Climate change threatens Vienna's city trees: This is how their care can be ensured!

Climate change threatens Vienna's city trees: This is how their care can be ensured!

Vienna faces a double challenge: climate change not only brings hotter summers and extreme weather events, but also impacts the city's trees, which are of indispensable value for the microclimate and the cityscape. There are over 500,000 urban trees in the Austrian capital, for which around 70 specially trained arborists and certified tree inspectors are responsible courier reported. In summer, 150 employees and 50 watering vehicles are available every day to water the vegetation in the city.

But not all evergreen giants can easily cope with the changing climate. The more frequent heat waves are particularly damaging to young trees. These require particularly intensive care in the first four years and are supplied with around 400,000 liters of water every day. Where automatic irrigation systems are missing, they must be watered by hand at least twice a week. After all, almost 25,000 irrigation bags are used to help the small trees survive their first years of life.

Inestimable value of city trees

City and street trees fulfill a variety of functions - they not only provide shade, but also important emission filters and habitats for numerous animal species. Nevertheless, they struggle under extreme conditions such as soil compaction, air pollutants and an increasing number of new harmful organisms like that Federal Environment Agency explained. Divine weather or not, many of these trees often only reach half their natural lifespan.

The city of Vienna has responded to this and developed a comprehensive urban tree concept that takes climate change into account as a central factor. The selection of suitable tree species should be based on future urban climatic conditions in order to optimize the lifespan of the plants. Such an approach could help many tried and tested tree species to better withstand the new challenges.

The path to the future of urban trees

Vienna can benefit from the experiences of other cities that have already developed innovative models to improve urban trees. In Bavaria, for example, a process-oriented model was developed as part of the CityTree I and II subprojects. As ZSK reports, this model helps planners better understand the growth and ecosystem services of urban trees and adapt them to future climate conditions. The guide contains helpful simulation results that can be used for a variety of tree species in cities.

The challenges are great, but with a coordinated approach to the care and planning of city trees, Vienna can not only protect its green lungs, but also offer future generations a more livable urban climate. This path requires a good knack for selecting the right tree species and continuous care of the existing tree stands. Complete success only becomes visible from around the age of 20, when the trees can develop their full effectiveness for the climate.