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Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-51812-7_194-1

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U
Urban Forestry in Sidewalks
of Bogota, Colombia
Laura Patricia Otero-Durán
Urban Development Institute, Bogotá, Colombia
Definition
The urban infrastructure is a system made up of
the natural network (green infrastructure) and the
built infrastructure (grey infrastructure). Hence,
the European Strategy on Green Infrastructure
urges member states to “ensure that the protection,
restoration, creation and enhancement of green
infrastructure becomes an integral part of spatial
planning and territorial development whenever it
offers a better alternative, or is complementary, to
standard grey choices” (European Commission
2019).
According to the Food and Agriculture Orga-
nization of the United Nations, the green infra-
structure backbone are the urban forests
comprising all woodlands, groups of trees, and
individual trees located in urban and peri-urban
areas (FAO 2016). Within the categories of urban
forests are peri-urban forests, urban parks greater
than 0.5 Ha, pocket parks and gardens with trees
less than 0.5 Ha, urban road trees, and public
spaces and other green spaces with trees such as
fields, open and botanical gardens (FAO 2016).
Considering that, street corridors have a high
potential to host green infrastructure, this chapter
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Brears (ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51812-7_194-1
will address the case of urban trees on the Bogota
sidewalks due to the multiple environmental, eco-
nomic, and social benefits they provided.
Synonyms
Green infrastructure; Landscaping; Nature-based
solutions; Public space; Urban forestry; Urban
planning
Introduction
The Sustainable Development Goal number
11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities” high-
lights the importance of improving urban manage-
ment so that cities are more resilient and
sustainable. Similarly, the New Urban Agenda
recognizes infrastructure as a driver of cost effi-
ciency and resource use by promoting environ-
mental protection and highlights the commitment
in land use planning to improve urban ecosystems
and their environmental services.
Likewise, the Nature based Solutions (NbS)
are actions to protect, manage sustainably, restore
natural ecosystems, or modified and thus effec-
tively resolve social challenges, while adaptive
and simultaneously provide human well-being
and benefits derived from biodiversity
(IUCN 2016).
In the framework of the NbS, the infrastructure
approach makes it possible to address urban
2 Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia
problems such as the hardening of public space
that affects the urban water balance by increasing
runoff (Figueroa Arango 2020). This is done
through green infrastructure (GI) solutions such
as vegetated surfaces, green roofs, public parks,
green walls, urban forests, green alleys and
streets, community gardens, and urban wetlands
and Sustainable Drainage systems (SuDS) (Van
Oijstaeijen et al. 2020).
In that sense, it is important to consider that
green infrastructure is a multiscale territorial plan-
ning tool that serves ecological, productive, and
cultural functions while contributing to the resil-
ience of the territories (Calaza Martínez 2019). If
we considered that street corridors configure a
network to connect citizens through different
modes of transport, they are a perfect opportunity
to promote the connectivity of urban biodiversity
through the forestry in sidewalks.
Urban Forestry in Bogotá
Local Context
Latinoamerica is the most urbanized development
region in the world, with the 80% of the popula-
tion in urban zones (United Nations 2016) in
Colombia by 2018 more than 77% of the popula-
tion were in the municipal capitals (DANE 2018).
Bogotá is the capital city of Colombia, located at
2650 m, with a rainfall multiyear averages spatial
variation in the urban area, ranging from 600 mm
to 1430 mm per year, with two peaks of rain and
two dry (IDIGER 2021) Similarly, the average
monthly temperature varies between 12
C and
14
C, which denotes the existence of different
climatic zones throughout the city (Domínguez
et al. 2010).
In the last decades, a strong demographic
explosion has taken place, and the consequent
urbanization of rural areas, hence the green areas
have been reduced considerably, with loss of
spaces for recreation and conservation and the
increase of the atmospheric pollution. Tempera-
ture evaluation studies explain the existence of a
heat island in the center of the city of Bogotá,
whose formation dates to the 1970s, which
expands from the center to the north of the city
and exceeds in three degrees the climate of the
periphery (Domínguez et al. 2010).
Bogotá is a highly vulnerable city to the effects
of climate change, due to the high levels of vul-
nerability of the city and its population and the
low adaptation capacity of its institutions. In the
capital region, an increase of between 6% and 8%
in rainfall is expected for the period 2011–2100
and of more than 2
C in the average temperature
(IDEAM 2017).
Bogotá has 163.635 Ha and those are distrib-
uted in 20 administrative locations and three types
regarding land use planning: 23% is urban, 75%
rural, and 2% expansion land (SDP 2020).
According to the national population census car-
ried out in 2018 and population projections gen-
erated by the National Statistics Department, by
2020 Bogotá has 7.743.955 inhabitants (SDP
2020).
Since 1997 the national government issued the
388 law, which established the territorial order
plans looking for development and sustainable.
In 1998 the decree 1504 defined that the public
space is made up of: (1) constitutive elements,
which include natural elements (such as hills,
wetlands, and rivers), and built elements such as
sidewalks and road separators and (2) complemen-
tary elements such as the vegetation used in gar-
dens and trees.
In the year 2000, conservation biologists in
Colombia started to recognize the conservation
value of urban green spaces through the first Ter-
ritorial Ordering Plan (POT) and incorporated the
concept of Ecological Main Structure (EMS) in
the sense of emphasize biological connectivity
over other environmental and social functions
(Andrade et al. 2013).
In the Bogota context, the urban street trees
(ST) are considered part of the natural elements
of the public space, that’s why in the first POT
approved in 2000 the built public space system is
made up of district parks and pedestrian public
spaces for staying, meeting, or moving. Regard-
ing the location of the urban trees in the system of
built public space, there are regulations for the
spatial distribution in the cross sections of the
roads. Hence, the urban forestry has been legally
Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia 3

