Density, diversity, composition and distribution of street trees in Sylhet Metropolitan City of Bangladesh

Abstract

Both for environmental and aesthetic purposes, urban street trees have significant importance. In most of the developed cities, this type of plantation is an integral part of landscape planning. Nevertheless, this issue is poorly considered in the cities of developing countries. Consequently, we observe a scarcity of urban street trees. Considering this scenario, we explored the state of urban street tree planting in Sylhet City, which is a growing urban centre in Bangladesh. We assessed the density, diversity, composition and distribution of street trees in the city using different diversity computation indices (e.g. relative abundances, dominance, importance and richness, evenness and diversity) in main and link roads. We also measured the growth pattern of the trees in the study area. It was found that out of 486 studied transects in both main and link roads, 404 had no trees. Sweitenia mahagoni was the dominant species in both road categories. The Mann Whitney U test results suggest that there was no significant difference in tree density and size attributes between the road categories. From these assessments, we concluded that the diversity and distribution of street trees in the study area was very limited. Moreover, there was no scientific arboricultural consideration in species selection to increase street tree planting for the city. We conclude that only proper management and objective-specific endeavor can change the prevailing scenario of the study area.

Structure and Composition of Plant Vegetation in Urban Area of Dhaka South City Corporation, Bangladesh

“…In case of shrub species, most of them are 1-3.1m height class which means the shrub species represents adequate height because of regular pruning and other management practices. The findings of this study is lower than the research conducted in the metropolitan areas of Sylhet city, Bangladesh where 48 percent of trees were found in 9-12m height class [38]. In the deforested area of Chittagong, the maximum tree and shrub population was found in 3-4.9 m height which comparatively lower than present study value [39].…”

Cooler and drier conditions increase parasitism in a subtropical damselfly population

“…Furthermore, the lower rate of parasitism in spring and summer compared to winter could arise because of the impact of the subtropical monsoon in the northeast region of Bangladesh which brings heavy rainfall (on average 695.33 mm during wet and hot summer months) (Fick & Hijmans, 2017 ). Additionally, our low altitude study area (altitude = 10 m) receives water from the adjacent Meghalaya Hills (altitude = 1961 m), which often experience one of the highest average rainfalls in the world (Barman et al., 2021 ; Deb et al., 2013 ; Murata et al., 2007 ). As a consequence, the study area is frequently flooded (Murata et al., 2007 ).…”

Assessment of Street Tree Diversity, Structure and Protection in Planned and Unplanned Neighborhoods of Lubumbashi City (DR Congo)

“…Differences between neighborhood types in terms of tree diversity were also recorded because most of the streets of unplanned neighborhoods are secondary. In line with this, [69] recorded differences in street tree diversity for primary and secondary roads are studied separately.…”