Dear Netters, TREE CITY initiative addresses the increasing need for development and improved management of urban forests in developing countries. At present we are preparing a project proposal entitled "TREE CITY Climate Research Project" Planting urban trees is one good way to address the greenhouse effect and the global warming problem. Trees have lots of potential to cool our cities, both by their shading of building surfaces, and by their evapotranspiration cooling effect. Tree planting is a more cost-effective energy and carbon dioxide conservation strategy than many other fuel saving measures. Inspite of the potential of urban forest, the interrelated subjects of energy, pollution and urban forest have been hardly studied in developing countries. The proposed project attempts to fill this gap. The overall goal is to increase the understanding of how vegetation within urban areas influences local climate, energy use, and air quality. Research goals are (i) to quantify and assign monetary values to many of the environmental benefits and costs associated with urban forest ecosystems in selected cities; (ii) to generate management alternative to enhance urban forest environment benefits; (iii) and to develop transferable methods and models for other cities Interrelated urban forest ecosystem functions that will be studied will be: climate modification, energy conservation, air quality and carbon dioxide sequestration. Cost-benefit implications of urban vegetation will be considered as well. Criteria for selection of cities include: 1. High political interest and commitment to the project 2. Availability of national institutions which basically can implement the collaborative research effort 3. Existence of urban forestry related initiatives For that reason preference was given to cities which joined the "Cities for Climate Protection" campaign and are member of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), or whose decision makers have stated their great interest in the proposed study. If your organization or city is interested to participate in the project, we are pleased to hearing from you. Sincerely yours Guido Kuchelmeister TREE CITY - Urban Forestry & Arboricultural Program Office Illertissen: Graf-Kirchberg-Strasse 26, 89257 Illertissen, Germany. Tel. +49-7303-43776, Fax. +49-7303-42114 Email: 100441.3577@Compuserve.com URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages /G_Kuchelmeister/
Mail converted by
MHonArc 1.1.0