Conference programme


The conference programme will consist of invited keynote presentations and contributed sessions and posters demonstrating the state of the art in theory and application of urban forestry. Field trips will complement the daily presentations to show how theory is implemented into practical solutions and to present the participants the most interesting locations in the host city. An exercise session will elicit international interdisciplinary expertise to find solutions to local problems.
The social programme includes an informal welcome reception after Tuesday registration and dinner on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at distinguished locations in Leipzig serving you with regional and/or international cuisine.
On Saturday, 12 May, an optional excursion will demonstrate the achievements of the last two decades to transform a devastated landscape in a viable and attractive recreational landscape. Here we will show urban forestry projects of the Green Ring Leipzig and the green and blue landscape of Neuseenland. 
 

Preliminary Programme:

The conference programme is subject to change. Details and additional information on the conference and programme will be continually updated.

Conference Guide:

Download a web version of the conference guide (3.1 MB) with program, abstracts and other useful information. You will find a printed copy of this document in the conference bag.

Tuesday 8 May: Registration and welcome reception
Location: Leipziger KUBUS

18:00 – 20:00   Registration

19:00 – 21:00   Welcome reception (light buffet and drinks)

Wednesday 9 May: Conference Day 1
Location: City Hall Leipzig

08:00 – 09:40   Registration and welcome coffee / tea

09:40 – 10:00   Welcome address

  • Heiko Rosenthal;  Vice Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Environment, Public Order and Sports of the City of Leipzig
  • Klaus Henle; UFZ, Head of the Department Conservation Biology
  • Cecil C. Konijnendijk; Coordinator of the European Forum on Urban Forestry

10:00 – 10:45   Keynote I "Urban Forests and Ecosystem Services"

  • Ecosystem Services of Urban Nature
    Beate Jessel; President of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), Germany

10:45 – 12:15   Plenary Session Ia "Urban Forests and Ecosystem Services"

  • The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Germany – The Natural Capital or TEEB Germany
    Bernd Hansjürgens
    The TEEB-approach in urban forests of North Rhine-Westphalia – Findings from a feasibility study
    Christoph Aicher, Uta Berghöfer
  • Benefits of urban parks – systematic review of evidence
    Cecil C. Konijnendijk, Matilda Annerstedt, Sreetheran Maruthaveeran, Anders Busse Nielsen
  • Planning for new green infrastructure to support ecosystem services and well-being in urban regions
    Raffaele Lafortezza, Clive Davies (presenter), Giovanni Sanesi, Cecil C. Konijnendijk

12:15 – 13:15   Lunch

13:15 – 14:00   Plenary Session Ib "Sustainable Maintenance – The Leipzig Case"

  • Leipzig’s green and blue infrastructure: Tasks and challenges for quality of urban living
    Inge Kunath; Head of the Dept. Urban Green and Water Courses of the City of Leipzig
  • Urban Forests as an Innovative Open Space Strategy for Shrinking Cities
    Regina Dietrich, Dieter Rink, Thomas Arndt

14:00 – 19:00   Boat trip and excursion in two groups

20:00 – 23:00   Welcome dinner: Ratskeller der Stadt Leipzig

Thursday 10 May: Conference Day 2
Location: Leiziger KUBUS

09:00 – 09:30   Keynote II "Urban Forests and Sustainable Maintenance"

  • The City Forests of Leipzig and their Management
    Andreas Sickert; Head of the Forest Department of the City of Leipzig

09:30 – 10:30   Plenary Session IIa "Urban Forests and Ecosystem Services"

  • The Value of Being Selective
    Sarah Low
  • Open Space Technology and the collaborative rehabilitation of derelict land to enhance the ecosystem services potential of peri-urban forests and waterways
    Fabio Salbitano, Marialuisa Cipriani, Elena Farne, Claudia Morri
  • The case study of an urban forest carbon credit trading patent: creation, regulation and trade catalyst
    Gerrit Hennie Stoffberg, Gerrit Hennie Stoffberg, M.W. van Rooyen

10:30 - 11:00   Break

11:00 - 12:30   Parallel Sessions II
                        Session A: "Urban Forests Management in Urban Regions"

  • Urban forest management in Helsinki meets the challenges of climate change, biodiversity and municipal politics
    Tiina Saukkonen
  • Progressing Green Infrastructure in The Leeds City Region – The Nine Lakes Forest Park Project
    Alan Simson
  • Urban Forests: Are they really so different? The comparative analysis of urban forests' potentials of six largest cities in Slovenia
    Robert Hostnik
  • Adolescents’ preferred river landscapes for recreation depending on human impact and river dynamic
    Arne Arnberger, Renate Eder

                       Session B: "Strategies and Management of Urban Green"

