Integrating Urban Forests into Sustainable Urban Planning: Strategies, Challenges and Future Directions

Abstract: Urban forestry and green spaces are crucial to making agglomeration sustainable froman environmental, social, and health perspective. In doing so, this paper considers how urban forests (UFs) could be included in land use planning in cities, and the kind of challenges encountered by UFs in relation to this, including details about the standard programme of work containing issues of UHI, Pollution etc. Information is also provided in relation to where improvements might be possible in this case instead. The paper concludes with a review how the urban forests can control microclimate and air quality, stressing its potential to reduce heat islands and overall health. It also explains about carbon sequestration with the emphasis on afforestation as the effective form in the reduction of the emissions of greenhouse gases. The paper discusses the ideal intersection of policies-people-participation as well as policy-technology interfaces. Issues like spatial limitations, operational policies, and the use of multi–professional perspectives are considered. Another interesting discussion in the paper is the role of technology in UGS management and in engaging the community through Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Some of the future developments are to enhance the awareness of the general public on the effects of environmental conservation as well as adopting sophisticated technologies to enhance the decision making on the same subject. Lastly, the review stresses the recommendations for integrated management and a better coherence of planning approaches in order to deal with and prevent constraints on urban ecosystems. Keywords: Urban forests, Sustainable urban planning, Climate change, Ecosystem services, Urban greening