This pilot project demonstrates that the NFI data, in combinationwith the DEGURBA approach, provides existing data onEuropean urban forests. Now that we know what we have, thereis potential to quantify and qualify the state and trends ofEuropean urban forests. Moving forward we can draw onexisting policies and concepts such as ecosystem services tomodel what urban forests can give back to us. Existing EUpolicy strategies, such as green infrastructure and thebiodiversity strategy, provide common policy platforms to buildupon and link to urban forests. Such platforms can be used todevelop common indicators for further development of the NFI,integrating new biodiversity and green infrastructure indicatorsinto the NFI. I-Tree will be launched in Europe in spring 2018and will provide a common set of indicators and data streams forurban ecosystem services.
These data protocols could potentially be integrated into theroutine measurements of the NFI to enhance current datacollection and make links to tree-specific data. In a concretesense, such data could be applied to the management andplanning of urban forests connected with e.g. infrastructureplans. Further steps could be taken to collect and modelecosystem services based on national forest preference and usestudies. Additional potential exists to draw on national healthdata to model the human health and well-being outcomes ofEuropean urban forests.
This workshop further outlined large knowledge gaps thatdemand further exploration to fully realise the potential of whatNFI data can tell us about European urban forests. Key questionsarise concerning the basic definition of a forest.
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