- Title
- Population size and development history determine street tree distribution and composition within and between Eastern Cape towns, South Africa
- Creator
- Gwedla, Nanamhla, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/180468
- Identifier
- vital:43392
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2017.04.014"
- Description
- Street trees are a common feature of urban nature, providing ecological, economic and social benefits. These public functions are highly dependent on specific design principles, including the composition and diversity of tree species within the urban forest. Consequently, it is important to understand the patterns and correlates of street tree distribution and diversity to assess benefit flows. This requires sampling across and within towns. This paper reports on an assessment of the distribution, composition and diversity of street trees between and within multiple South African towns, and ascertains the correlations between tree density and composition with social contexts. Randomly selected streets were sampled in the affluent, township and low cost housing suburbs of ten Eastern Cape towns. Sixty-nine out of 300 sampled transects had street trees, with 888 trees enumerated, spanning 97 species. Alien tree species accounted for 71% of all the enumerated trees while indigenous trees species accounted for 12%. Tree density and composition were significantly lower in smaller towns and those marginalised during the previous racially-based political regime. Within towns, the poor areas had fewer street trees, with many streets having none. Collaboration and constant communication between the various government departments involved in suburb development is crucial to ensure a more rigorous incorporation of green infrastructure into the building and development plans of new housing developments.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (8 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, Gwedla, N. and Shackleton, C.M., 2017. Population size and development history determine street tree distribution and composition within and between Eastern Cape towns, South Africa. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 25, pp.11-18, Urban Forestry and Urban Greening volume 25 p. 11 2017 1618-8667
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Elsevier Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.elsevier.com/legal/elsevier-website-terms-and-conditions)
- Rights
- Closed Access
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Collections
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
RU Department of Environmental Science
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 15. Life On Land
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Population size and development history determine street tree distribution and composition within and between Eastern Cape towns, South Africa (1).pdf | 744 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |