Identification of the most damaging environmental pressures for the urban trees of the northeast of North America : a Delphi approach

Carol Aristizabal, Maria Isabel (2021). Identification of the most damaging environmental pressures for the urban trees of the northeast of North America : a Delphi approach. Mémoire. Gatineau, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Département des sciences naturelles, 241 p.

Prévisualisation

PDF Télécharger (19MB) | Prévisualisation

Résumé

The importance of urban forests and their benefits is being increasingly acknowledged and valued. However, the potential sensitivities of urban trees to urban disturbances are less well documented. For the future development of the green zones in cities, further research is needed as climate change is expected to increase the risk of disturbances to trees. The purpose of this project is to gather information about the tolerance of different urban tree species to several disturbances affecting trees in cities of northeastern North America using a closed survey and the Delphi method. This method consists of different rounds of questions aiming to achieve consensus on the opinions of different respondents (here, experts on urban forestry). This research has shown that urban environments are highly complex, as well as the tolerance of various urban tree species to the different disturbances that exist in cities. Among all tree species that have been most often mentionned in the questionnaires answered by the experts to be tolerant to the different stresses are Gleditsia triacanthos, Quercus sp., Ginkgo biloba and Ulmus sp., though none of them were rated as tolerant for all types of disturbance. Furthermore, in both questionnaires there was a lack of agreement regarding some disturbances. This has allowed us to see where there might be a possible gap in knowledge about the tolerance of key urban tree species. This can be used as an argument for conducting empirical experiments or more in-depth research on disturbances where there is a lack of agreement.

Type de document:	Thèse (Mémoire)
Directeur de mémoire/thèse:	Dupras, Jérôme
Co-directeurs de mémoire/thèse:	Messier, Christian
Mots-clés libres:	Delphi method; Urban forestry; Urban stressors; Tolerance; Urban disturbances; Resistance; Resilience
Départements et école, unités de recherche et services:	Sciences naturelles
Date de dépôt:	01 nov. 2021 12:51
Dernière modification:	01 nov. 2021 12:51
URI:	https://di.uqo.ca/id/eprint/1330

Gestion Actions (Identification requise)

Dernière vérification avant le dépôt