Dear Colleagues,

Urban green addresses major urban challenges such as improving quality of life, preserving biodiversity and the adaptation to climate change. Urban trees as one of the main urban green components are of special interest to enhance climate resilience of urban areas due to their capacity to moderate the urban microclimate, mainly through their cooling function which strongly depends on the trees’ evapotranspiration and shading capacity. On the other hand, tree growth and tree vitality, both of which strongly affect the provision of ecosystem services, are influenced by many control factors, particularly the surrounding microclimate, built urban structure, and tree species characteristics. We encourage topics from all fields, including experimental studies, monitoring approaches, or modelling studies, to contribute to this Special Issue to promote knowledge and adaptation strategies for improving the urban microclimate and for mitigating the negative impacts of climate change. Submissions on topics concerning patterns and processes of microclimatic regulation through urban trees are particularly welcome. Topics for this Special Issue may further include the dynamics and functions of urban trees, the effects of the (micro-)climate and climate change on urban tree growth and their ecosystem services, as well as studies on the growth patterns of urban trees.

Studies may address, but are not limited to the following topics:

• Tree growth and vitality assessments across multiple urban space designs;
• The extent of cooling benefits from urban greenspaces at different spatial and temporal scales;
• Assessment of regulating and provisioning cultural ecosystem services within urban landscapes;
• Understanding and mapping urban greenspaces across scales to promote multi-functional landscapes and resilient cities.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Rötzer
Prof. Dr. Stephan Pauleit
Dr. Mohammad A Rahman
Dr. Astrid Reischl
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• ecosystem services
• cooling potential
• carbon sequestration
• urban trees
• climate change
• microclimate regulation
• growth-ESS patterns of urban trees