Konijnendijk - The forest and the city: the cultural landscape of urban woodland

Future City Description

As of 2008, for the first time in human history, half of the worlds population now live in cities. And with concerns about issues such as climate change, energy supply and environmental health receiving increasing political attention, interest in the sustainable development of our future cities has grown dramatically.

Yet despite a wealth of literature on green architecture, evidence-based design and sustainable planning, only a fraction of the current literature successfully integrates the necessary theory and practice from across the full range of relevant disciplines.

Springers Future City series combines expertise from designers, and from natural and social scientists, to discuss the wide range of issues facing the architects, planners, developers and inhabitants of the worlds future cities. Its aim is to encourage the integration of ecological theory into the aesthetic, social and practical realities of contemporary urban development.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8178

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature.

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

During my childhood, nature was never far away. The vast polder landscapes near my home village had a lot to offer in terms of wildlife, space, high-sky polder landscapes, and adventure. One of my favourite places, however, was an abandoned fruit orchard, conveniently situated next to our preferred football pitch. Here, my friends and I could pretend to be in the middle of a forest, playing hide and seek and, later, smoking a forbidden cigarette. Most importantly, the orchard gave us a feeling of just being away from everything. It offered an escape from homework, the control of adults, and even from the occasional broken heart.

As we lived in one of the least forested parts of the Netherlands, the real forest was something exotic. It was the destination of our summer and autumn holidays, when my parents loaded up the car and drove us to the wild woods of the Veluwe, the Belgian Ardennes, or perhaps even the German Black Forest or Sauerland. Forests were synonymous with freedom for me, and they represented a different universe. They also meant watching wildlife in the dusk and the sights and sounds of a summer campground.

It was not before I started studying forestry at Wageningen University that I realised that some people have the forest right at their very doorstep. People living in cities like Arnhem or Breda did not have to drive far to listen to woodpeckers and observe deer. Even nearby Rotterdam had its Kralingse Bos.

These city forests started to fascinate me. I had never really associated cities with forests but soon realised that city and forest have often gone hand in hand. This led to an academic interest in city forestry and to many travels and studies across the world. This book is part of my journey to understand city forests and to give them, in my opinion, their rightful place in society. It takes a close look at our city forest heritage, with emphasis on the social and cultural dimensions of city forestry. The book has a strong historical flavour but also looks into present and future.

The first edition of this book was published in 2008. Almost 10 years later, the publisher asked me for an updated edition. After some initial hesitation, I saw that the time was right for an updated version, as a lot has happened in the world of urban forestry during the past 10 years. This second edition is fully revised and updated, and includes a range of new examples and many new references, as well as two entirely new chapters (Chapter 11, The Youthful Forest, and Chapter 13, A Forest of Diversity). Several chapters have undergone major changes, for example, the chapter The Healthy Forest now reflects the rapid advancement of research on this topic. Moreover, several new photos were added.