Alexander Satel

Bio: Alexander Satel is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Urban forest & Urban forestry. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 3 publications receiving 84 citations.

A framework for strategic urban forest management planning and monitoring.

Abstract: With global climate change, ever-increasing urban populations and rapidly spreading invasive species and pests, the challenges facing urban forests today are immense. To address these challenges and achieve true sustainability, urban forest management programmes need to transition from a reactive maintenance approach to one of proactive management. The clear solution is collaborative, long-term, strategic urban forest management planning. This paper outlines a threetiered planning framework comprising a high-level, 20-year strategic plan, with four five-year management plans, and 20 annual operating plans. The concept of active adaptive management is firmly embedded in this framework, providing managers with the opportunity to review the successes and shortcomings of their management activities on a systematic basis, and integrate new approaches or address new issues as required. The framework is further supported by a comprehensive set of criteria and indicators for performance assessment. These 25 criteria and indicators support the process of adaptive management by providing clear and consistent measures by which progress can be gauged, and are positioned as tools for improving the development and implementation of urban forest management plans over time. Finally, the flexibility of the framework and its applicability at different scales is highlighted with several case studies, including the development of strategic urban forest management plans for municipalities and golf courses.

Sustainable Urban Forest Management Planning Using Criteria and Indicators

Abstract: This poster discusses how Criteria and Indicators (C&I) for success in sustainable urban forest management, first outlined by Clark et al. (1997), can be successfully applied as tools to improve Strategic Urban Forest Management planning. It presents updates and modifications to the original tables, developed by van Wassenaer, Kenney and Satel (in press) to improve their application in strategic planning. A case study demonstrates how C&I were used to evaluate current management practices in the Town of Oakville, Ontario. This poster also outlines the strategic planning framework used in the preparation of the Oakville Plan, and presents it as a model applicable to any size of community interested in sustainably managing its urban forest resources.

Structuring institutional analysis for urban ecosystems: a key to sustainable urban forest management.

Abstract: A decline in urban forest structure and function in the United States jeopardizes the current focus on developing sustainable cities. A number of social dilemmas—for example, free-rider problems—restrict the sustainable production of ecosystem services and the stock of urban trees from which they flow. However, institutions, or the rules, norms, and strategies that affect human decision-making, resolve many such social dilemmas, and thus, institutional analysis is imperative for understanding urban forest management outcomes. Unfortunately, we find that the definition of institutions varies greatly across and within disciplines, and conceptual frameworks in urban forest management and urban ecosystems research often embed institutions as minor variables. Given the significance of institutional analysis to understanding sustainable rural resource management, this paper attempts to bring clarity to defining, conceptually framing, and operationally analyzing institutions in urban settings with a specific focus on sustainable urban forest management. We conclude that urban ecologists and urban forest management researchers could benefit from applying a working definition of institutions that uniquely defines rules, norms, and strategies, by recognizing the nested nature of operational, collective choice, and constitutional institutions, and by applying the Institutional Analysis and Development framework for analysis of urban social-ecological systems (SESs). Such work promises to spur the desired policy-based research agenda of urban forestry and urban ecology and provide cross-disciplinary fertilization of institutional analysis between rural SESs and urban ecosystems.

The influence of land use type and municipal context on urban tree species diversity

Abstract: Recent research has focused on the ways urban forest patterns vary in relation to level of urbanization and socioeconomic characteristics, with most studies limited to one urban land use type or multiple non-differentiate land uses. Additionally, the majority of studies examining urban forest patterns focus on canopy cover extent, with less attention given to patterns of species diversity. This study explores how tree species diversity varies across different urban land uses and municipal boundaries to better understand the role of land use types in shaping urban forest patterns. The goal is addressed through an exploration of plot-level tree data in the urban municipalities of Peel Region located in the Greater Toronto Area (Ontario, Canada). Species composition and standard diversity metrics are calculated for eight land use types and four municipalities. Our results show that differences in diversity metrics and species composition are greater between urban land uses than municipalities. Moreover, Peel’s urban forest has relatively high alpha diversity but many species are present on only one land use type. The results suggest that different causal processes are associated with each land use type, and that urban forest managers should adopt land use-specific strategies to meet species composition goals within the urban forest.