Assessment and representation of Urban Trees Ecosystem Services: a case study in Pryzamkovyi park

Abstract

The research was aimed at verification of the possibility and expediency of applying i-Tree Eco tools in order to assess the value of ecosystem trees and bushes by the example of one of the parks in Ukraine and representation of the obtained information on an interactive map. For this purpose, the inventory of 228 urban trees in Pryzamkovyi park was conducted and the possibility of its adjustment to the conditions in Ukraine was assessed. The obtained information was analysed and visualised, and the advantages and disadvantages of this process were determined. The scope of the provided ecosystem services for park spaces was specified and it was determined that urban trees in Pryzamkovyi park have a €12.38 million replacement value and the average indicator of annual usefulness of ecosystem services provided by one tree plant or one bush plant in the park is equal to €15.75 per year, according to i-Tree Eco assessment. In order to improve the process of obtaining, processing and visualising materials, an orthophotomap based on unmanned aerial vehicle survey materials was applied. It allowed increasing the accuracy and improving the visualisation of the geolocation of trees and bushes. In order to familiarise a greater number of users with this information, electronic maps of vegetation that display the location of trees and bushes and their ecosystem services, both in quantity and monetary terms, were offered. The peculiarity and the scientific novelty of the approaches to solving the assigned task is the improvement of the process of informing the interested parties about the ecosystem services of a specific tree in the park and green plantations in the park as a whole. The suggested approaches to assessing the value of urban trees and their ecosystem services give ground to emphasise the value of these plants for urban ecosystems, to substantiate the expediency of implementing environmental measures as well as the need to increase the funding of these measures as a compensation for the services provided by trees and plants. At the same time, it is worth mentioning the expediency of conducting further research on this subject and the related issues, which requires follow-up studying.

Sampling Protocol for Measuring Mean Diameter at Breast Height of Forked Urban Trees

“…Tree inventories in urban settings often include measuring the diameter at breast height (DBH), height, and crown parameters [22]. The DBH is the primary and the most useful biometric tree parameter [23].…”

“…However, aiming to derive mean stem DBH and its derivatives (tree volume, biomass) it is necessary to measure each stem separately. Specifically in Ukraine, forked trees are counted separately if their stems bifurcate below 1.3 m (breast height) [22]. However, official regulations do not clarify in which cases tree stems should be treated as large branches and thus ignored when calculating the mean stem DBH.…”