Urban Forest Landscape Restoration – Applying Forest Development Types in Design and Planning

Abstract

Most urban forests have developed from ‘commercial’ forests and managers have sought to incorporate recreational and ecological functions into a management system aimed at basic wood production while focussing upon the stand as the functional unit. When dealing with urban forests, the higher functional level – the forest landscape – is much more in focus in order to develop the intended recreational and ecological functions. From a forest restoration viewpoint, forest management strategies are required in order to develop forests with a high potential for biodiversity protection. This means contributions to environmental and social values must be integrated with the production of timber. This can be achieved by incorporating structural and functional features of natural forest ecosystems. The approach can be summarised by the term ‘close-to-nature forest management’. The concept of a ‘Forest Development Type’ (FDT) provides an adequate framework for advancing and describing ideas about long-term goals for stand structures and dynamics in stands subjected to close-to-nature-based forest management.

From a landscape restoration viewpoint, diverse forest ecosystems can be introduced as an integral part of the urban landscape, bringing the special qualities of nature into peoples’ daily lives. A key element in the provision of these new forests is the integration of forested areas, openings and other nature types into spatially diverse and visual attractive forest landscapes. Combining different FDT´s with other nature types, i.e. meadows, wetlands and water bodies etc., the urban forest landscape can be designed with a range of site-adapted rich ecosystems and recreational experiences. This implies the amalgamation of silvicultural and landscape architectural expertise in a design-led approach that integrates ecological, recreational values and productive potentials on the landscape level. Combining the strengths of both forestry and landscape architecture around the concept of forest development types provides a useful tool for designing and planning urban forest landscapes along natural principles.

However, the debate about changing silvicultural practices and developing functional forest landscapes covers more than ecology, silviculture and landscape architecture. It is also linked to an ongoing discussion within urbanized societies, implying that at the socio-political level, urban woodland landscapes must be developed and restored in a transparent and participatory process, where managers must be flexible and be prepared to adapt forest restoration goals and principles to the specific social-cultural context of a given forested landscape.