Urban Forest Sustainability in Residential Areas in the City of Santo Domingo

Abstract

Cities are territories vulnerable to climate change. An alternative to increase resilience and mitigate the effects of the climate context is urban forest planning to increase ecosystem services. This research constructed a forest cover sustainability index, based on 147 semi-structured interviews with residents of four residential areas of the city of Santo Domingo (Gazcue, Zona Colonial, Ciudad Nueva, and San Carlos), in which information was collected based on both benefit perception and tree management in their home and nearby public areas. The socioeconomic characteristics of the population and the information gathered from the measurements of the urban forest in both public and private areas of the city during the 2016–2019 period were considered, including these four residential areas, which established the ecosystem services provided by the urban forest. The results showed that Gazcue had a higher value in the forest cover sustainability index. The factors that influenced this result were: job stability, medium-high income, and property ownership. Likewise, the added value of the territory, whether in terms of tourism or the socioeconomic value of the population that inhabits it, is closely related to a greater attention to urban planning, prioritizing the conservation and landscape harmony that the arboreal component can provide. In conclusion, urban forest planning in cities should consider tree species, the design and structure of spatial arrangements, and a competent legal framework that can meet the challenges of territorial sustainability and contribute to the resilience and mitigation of climate change impacts.

Recreation and Therapy in Urban Forests—The Potential Use of Sensory Garden Solutions

“…Unfortunately, the potential of natural settings in contributing to the quality of working and housing environments, which could enhance the health and well-being of residents, is not fully considered in the current trend of building compact cities [65]. What is more, urban forests, besides contributing to human well-being positively, affect the private value of properties [66].…”

Understanding Urban Complexity via the Spatial Diversity of Activities: An Application to Barcelona (Spain)

“…Clearly, performing such analyses for both pre-and post-COVID-19 scenarios would be of interest, as would the historical comparison of regular grids in different case studies. On the other hand, it would be of great interest to examine in depth the possible relationship between morphology and diversity, and to measure urban complexity using human mobility data [88,89] and urban ecosystem services [90][91][92][93][94].…”

Coupling outdoor air quality with thermal comfort in the presence of street trees: a pilot investigation in Shenyang, Northeast China

“…Urban areas occupy 3% of the planet's surface but support approximately 60% of the world's population (FAO 2020;Bonilla-Duarte et al 2021). Rapid urban expansion is associated with environmental issues such as high temperatures and increased air pollution (Zhang et al 2021).…”