Sustainable community rehabilitation with forestry systems

Abstract

Development of green areas at the periphery of towns was a concern for city planners since the middle of the XIXth century. Sustainable design of urban systems as ecological entities calls for increasing the percentage of planted areas as well as community oriented projects. The control of urban sprawl is basically unattainable, the trend of housing developments at the periphery being noticeable in later years in all major towns in Romania. The need to juxtapose green areas in- between housing developments is just as pressing as the one for public functions. A solution would be to intervene with a pattern of small forestry plantation patches of fast growing trees, in addition to extending the natural forests. Urban forestry provides means for sustainable tree harvesting, additionally stabilizing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at microclimatic level. Forestry plantation could be beneficial for the community in terms of socioeconomics, providing a sustainable source of income. The authors propose means of implementing such forestry systems with regard to socio-economic aspects of community rehabilitation.