Selecting trees for urban paved sites in Scandinavia - A review of information on stress tolerance and its relation to the requirements of tree planners

Urban paved sites are complex stress environments and when selecting trees for such sites, tree planners must prioritise stress tolerance above aesthetic appeal and functional aspects. This requires detailed information about the tolerance of tree species to environmental stresses, so as to support urban tree planners in selecting a wide range of trees. In Scandinavia there is currently no overview of the extent to which the character of information about stress tolerance and its dissemination in books and papers support urban tree planners in selecting a wide range of species for paved sites. Books on dendrology, literature on plant use in cities, tree nursery catalogues and scientific papers were therefore reviewed. For the review, eight tree species were selected along a gradient representing their intensity of use in Northern Europe. We examined the character of information and assessed it relative to tree planners' requirements for information to be; contextual, local to Scandinavia, referring to existing plantings in paved sites and recommendations for use of the species in paved sites. The results showed that existing information is piecemeal and that most is either too general (dendrology literature) or too specific or contradictory (scientific literature) to meet the requirements of urban tree planners, while books intended for plant use in cities do not sufficiently integrate the local perspective. Moreover, contextual information local to the Scandinavian region is mainly provided for already much used species. These findings led to suggestions on how future urban forestry and arboriculture research and dissemination efforts in Scandinavia can encourage tree planners to use a greater variety of tree species in urban paved sites. (C) 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.