An analysis of urban tree planting planning and climate change

Abstract

Climate change impacts in urban areas require adaptation of these areas and its ecosystems. A commonly used strategy is the development of urban afforestation, which also brings benefits to city dwellers. Urban afforestation planning can be proposed to ensure an efficient development of tree cover in cities, however, this efficiency is condicioned to aspects related to data availability, such as the composition of recommended species, for example. This study reviewed the current state of urban afforestation planning in Brazilian cities in order to comprehend criteria that might influence the species recommendation, as well as the impact of the recommended composition on the urban tree cover health and resilience. Furthermore, this study sought to understand the impact of climate change on the environmental adequability of tree species commonly used in urban afforestation in Brazil, based on ecological niche modeling for current and future climate scenarios. This assessment showed an overlaping of social, economic and cultural aspects with ecological ones on recommended species composition, as well as potential impacts of this multidisciplinarity on the development of Brazilian urban tree cover. The analyzed species showed great plasticity in environmental adequability to future climate change scenarios in Brazilian territory, which highlights the already extreme bioclimatic conditions of urban areas. The results of this study can contribute to the comprehension of current methodologies of urban afforestation planning. Furthermore, the potential use of macroscale analyses for urban tree cover implementation in cities and smaller contexts are also discussed.