Trees in urban ecosystem: connection between ¿new? urbanism, society and rational risk management

Abstract

The relentless and massive population migration process to the cities is a phenomenon of great concern due to the large urban overcrowding and the consequent problems involved, such as environmental, public health, social, etc. In fact, in this century, Pickett (Forman, 2010) already talks of "urban species", where more than 50% of the world's population already lives in cities. Within the different theories, approaches and strategies to carry out a more rational territorial development that generates healthy cities, naturation processes and green infrastructure highlight to try to mitigate these terrible consequences. This strategy, endorsed by EU recently, has numerous benefits and components as green roofs, vertical gardening, greenways, etc.., although perhaps one of the most important is the urban forest. Its governance is extremely important and should include apart from the plans which maximize the benefits, those that minimize problems, and above everything the most important: its inherent potential danger. Sometimes trees collapsed causing serious consequences, but often they are identifiable and preventable i.e. external biomechanics symptoms are indicators of internal problems. Therefore the incorporation of scientific and technical approaches (including specific tools such as tomograph, SLT,…) about risk assessment should be an integral component of the management of GI.