spatial configurations of urban woodland in denmark and

Spatial configurations of urban woodland in Denmark and Sweden – patterns for

green infrastructure planning

Anders Busse Nielsen (1,2)

Marcus Hedblom (1)

Björn Wiström (1)

Anton Olafsson (2)

(1) Swedish University of Agricultural Science

(2) University of Copenhagen

• In Sweden, urban forest account for 2 % of the national forest cover, but they recieve more than 50 % of all visits (Anon, 2009)

• Forest = tree covered areas > 0.5 ha

• Range from small copses to large wooded landscapes

• Compared to parks and other types of green space, forest tend to be more multipurpose and able to absorb many uses whilst parallel providing a wide range of ecosystem services (Bell et al., 2005 Barbati et al. 2013)

Illustration:Regional Planning Office Stockholm

Forest - the core of Stockholm’s Green Wedges

http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/urban-atlas

Forest a ’natural’ element or even core in the development of green belts, green wedges and green infrastructure across European cities:

• Berlin

• Paris

• London

• Moscow

• Oslo

• St. Petersburg

• Ljubjana

• Vienna

(Konijnendijk 2010, Hladik and Pirnat, 2011)








Woodland - part of the everyday Urban Landscape

Cedric Price, ”Three Eggs Diagra”

• Forest is an integral part of the everyday Urban Landscape

• GI - the ’cure’ for today’s hybrids of cityscape and landscape ?

Forest & open space Central and NW European cities

(Pauleit et al., 2005)

• Forest provision differs enormously between European cities

• Suggesting that the difference are related to corresponding differences in regional forest cover around the cities

• What about forest location and patch size ?

Aim

• Identify differences and commonalities in urban forest cover and its spatial configurations that can support the integration of forest resources into multiple green infrastructure strategies and sustainability agendas that have replicable value beyond the individual city level

What

• Analysis of forest coverage, patch size and locations across the urban-periurban gradient of all Danish and Swedish cities > 10.000 inhabitants (n = 176)

How

• GIS analysis of high resolution land-use data

• General Linear Modelling to identify explanatory variables

Why DK and SE is suitable for the study (Forest map of Europe, EEA and EFI)

Denmark and Sweden were chosen for the study because of the distinct differences in regional landscape type, with cities located in some of the most densely forested regions in Europe through to some of the least forested regions.

Forest region, where cities are settled in a landscape

entirely dominated by forest. Skellefteå, SE

Photo:Kontrast foto, Ljungby

Mosaic region, where cities are settled in rift calley

landscapes with distinct topographical variation and

soil variation creating a mosaic of forest and small

scale agriculture. Gothenburg, Sweden.

Photo: Anders Busse Nieslen

Mosaic region, where cities are settled in a mosaic

of forest and small scale agriculture Sweden.

Photo: Anders Busse Nieslen

Plain region, where cities are settled in landscape

dominated by large scale agricultural. Lund, SE

Photo: Anders Busse Nielsen

European forest cultures (Bell et al. 2005)

NW European forest culture N European forest culture

Country Forest cover Country Forest cover

Britain 12 % Estonia 48 %

Denmark 14 % Finland 75 %

Iceland 1 % Latvia 45 %

Ireland 10 % Lithuania 30 %

The Netherlands 11 % Norway 39 %

Sweden 54 %

In all NW European countries forest is protected by law, and afforestation policies have been issued in which urban areas have highest priority.

Many cities in N Europe have reserved parts of their forest holding for urban exploitation

Why DK and SE is suitable for the study (Map of European Forest cultures, Bell et al., 2005)

Division of cities according to regional landscape structure

• Plain, all DK: 64 cities

• Plain region, SE: 24 cities

• Mosaic region: 40 cities

• Forest region: 48 cities

Forest cover and size configurations in three zones:

• Within city: < 0.2 km (from city border)

• Urban fringe: 0.2-2 km

• Peri-urban: 2-5 km

• (Regional forest cover: 20 km)

Total area surveyed: 38.923 km2

Denmark

64 cities

Survey area : 13.807 km2

32 % of total country area

Forest area: 1.458 km2

25 % of national forest

Sweden

112 cities

Survey area: 25.116 km2

5.6 % of total country area

Forest area: 5.978 km2

4.1 % of national forest

Result: Forest coverage and spatial distribution

• Forest cover differs significantly between cities setteled in regions with different landscape structures

• City size and population growth 1960-2010 only limited influence

• BUT…forest cover peaks at the urban fringe irrespectively of regional landscape structure

Footprint of decades of intentional planning!

Result: Forest coverage and spatial distribution

• Forest cover at the urban fringe is similar to regional forest coverage

64,2%

43,5%

22,1%

14,7%

Regional forest cover

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

0,5-1,9

2-4,9

5-9,9

10-19,9

20-49,9

50-99,9

100-249,9

250-499,9

500-999,9

> 1000

Forest Mosaic Plain, SE Plain, DK

Size distribution of forest patches as percentages of total forest count

Result: Forest patch size configurations

• The survey area contained 54.462 forest pacthes

• Forest < 2 ha account for more than 50% of the patches irrespectively of the regional landscape structure