recognized as an essential part of urbanism in corridors for all modes of transport. While the
the city. definition of the design of urban forestry projects
Nevertheless, the provision of effective public corresponds to the Botanical Garden of Bogotá
space is below the desirable standards, reaching (JBB).
4.53 m2 per inhabitant, and there is no functional Furthermore, the management of public space
articulation of this with the areas of environmental and urban trees is distributed among several pub-
importance that enhances its values in the city lic entities that oversee the planning, implementa-
(SDA 2019). Also, the low urban arborization, tion, and maintenance as shown in Fig. 1. For this
on average 0.17 trees per inhabitant, causes that reason, inter-institutional coordination is essential
in some parts of the city, there are islands of heat to achieve the objectives of tree planting and
and atmospheric conditions and poor urban qual- contribute to the quality of urban life.
ity (SDA 2019). It is important to note that the In addition, the District Environment Secretary
trees distributed along the city are concentrated in (SDA) local environmental authority, adopted the
the high socioeconomic sectors, so the greenery in Plan for Urban Forestry, Green Zones and Gar-
the city can also be seen as an inequality indicator. dening for Bogotá D.C. (2019–2030), with the
main purpose of consolidate trees, green areas,
and gardening as integrating and structuring ele-
Urban Forestry Management ments of the urban and environmental design of
the city. That document relies on the establish-
It is worth mentioning that during the planning ment for the green infrastructure in the city
and design process, there is a local authority, where the forestry is in the center of some of the
District Planning Secretariat (SDP), in charge of main politics in the Territorial Ordering Plan, as
defining the models for the public space elements, the Fig. 2 illustrates.
in the places of permanence and the circulation

Environmental Authorities CAR- SDA JBB IDRD UAESP

(Protected areas) EAB
(Water system) (Urban Forests and Public Space) (Parks) (Interferences with public services. Pruning of trees > 2m.)

SDA –IDIGER-FIRE BRIGADE-JBB-UAESP

IDU UAERM –LOCAL CITY HALL LOCAL CITY HALL (Emergency interventions)
(Interferences in main roads) (Interferences in local roads) (Living fences and hedges)

Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia, from “Technical guidelines for the vegetal cover in the
Fig. 1 Urban forestry competences in Bogotá according green corridor of Carrera Septima”. JBB 2021)
to Decree 531–2010 and 383–2018. (Source: Adapted
4 Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia
Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia,
Fig. 2 Urban Forestry in the politics of the Territorial
Urban Plan. (Source: Author from District Plan for Urban
Forestry, green zones, and gardening for Bogota
(2019–2030))
Meanwhile, the responsibility to manage the
inventory of the urban trees in the city lies with the
Botanical Garden of Bogota (JBB); hence, they
created an interactive tool than can be consulted in
the web, which is possible because every single
tree in the city has an identification code. That is
the Information System for the Management of
Urban Trees (SIGAU) and thanks to this, the
environmental authority took the SIGAU data to
propose actions related to forestry, green areas,
and gardening (Fig. 3).
The tree cover occupies 2.47% of the urban
area of Bogotá and the distribution of arboreal
individuals according to their size indicates that
82.26% are arboreal with an average height of
4.7 m., while the proportion of shrubs is 13.23%
and that of palms is 3.94% (SDA 2019). In the
SIGAU, there is no information about the about
the herbaceous stratum due to its difficulty in
keeping the inventory and location updated due
to the dynamics of urbanization. Further analysis
can be done to establish the multistratum index in
the city.
Regarding the distribution of the 1.340.145
trees, according to the SIGAU data by August
2021, 32.21% are in the urban circulation system,
27.6% are in the recreational system, 22.54% in
the canals and water rounds, 17.23% in the pro-
tection system, and 0.42% in right-of-way strips
and degraded areas (https://sigau.jbb.gov.co/,
August 2021).
The Interference Approach: Trees
in the Sidewalks and Silvicultural
Treatments
The trees incorporated into the built public space
configures an hybrid system in which natural and
built elements interact (Alberti 2008); thus,
ecosystem services of provision, regulation, and
culture are generated, as well as problems or
dis-services associated with their characteristics
and location. The main dis-service is the interfer-
ence with the grey infrastructure because that is
the principal cause of cutting trees in the public
space.
From this approach, it is useful to study the
characterization of the existing trees on the side-
walks and of the silvicultural permits for root
pruning and cutting for each species regarding
the roads interference. The results of a study car-
ried out in April 2020 based on data provided by
the entity in charge of silvicultural permits and the
inventory of trees located on platforms are
discussed below.
First, the characterization obtained from the
209,891 arboreal individuals present on the side-
walks is shown in Table 1. It is observed that
although the diversity of exotic species is similar
to the native ones, there is a predominance of
arboreal individuals belonging to exotic species
that represent 74%, compared to the natives that
reach only 26% of the total.
On the other hand, regarding the silvicultural
treatments, it is important to note that the records
corresponding to road reserve areas for new road
projects were eliminated, as they were not consid-
ered relevant for the interferences approach.
As a result of the analysis of the information
provided by the SDA by April 2020, for silvicul-
tural treatments applied to arboreal individuals on
platforms, the following characterization was
obtained. It is noted that some species were sub-
ject only to cutting, others only to root pruning,
Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia 5

Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia, Fig. 3 Urban forestry indicators in Bogotá. (Source: Information
System for the Management of Urban Trees (SIGAU) JBB. https://jbb.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?
appid¼ae3ab3570dcb4a8ab2b2acfbb9607e00, August 2021)

silvicultural treatment and located in the site

Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia,
Table 1 Forestry Characterization in sidewalks of under study, the information regarding the number
Bogota. (Source: Otero-Durán 2021) of arboreal individuals of each species present on
Origin the sidewalks was ordered highest to lowest
Topic Native Exotic Total according to their percentage of participation in
Number of trees 54.967 154.924 209.891 the total number of individuals on sidewalks.
Number of species 112 122 234 Later, the data were separated by quartiles, to
% trees 26% 74% 100% grant the representativeness to the species as fol-
% species 48% 52% 100% lows: low first quartile, middle second and third
quartile, and high last quartile.
Then, the two criteria reviewed so far were
and others to both types of treatments; the total combined, and it was assumed that the number
number of interventions was 6235 and corre- of individuals of the species affects the potential
sponds to 102 species. level of interference, and a new qualitative classi-
Second, for each species subject to silvicul- fication was proposed with interference categories
tural treatment of cutting or root pruning in ranging from very low to very high, as shown in
Table 2, the number of interventions was quanti- Table 3.
fied, then the species were ordered from highest So, after applying the potential interference
to lowest according to their percentage of partic- criteria to the data, it is observed that the species
ipation in the total of interventions carried out of native origin represents 61% of the very low
between 2016 and April 2020. Afterwards, the and low interference, while those exotics corre-
data were separated by quartiles, to give the level spond to 75% of the species with high and very
of interference to the species as follows: low first high interference. This can be an argument to
quartile, middle second and third quartile, and recommend the selection of native species as a
high last quartile. protection measure for the public space infrastruc-
On the other hand, to determine the represen- ture (Table 4).
tativeness of the 102 species subject to
6 Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia

Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia, Table 2 Silvicultural permissions 2016–2021 characterization
according with interference with main roads. (Source: Otero-Durán 2021)
Treatment Cut Root pruning Total
Topic Native Exotic Total Native Exotic Total Native Exotic Total
Number of trees 1957 3252 5209 268 758 1026 2225 4010 6235
Number of species 43 56 99 17 24 41 46 56 102
% trees 38% 62% 100% 26% 74% 100% 36% 64% 100%
% species 43% 57% 100% 41% 59% 100% 45% 55% 100%

Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia, Table 3 Potential Interference of tree species in sidewalks.
(Source: Otero-Durán 2021)
Interference according to treatments by species Representativeness Potential interference according to (1) y
(1) (2) (2)
Low Low Very low
Medium Low
High Medium
Medium Low Low
Medium Medium
High High
High Low Medium
Medium High
High Very high

Conclusions infrastructure. (see chapter ▶ “Integrated Urban

Arborization must balance ecological, landscape,
social, economic, functional, and technical
aspects. In addition, the selection of species must
consider the adaptability to each humidity zone,
the type of space to be planted, and the possible
interferences with elements present such as public
utility networks, the objective pursued with arbor-
ization, the physiological characteristics of the
species, and its vulnerability to urban pollution
(JBB 2010). (see chapter ▶ “Cities, Nature and
Green Recovery”)
Adopting and interference approach in urban
forestry planning can improve the associate eco-
system services and minimize the disservices, for
example, the simple decision of the origin of the
species can affect the protection of the infrastruc-
ture. In Bogota, 64% of the trees with silvicultural
treatment belong to exotic species as seen in
Table 2, which may indicate that this type of
flora generates greater interference with the grey
Grey and Green Infrastructure”)
However, to verify this statement, it is neces-
sary to analyze the growth rates of these species in
the conditions of Bogotá, which differ from their
environments of origin, and consider that the
development of trees can be faster in the tropics
than in places with seasonal changes. (see chapter
▶ “Green Cities: Nature-based Solutions and
Renaturing Cities”)
In addition, it is important to note that only 3%
of the arboreal individuals existing on sidewalks
were subjects of silvicultural treatments in the
study period. Then, to deepen the interference
approach, it is necessary to review the state of
the road corridors with damage to the infrastruc-
ture caused by the trees and cross it with the data
of the species present there. (see chapter ▶ “Mul-
tiple Benefits of Green Infrastructure”)
It is also important to consider that the diversity
of native species in urban trees is decisive to
prevent the homogenization of urban fauna
(Alvey 2006). However, the data analyzed
shows in Bogotá the privilege of exotic species,
Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia
Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia, Table 4 Species distribution according to potential interference
with infrastructure. (Source: Otero-Durán 2021)
Origin Potential interference Native
Very low and low 25
Medium 13
High and very high 8 25
which can affect urban biodiversity, given that
these sidewalk corridors are key in functional
connectivity between peri-urban areas and
patches of vegetation in urban areas (Angold
et al. 2006).
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Recuperado de: http://hdl.handle.net/10554/53173
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8 Urban Forestry in Sidewalks of Bogota, Colombia

Further Reading Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente. (2019). Plan Distrital de

Otero-Durán, L. P. (2021). El arbolado urbano protector Silvicultura Urbana, Zonas Verdes y Jardinería para
de la infraestructura de espacio público en Bogotá. In: Bogotá (2019–2030). https://oab.ambientebogota.gov.
http://hdl.handle.net/10554/53173 co/?post_type¼dlm_download&p¼18398

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