Measuring andmonitoring urban trees and urban forests

This chapter focuses solely on measuring and monitoring urban trees, rather than all plant communities within the urban forest, and introduces the reader to the topic of urban forest assessment. It begins with a description of some variables measured during urban forest assessment and the tools and approaches used for this task. This is followed by a discussion of the different stakeholders who engage in urban forest assessment, including citizen volunteers, researchers, and governments. Forest mensuration is among the most fundamental disciplines in forestry and related sciences, including urban forestry. It focuses on the technical aspects of tree and forest measurement and monitoring. A more comprehensive set of variables is required to improve urban forest management. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service software i-Tree recommends collecting a set of variables that are critical for estimating environmental and economic ecosystem services.