Antibes
Jardin botanique de la Villa Thuret, INRAE
PROJECT TITLE:  ARbres de Demain En Méditerranée (ARDEM)
https://jardin-thuret.hub.inrae.fr/decouvrir-l-unite/projets/presentation-des-fiches-especes   

In response to stakeholders in the Mediterranean landscape, the project "Trees of the Future for the Mediterranean cities" ARDEM (rendering of the title in english) was initiated in 2019. It aims to address the complex problem of adapting and diversifying urban tree pallets, supporting professionals in the choice of tree and shrub species for urban space development projects.

A working group, composed of representatives of local authorities, landscape architects, educators of the Vert d'Azur establishment of Antibes and scientists of the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), has compiled a first list of trees that can answer this question, by crossing bibliographic sources, their expertise and the original data collected on specimens in cultivation at the Botanical Garden “Thuret Jardin.”

To gather, analyze, and verify all available information, the INRAE team Unité Expérimentale Villa Thuret (UEVT), has designed a database of 127 fields organized into 17 categories, including distribution of the species in the world, Morphology, Architecture, Phenology, Life history traits (strategy of growth and persistence in the environment), climatic factors (in particular, evaluation of drought resistance and collection of physiological traits related to this resistance), soil and root system, risks (biological invasion, allergies, toxicity), adaptation to the urban environment, and typology of facilities. At the request of professionals, a first «emergency» list was distributed in 2021, during the technical days organized by “Plante & Cité”, the the center for research in the area of urban landscaping (Ducatillion and Delorme 2021).

The project has supported the French tree selection tool Sesame 13 for its enrichment for the region Bouches-du-Rhône. (INRAE 2022, INRAE 2024)