Trees are a defining component of urban open and green spaces and it is impossible to imagine them without them. What would our parks, gardens, squares and streets be without trees? They create spaces, structure the city and beautify the cityscape. In addition, the ecosystem services provided by trees are an essential tool for improving the climate of our cities by reducing the intensity of the urban heat island and improving air quality. Urban trees need to be considered as part of sustainable strategy measures to achieve climate adaptation in cities.
However, concrete information on the growth and ecosystem services of urban trees is only available to a limited extent. Based on the process-oriented growth model CityTree for urban trees, the Interactive Guide for Urban Trees can now be used to determine growth and ecosystem services (CO2, water consumption, runoff reduction and cooling through transpiration and shading) depending on the location. The climate of the selected city, the soil type and soil sealing as well as the limitation of radiation incidence are taken into account. The simulations can be carried out for 12 different tree species for individual trunk diameter classes. In addition to simulations for the long-term climatic mean (1991-2020), simulations for the dry year 2003 and for the climate scenarios RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 are possible. This allows the impact of climate change on urban greenery to be illustrated simply and clearly. The resulting estimates of ecosystem services can be used as a basis for stock assessments and for forecasting the potential ecosystem services of planned tree planting.
Where to find the interactive guide to urban trees: The interactive guide is now online and can be accessed free of charge on the website of the Center for Urban Nature and Climate Adaptation (ZSK) at www.zsk.tum.de. If you have any comments or suggestions for improvement, please feel free to send them to the project team, who will integrate them into the guide as far as possible (thomas.roetzer@tum.de; info@zsk.tum.de ). We would also like to point out that the interactive guide for urban trees and an extended edition of the analog guide for urban trees will be presented to the public at a short seminar in fall 2024.