Reports of tree canopy coverage dwindling in Australia’s suburbs raise pressure on local government and other authorities’ efforts to improve the health of urban street trees.
Reports of tree canopy coverage dwindling in Australia’s suburbs raise pressure on local government and other authorities’ efforts to improve the health of urban street trees.
to soak into tree root zones is proving effective for a shady tree canopy in concrete urban environments where extreme heat occurs regularly.
The new study, published in Frontiers of Climate, examines how growth, water use, leaf-level gas exchange and productivity of white cedar (Melia azedarach) trees has benefited from a popular stormwater harvesting device, the TREENET Inlet. This intercepts stormwater runoff from roads and soaks it into the soil through a porous well around street trees.
“Increased land surface sealing due to urbanisation and building homes and infrastructure has decreased rainfall infiltration to the soil, decreased vegetation cover and increased demand on mains water resources,” says lead researcher, Flinders University Environmental Science graduate and PhD candidate Xanthia Gleeson.
Read more at Flinders University
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