| UTAS Collaborators | School of Geography & Environmental Studies |
|---|---|
| Funding Source | ARC Discovery Grant DP0987099 |
| Project Status | Current |
Trees are a vital element of the sustainability and liveability of cities. We are documenting the changes in the eastern Australian urban tree estate and determining their causes and consequences. Using a novel socio-ecological methodology, data from remote sensing, size class analysis, social surveying, focus groups and interviews are being integrated to understand the patterns and causes of tree retention, establishment and removal.
So far we have found out that neighbours do not copy each other, although similar looking houses do tend to have similar gardens, that tree density in cities increased dramatically between the 1960s and the late 2000s, that there is scope to almost double the number of street trees without meeting social resistance, that attitudes to trees and wildlife are not necessarily reflected in the nature of wildlife in exurban properties and that the main reasons for tree death on private land are related to the personal preferences of owners for different trees. We are currently working on changes in preferences for different tree species, using size class analysis and questionnaire data, the transformation of municipal tree management and the related emergence of the profession of arboriculture in Australia over the past 20 years, and, the tensions within sustainability agendas between urban greening and urban consolidation.
Kirkpatrick J.B., Daniels, G. D. and Davison, A., 2009. An antipodean test of spatial contagion in front garden character. Landscape and Urban Planning 93, 103-110.
Conole, L.E. and Kirkpatrick, J.B., 2011. Functional and spatial differentiation of urban bird assemblages at the landscape scale. Landscape and Urban Planning 100, 11-23.
Kirkpatrick J.B., Daniels, G. D. and Davison, A., 2011. Temporal and spatial variation in garden and street trees in six eastern Australian cities. Landscape and Urban Planning 101, 242-252.
Daniels, G.D. and Kirkpatrick, J.B., in press. Attitude and action syndromes of exurban landowners have little effect on native mammals in exurbia. Biodiversity and Conservation. DOI 10.1007/s10531-011-0139-4.
Members (External)
Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick, Chief Investigator J.Kirkpatrick@utas.edu.au
Dr Aidan Davison, Chief Investigator Aidan.Davison@utas.edu.au