Summary

Module I has set the scene for the remainder of the course. You have learnt about cities and the ongoing urbanisation process, before having been introduced to the core concept of this course: urban forestry. As discussed, urban forests are not only about forest ecosystems or even about trees (although trees are important!); urban foresters deal with all trees and associated vegetation in and around cities and towns.

You have also learnt about the importance of urban forest inventories and assessment, to obtain an overview of urban forest structure, function, and value. Four key questions were introduced: 1) what do we have?; 2) what do we want?; 3) how do we get there?; and 4) how do we know that we have arrived?

The next Module will focus on the values and benefits of urban forests, as we will discuss the wide range of so-called ecosystem services they provide.