% is covered with other kinds of vegetation (Sanders & Stevens, 1984). According to one overall estimate, 30% of the average city in the United States is covered with trees, a proportion larger than the average tree cover for countryside (Dwyer, Deneke, Grey, & Moeller, 1983).

Some professionals prefer to identify as urban forests only those areas of vegetation that approximate the traditional image of a forest, that is, essentially natural ecosystems located within urban surroundings (Figure 1). Even with this restricted definition, urban forests are a major component of some metropolitan areas. For example, the forest preserve system surrounding Chicago occupies over 10% of the land area in a county with almost 6 million people (Wendling, Gabriel, Dwyer & Buck, 1981).

Citation

Schroeder, Herbert W. 1989. Environment, behavior, and design research on urban forests. In: Zube, E. H.; Moore, G. T., eds., Advances in environment, behavior, and design. New York: Springer: 87-117. Chapter 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0717-4_4.