• Relative distribution of forest patches to size classes show similar

patterns across cities in regions with different regional forest cover

0 20 40 60 80

0,5-1,9

2-4,9

5-9,9

10-19,9

20-49,9

50-99,9

100-249,9

250-499,9

500-999,9

> 1000


0 20 40 60 80

0,5-1,9

2-4,9

5-9,9

10-19,9

20-49,9

50-99,9

100-249,9

250-499,9

500-999,9

> 1000


Total forest count

0 20 40 60 80

0,5-1,9

2-4,9

5-9,9

10-19,9

20-49,9

50-99,9

100-249,9

250-499,9

500-999,9

> 1000


Within city borders

Urban fringe zone (0.2-2 km)

0 20 40 60 80

0,5-1,9

2-4,9

5-9,9

10-19,9

20-49,9

50-99,9

100-249,9

250-499,9

500-999,9

> 1000


Peri-urban zone (2-5 km)

Forest patch size configurations across the urban-periurban gradient

Forest coverage and spatial configurations

Functional

urban area

Landscape region Urban area Urban fringe Urban periphery

Forest cover (%)

9.9 C Plains region, DK 8.0 (4.4) d 13.2 (9.2) d 8.5 (5.8) d

13.2 C Plains region, SE 8.1 (6.0) d 15.7 (17.6) d 15.7 (15.8) d

35.5 B Mosaic region, SE 20.4 (6.4) c 45.1 (13.3) b 40.9 (11.4) b

40.8 A Forest region, SE 25.4 (8.2) c 57.3 (14.7) a 39.6 (13.0) b

Mean patch size (ha)

7.7 C Plains region, DK 4.3 (2.3) e 9.8 (6.8) c 8.0 (4.4) c d

12.3 C Plains region, SE 3.5 (1.3) e 11.9 (14.0) c d 11.9 (9.5) c

22.0 B Mosaic region, SE 5.5 (2.0) d e 29.7 (16.8) b 30.1 (11.1) b

34.7 A Forest region, SE 6.1 (2.4) c d 56.4 (34.0) a 52.7 (24.7) a

Patch frequency / km2

1.2 C Plains region, DK 1.9 (0.6) b 1.4 (0.5) b c 1.1 (0.5) d e

1.1 C Plains region, SE 2.1 (1.2) b 1.2 (0,8) c d e 1.1 (0.6) c d e

1.4 B Mosaic region, SE 3.9 (1.1) a 1.7 (0.7) b 1.5 (0.5) b c

1.5 A Forest region, SE 4.4 (1.3) a 1.2 (0.8) c d 0.8 (0.3) e

• Patch frequency significantly higher within city borders compared to fringe and peri-urban zones in all landscape regions

How can the results inform GI strategies ?

….that can have replicable value beyond the individual city level

‘Core’ of GI planning strategies

‘Connectors’ in GI planning strategies 1

Green Infrastructure

• Two scales: urban scale and landscape scale

• Strategically planned and delivered green space network

• Linking peri-urban and urban areas

• Spatially explicit delivery of ecosystem services (ESS)

• Closer linked to planning, decision-making, and policy-making than the ESS concept

European Commission

Press release

Brussels, 6 May 2013

Environment: Investing in green infrastructure

will bring multiple returns to nature, society

and people

The European Commission adopted today a new strategy for encouraging the use of green infrastructure, and for ensuring that the enhancement of natural processes becomes a systematic part of spatial planning. Green Infrastructure is a tried and tested tool that uses nature to provide ecological, economic and social benefits.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-404_en.htm

2








‘The Glue’ for GI across urban and peri-urban areas 2

The peak in forest cover at the urban fringe demonstrates the potential of forest to provide the hub for green infrastructure planning across urban and peri-urban areas.

Fragmented urban fringe landscape, E45 Århus. Photo; Stefan Darlan Boris

2 Said about the ‘urban fringe’

“Edgelands, characterised by rubbish tips and warehouses, super stores and industrial plants, office parks and gypsy encampments, golf courses, allotments and fragmented, frequently scuffy farmland’ (Shoard 2002)

“These edge-lands are classic non-places’, they are anonymeous and lack identify” (Gant et al. 2011)

Accepting that urban expansion will continue, forest can even help articulate and structure fragmented urban fringe landscapes.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2788/4098002656_f73de18c83_b.jpg New York – the city of pocket parks

3

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

0,5-1,9

2-4,9

5-9,9

10-19,9

20-49,9

50-99,9

100-249,9

250-499,9

500-999,9

> 1000


Within city borders

Can a forest really be too small to be enjoyed by man and beast? Adventure

inspiration wonder awe…

Time for promotion of ‘Pocket woods’ Important ecological, - but socially largely untapped - stepping stones 3

Urban densification In Sweden many small forest fall in a vacuum between comprehensive and local plans

Danish National Forest policy : • Double the forest area within one tree generation

• Focusing on urban areas to provide for recreation, natur conservation and protection of ground water (drinking water)

Plain region, SE Mena forest cove:r 8,1% Mean city size: 16,5 km2 Mean forest size: 4,1 ha

Mosaic region, SE Mean forest cove:r 20,4% Mean city size: 28,4 km2 Mean forest size:5,9 ha

DK plains Mean forest cover: 9,0% Mean city size: 30 km2 Mean forest size: 4,7 ha

Forest region, SE Mean forest cover: 25,4% Mean city size: 20,8 km2 Mean forest size: 20,7 ha

A bright future?

Thanks! [email protected]

spatial configurations of urban woodland in denmark and

Documents