Increased urbanization is claiming green spaces in one hand and its air, water, soil is polluted more day by day. Wastes generated are mounting at an exponential rate. Practically some cities have turned into concrete jungles,heat islands and pollution hot spot leaving little room for biodiversity. It is not an ecologically sustainable development! But we can reverse the trend by tackling pollution problem through urban forestry with selected plant species that would be home to hoard of biodiversity. Green urban areas would be more biodiversity-rich, aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to live in and it would be ecologically smart too.
Aegle marmelos (Rutaceae), Albizia lebbeck (Fabaceae), Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae), Cassia fistula (Fabaceae), Dalbergia sissoo (Fabaceae)Delonix regia (Fabaceae), Ficus lacor (Moraceae), Ficus benghalensis (Moraceae), Ficus religiosa (Moraceae), Gmelina arborea (Lamiaceae), Millettia pinnata (Fabaceae), Polyalthia longifolia (Annonaceae) and Tamarindus indicus (Fabaceae).
Thank you Arvind for your answer.
Dear researchers, I'm much more interested to get illuminating inputs and resources about the first part of the question. RG platform should promote powerful cerebral exercises and insightful inputs among the respondents!
Yes, we can develop urban forests to enhance their weather conditions and also for biodiversity conservation.
For this ornamental tree species are useful.
Urban trees can be surely used to enhance biodiversity in cities and to address pollution issues in terms of VOC and particular matter. They can have a huge impact on air circulation and microclimatic condition such as temperature and humidity. In a recent speech at the Green Infrastructure' Conference in Orvieto (Italy), prof. David J. Nowak pointed out that trees can operate in both ways helping coping with this issues or worsening the problem, due to design mistakes or plant misuse.
Forgive me for interjecting a comment in a field in which I am not an expert. Temperature inversions (i.e., thin layers in the atmosphere that interrupt the normal temperature gradient) are apt to trap pollutants below that layer. In my limited experience, I have noticed that these inversions are likely to form over cities that are surrounded by hills. Also, inversions tend to reduce rainstorms . . . not a good thing. The pollution associated with these inversions can really disrupt the life of the city.
I have been wondering if it would be possible to create a hotspot on the surface that would cause a column of air to rise and disrupt the inversion layer. How would one create such a hotspot? Well, maybe focused sunlight would do it. So one might be able to focus sunlight on a patch of rock and let air currents do the rest.
I realize that this is not what the question asks for. I know that I should really write something about forestation or keep still. But I just had this one odd thought and was moved to reveal it.
The urban forests are quite a thing in Europe, the forest recreation movement is also getting quite big. City forests work not only as recreational facilities, but also help mitigate the pollution and of course improve the biodiversity of species , making urban ecosystems more resilient.
You can check out "European Forest Recreation and Tourism" by SImon Bell
Moringa oleifera - Drumstick tree - very useful for urban forestry, along banks of watercourse also for bioremediation.
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