Network of monitoring sites

The monitoring of tree species performance in the urban conditions has been established in some cities. With well defined procedures or even instruments measurements, valuable data is collected. Research findings will guide decision making in tree management or new tree plantings.
 

AUSTRALIA

The WPW Living Lab is linked to the project "Which Plant Where" (WPW). It was established in 2018 as a new network of urban planting sites where plant performance is assessed across a wide range of environmental conditions.

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It comprises a standardized set of tree and shrub plantings that are considered suitable for urban areas throughout Australia. The main sets are (1) Trees only, comprising four species. (2) Shrubs only, s comprising four shrub species; and (3) Trees + Shrubs, a mixture of four different tree species, each planted with four different shrub species alongside. (Esperon-Rodriguez et al 2025)

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"The WPW Living Lab currently has 10 sites in four states, covering a temperature and precipitation gradient across Australia, from the warmer and wetter site in the Sunshine Coast, to the cooler and drier site in Canberra." (Which Plant Where 2021, December 14).

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Also in the country the Treenet network has been established since early 2000s. It has been able to bring together efforts from many stakeholders (communities, governments, schools, researchers, etc.) to plant and monitor trees. Results presented at Treenet's symposia are available in the Australian Urban Forest Literature Database and links to some selected papers and videos are provided at the website platform. It also cooperates with WPW in collecting and sharing data on climate ready street trees. An invaluable resource that is also provided by the network is the Australian Tree Failure Database (ATFD) which is continuously updated and made available to arborists (Manea et al 2021, Treenet n.d.). ​