Urban Tree Management -A Tree Survey Report

Module 1 Urban Tree Management -A Tree Survey Report (45%)

1. Background

The data shown in Appendix 1 below come from “The Roadside Tree Survey and Community Participation Project” co-organized by the Conservancy Association and the Working Group of Urban Greening and Tree Management of Sham Shui Po District Council. The project was funded by the District Council.

The project was conducted in early 2021 and the main purpose of this project was to establish a roadside tree inventory. By understanding the conditions of the trees, long-term management plans and strategies could be prepared for the trees in a more holistic way.

A sustainable urban forest could then be established in Sham Shui Po. The survey was conducted from January to February 2021 and covered 2,388 trees planted along the major roads and streets in the Sham Shui Po District (SSPD).

Trees inside parks, housing estates, private premises and trees on Stonecutters Island were not included in this survey.

2. Assessment Objectives

Part of the survey data from the above project was extracted for this assessment. The objectives of this assessment are to: – Describe the situation of the roadside trees in SSPD; – Identify the problems of existing trees; – Suggest the potential causes for the above problems; and – Provide constructive and practical solutions for the trees’ long-termsustainability and associated benefits.

Urban Tree Management -A Tree Survey Report Task

Write a fully referenced tree survey report of between 1,200 and 1,500 words (excluding the references). The report should include: • Introduction – a brief literature review on urban tree management in Hong Kong. The

objectives of the study should be put at the end of the introduction. • Method – a simple description of the survey method by looking at the data and work back

on what information were collected during the survey. • Results – you may organize and present the data in your own way. You may include

quantitative or qualitative analysis of the data as you see fit. • Discussion – discuss the results obtained and support your arguments with the literature. • Recommendations – make practical recommendations from the study to the Sham Shui

Po District Council.

3.1 Format and Editing As a professional report, simple English is preferred. Writing in simple sentences could also avoid making mistakes. Here are a few notes: • All scientific names must be in italic fonts with the first letter of the genus name in

capital letter e.g., Bombax ceiba. Cross check all species name andinformation using the Hong Kong Plant Database of the Hong Kong Herbarium.

• For in text citation, put the authors’ surnames followed by the year of the publication.For references with more than three authors, use the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” and then year.

Examples:

For urban biodiversity, plants, birds and butterflies are often the dominant taxa (Hau, 2020). Roadside trees are often found planted in compacted soil with poor soil nutrients (So et al., 2015). • In Hong Kong Government’s reports, numbered section headings and sub-headings are

always preferred. Sometimes, each paragraph is numbered e.g., in EIA reports (see the EIA Register).

• Tables and figures are used to help illustrating the points you are making in the text. They should all be numbered in a sequence with independent titles. They should be referred to in the text.

Example:

Thirty-two tree species were recorded on Cheung Sha Wan Road (Table 1). Table 1. The tree species recorded on Cheung Sha Wan Road in this study.

• For the references cited, avoid citing web-based materials of obscure sources. Official websites of government, well-known organisations or NGOs are fine. For media materials, citing facts such as the date of an accident are ok but avoid citing interpretation by the reporter. Peer-reviewed scientific papers, conference proceedings, and books or book chapters published by well-known publishers are high quality reference materials.
• For the reference list at the end of the report, you may follow any style and format of a scientific paper. Consistency is formatting is the key.

Example:

Pang C.C., Lo W.F., Yan R.W.M. and Hau B.C.H. 2019. Plant community composition on

landfill sites after multiple years of ecological restoration. Landscape Research

Jim C.Y. 1990. Trees in Hong Kong: Species for landscape planning. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong.

Hau B.C.H. 2019. Biodiversity conservation planning and case studies in Hong Kong. In Ren, C. (Editor). Exploring the Sustainable Development of HighDensity Cities: The Planning and Design of Contemporary Hong Kong. China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing. ISBN: 978-7-112- 22923-9

• Conduct a “spell and grammar” check of the essay as the last step before submission.

Species Height (m) Number Origin Acacia confusa 15-20 10 Exotic

Bombax ceiba 20-30 20 Exotic

etc…

ENVM 8014 Special Topics in Environmental Management

Module 1 Urban Tree Management -A Tree Survey Report (45%)

Appendix 1. Data extracted from “The Roadside Tree Survey and Community Participation Project” co-organized by the Conservancy Association and the Working Group of Urban Greening and Tree Management of Sham Shui Po District Council.

Table 1.

Number of roadside trees recorded in Sham Shui Po District.

Table 2.

The quantity and percentage of the eight most abundant tree species (out of a total of 2388 trees) in the study.

Table 3.

Trees in different size classes (DBH) and growing stages.

Table 4. 

Overall health and structural conditions of the surveyed roadside trees.

Table 5.

Types and quantity of structural problems recorded among the surveyed trees.

Table 6.

Sizes of tree pits and planters recorded in the survey.

Table 7.

Records of poor pruning in this survey.

Last Updated on January 29, 2025