ArticleAmbio2021
Beyond 'trees are good': Disservices, management costs, and tradeoffs in urban forestry.
Article in Ambio, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Boxes of rain: A systematic review on the classes and frameworks of ecosystem disservices.Ambio · 2025Pooled it
- A genus-labeled dataset of individual trees outside forests in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.Scientific data · 2026Article
- The best laid plans: How do adopted city sustainability goals influence site-level action in urban forestry?Ambio · 2026Article
- Socioeconomic Disparities in the Diversity, Abundance, Structure and Composition of Woody Plants in Residential Streetscapes: Insights for Transitioning to a More Environmentally Just City.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A cautionary tale about urban trees: could ecoservice monetary estimates become economic sleights of hand?Bioscience · 2025Review
- Urban forestry practices to improve heat-related human health: exploring the practicalities and concerns with U.S. urban tree professionals.Urban forestry & urban greening · 2025Article
- Design and application of species-specific primers to Quercus cerris roots' identification in urban forests.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Native Flora and Potential Natural Vegetation References for Effective Forest Restoration in Italian Urban Systems.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mitigation potential of urban greening during heatwaves and stormwater events: a modeling study for Karlsruhe, Germany.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring the relationship between urban green infrastructure connectivity, size and multifunctionality: a systematic review.Landscape ecology · 2025Review
- Manhattan's Street Trees: An Unfinished Public Health Story.American journal of public health · 2025Article
- Tree diversity across the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area in relation to climate and social vulnerability.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2024Article
- Article
- A Scoping Review of Urban Planning Decision Support Tools and Processes That Account for the Health, Environment, and Economic Benefits of Trees and Greenspace.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Satisfaction with urban trees associates with tree canopy cover and tree visibility around the home.npj urban sustainability · 2023Article
- Cost effectiveness of spread mitigation strategies for polyphagous shot hole borerFrontiers in insect science · 2023Article
- Principles for urban nature-based solutions.Ambio · 2022Article
- Prediction of airborne pollen concentrations by artificial neural network and their relationship with meteorological parameters and air pollutants.Journal of environmental health science & engineering · 2022Article
- Leveraging ancillary benefits from urban greenspace - a case study of St. Louis, Missouri.Urban water journal · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The provision of ecosystem services is a prominent rationale for urban greening, and there is a prevailing mantra that 'trees are good'. However, understanding how urban trees contribute to sustainability must also consider disservices. In this perspective article, we discuss recent research on ecosystem disservices of urban trees, including infrastructure conflicts, health and safety impacts, aesthetic issues, and environmentally detrimental consequences, as well as management costs related to ecological disturbances and risk management. We also discuss tradeoffs regarding species selection and local conservation concerns, as well as the central role of human perception in the interpretation of ecosystem services and disservices, particularly the uncritical assertion that 'everybody loves trees'. Urban forestry decision-making that fails to account for disservices can have unintended negative consequences for communities. Further research is needed regarding life cycle assessments, stakeholder decision-making, return-on-investment, and framings of services and disservices in urban forestry.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.