Urban Tree Management -A Tree Survey Report

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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.

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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.

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.
Street No. of Trees Street No. of trees
Yau Yat Chuen (area) 209 Ying Wa Street 62
Tat Chee Avenue 174 Cornwall Street 60
Hing Wah Street 149 Tai Hang Sai Street – Shek Kip Mei Estate 55
Sham Mong Road – Hoi Lai Estate 150 Tung Chau Street 47
Sham Mong Road – Fu Cheong to Hoi Lai Estate 120 Tai Hang Sai Street – Nam Shan Estate 42
Sham Mong Road – Fu Cheong Estate 118 Lai Hong Street 41
Cheung Sha Wan Road 88 Yen Chau Street/ West 26
Lai Wan Road 88 Mei Lai Road 24
Boundary Street 84 Tai Po Road 24
Tonkin Street 82 Po On Road – So Uk 22
Tonkin Street West 79 Yee Kuk Street 16
Sham Mong Road – Nam Cheong Park 77 Fat Tseung Street West 11
Nam Cheong Street 76 Cheung Fat Street 7
Sham Shing Road 71 Tai Hang Tung Street 5
Lai Chi Kok Road 66 Nam Cheong District Community Centre 4
Hoi Lai Street 62 Others 249
Total: 2,388

Table 2.

The quantity and percentage of the eight most abundant tree species (out of a total of 2388 trees) in the study.
Species Quantity Percentage
Melaleuca cajuputi subsp. cumingiana 275 11.52%
Roystonea regia 201 8.42%
Aleurites moluccana 158 6.62%
Tabebuia chrysantha 145 6.07%
Xanthostemon chrysanthus 142 5.9%
Bombax ceiba 130 5.44%
Lagerstroemia speciosa 122 5.11%
Archontophoenix alexandrae 107 4.48%
Total 1280 53.56%

Table 3.

Trees in different size classes (DBH) and growing stages.
DBH Quantity (%) Tree species
<100mm (Young Tree) 463 (19.44%) Xanthostemon chrysanthus, Tabebuia chrysantha, Terminalia mantaly 100-200mm (Semi-mature) 881 (36.99%) Xanthostemon chrysanthus, Tabebuia chrysantha, Lagerstroemia speciosa, Melaleuca cajuputi subsp. cumingiana, Aleurites moluccana, Archontophoenix alexandrae, Roystonea regia, Bombax ceiba 201-500mm (Mature) 881 (36.99%) Lagerstroemia speciosa, Melaleuca cajuputi subsp. cumingiana, Aleurites moluccana, Bischofia javanica, Chukrasia tabularis, Delonix regia, Archontophoenix alexandrae, Roystonea regia, Peltophorum tonkinense, Peltophorum pterocarpum, Ficus virens, Ficus microcarpa, Bombax cebia 501-1000mm (Mature) 150 (6.30%) Melaleuca cajuputi subsp. cumingiana, Aleurites moluccana, Chukrasia tabularis, Delonix regia, Peltophorum tonkinense, Peltophorum pterocarpum, Ficus virens, Ficus microcarpa, Bombax cebi, Casuarina equisetifolia >1000mm

(Mature, meet OVT requirement)

7 (0.29%) Ficus microcarpa

Table 4. 

Overall health and structural conditions of the surveyed roadside trees.
Condition Heath problem (%) Structural problem (%)
Good 316 (13.2%) 250 (10.45%)
Fair 1805 (75.6%) 1917 (80.28%)
Fair to poor 133 (5.6%) 129 (5.4%)
Poor 115 (4.8%) 92 (3.85%)
Dying 18 (0.75%) —
Died 1 (0.04%) —

Table 5.

Types and quantity of structural problems recorded among the surveyed trees.
Structural problems Quantity Percentage
Obvious wound (by pruning, vehicle damages, etc.) 341 14.28%
Codominant stems 302 12.65%
Multiple stems 146 6.11%
Poor crown form with abrupt branches 65 2.7%
Girdling root 30 1.26%
Crossing branches 20 0.84%
Cavity 12 0.5%
Severely topped 4 0.17%

Table 6.

Sizes of tree pits and planters recorded in the survey.
Width of tree pit/ planter (mm) Quantity Percentage
400 – 600 280 11.73%
601 – 1000 386 16.16%
>1000 1603 67.13%
Large planter 119 4.98%

Table 7.

Records of poor pruning in this survey.
Pruning Quantity Percentage
Excessive crown raising 1154 48.32%
Pruned to abrupt bending 404 16.92%
Heading 340 14.24%
Stub pruning 105 4.40%
Topping 55 2.30%
Lion-tailing 9 0.38%

 

Figure 1.

Distribution of the surveyed roadside trees in Sham Shui Po District.

 

Fair: Sterculia lanceolata Fair to poor: Bombax cebia Poor: Delonix regia

 

Dying: Roystonea regia Dead: Elaeocarpa apiculatus
Figure 2.

Trees in different health conditions.

 

Figure 3. Examples of trees damaged by vehicles (pointed by red arrows).

 

Figure 4. Examples of mature trees growing in limited spaces.

 

Larger tree pit with young tree (replanting after typhoon damage) Small tree pit with mature trees
Figure 5. Examples of pit planted trees.

 

Figure 6. 342 trees (14.32%) were found planted too deep (Invisible root flare pointed by red arrow)

 

Figure 7. Excessive crown raising (Red arrows indicating the pruning wounds)

 

Figure 8. Recurrent pruning caused abrupt bending branches and poor crown form.

 

Figure 9. Examples of stub pruning with bark tearing (red arrows).

 

Figure 10. Large pruning wound (Left) and topping wound (Right).

 

Figure 11. In the study, 198 tree tags out of a total of 286 tags were constricting the tree trunk (Left). Some trees have 3 to 4 tree tags (Right).

 

Embedded collar into tree trunk Damaged supporting system Supporting pole not removed Supporting system left on the tree
Figure 12. In the study, supporting systems were seen on 323 trees and the supporting system of 264 out of 323 trees (81.73%) were outdated and should be removed.

 

Figure 13. One hazardous tree with poor rooting space and severe leaning was found at Nam Cheong District Community Centre.

 

Last Updated on January 29, 2025

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