  • Population health as an ecosystem service within the concept of urban forestry
    Matilda Annerstedt
  • Better Understanding the Performances of Urban Green Spaces European Research on Green Spaces - Goals and Results
    Carlos Smaniotto Costa
  • Do Street Trees Tendencies Represent Trends in the Overall Urban Forest?
    Charles A. Wade, J. James Kielbaso
  • Managing the Urban Forest
    Kenton Rogers

12:30 – 13:30   Lunch

13:30 – 14:15   Plenary Session IIb: "Urban Forests and River Restoration"
                        Moderation: Carlos Smaniotto Costa

  • Introduction to the Project "Lebendige Luppe"
    Project Team

14:15 – 19:00   Field exercise in the area "Burgaue"

19:00 – 22:00   Evaluation of exercise and dinner: Schlobachshof

22:00 – 23:00   Bus transfer from Schlobachshof to City Center and Hotels

Friday 11 May: Conference Day 3
Location: Leiziger KUBUS

09:00 – 09:30  Keynote III "Grounding Urban Forests Ecosystem Services"

  • Green Technologies for the Development of Sustainable and Climate Resilient Cities
    Marina Bergen Jensen; Professor at Danish Centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning, University of Copenhagen

09:30 – 10:30  Plenary Session IIIa "Urban Green and Trees Management"

  • Another way? The park trust model in the UK
    James McCulloch
  • The urban landscape below ground – can we grow trees „out of a box“?
    Astrid Hamm
  • Urban forest on a rooftop: Exploring ecological and environmental functions
    C.Y. Jim

10:00 - 11:00   Break

11:00 - 12:30   Parallel Sessions III
                       Session C: "Urban Trees Management"

  • Enhancing the capacity of trees to withstand stressful conditions: the effects of nursery pre-conditioning
    Alessio Fini, Piero Frangi, G. Amoroso, Riccardo Piatti, Marco Faoro, Cecilia Brunetti, Martina Di Ferdinando, Massimiliano Tattini, Francesco Ferrini
  • Vegetation accumulates particulate matter and metals in urban areas.
    Arne Sæbø, H.M. Hanslin, H. Gawronska, S. Gawronski
  • Management of Maksimir Urban Forest: Tree Risk Assessment Survey
    Vinko Paulić, Milan Oršanić, Damir Drvodelić, Mario Šango
  • Advancing urban forest management: Site-specific growth curves for young urban trees
    Max Piana, Blake Troxel, Mark Ashton, Colleen Murphy-Dunning

                       Session D: "Management and Reestablishment of Urban Forests"

  • The Challenge of Urban Renewal within a Mature Inner City Forest - Creating a demonstration housing renewal project in central London
    Chris Baines
  • Brownfield Regeneration to Greenspace: Opportunities for Social and Environmental Gain
    Gail Atkinson, Kieron Doick, Kate Burningham, Chris France
  • Restoration of a Damaged Urban Forest Park: The Case of Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, Canada
    Peter Duinker
  • Liverpool City Region Green Infrastructure Framework
    Clare Olver

                        Session E: "Urban Forest Structure and Biodiversity"

  • LIFE+ project EMoNFUr - Establishing a monitoring network to assess lowland forest and urban plantation in Lombardy and urban forest in Slovenia
    Andrej Verlič, Enrico Calvo, Roberto Carovigno, Riccardo Gini, Benedetto Selleri, Primož Simončič, Giovanni Sanesi
  • Ecological effects of fire on biodiversity in periurban forests: a case study in Southern Italy
    Mario Elia, Raffaele Lafortezza, Giuseppe Colangelo (presenter), Eustachio Tarasco, Giovanni Sanesi
  • Towards a large scale network of Urban Forests for ecosystem services in the heart of Mediterranean basin: the new strategy of the project “Urban Parks” in Sardinia, Italy
    Marcello Airi, Antonio Casula, Fabio Salbitano
  • Effects of urbanization on the structure of plant communities in the urban forests of İstanbul
    Serhun Sağlam, Raffaele Lafortezza

12:30 – 13:30   Lunch

13:30 – 14:15   Parallel Sessions IIIb
                        Session F: "Urban Forestry Strategies and Public Involvement"

  • The Mersey Forest - 20 years of progress and a look to the future
    Paul Nolan
  • Youth recreation participation in Oregon, USA: A comparison of urban and non-urban perceptions
    Robert Burns

                     Session G: "Urban Forestry and Governance"
  • Municipal woodland in Denmark: resource, governance and management
    Anders Busse Nielsen, Cecil C. Konijnendijk, Björn Wiström, Rasmus Bartholdy Jensen
  • Incorporating sustainable development and governance to the management and planning of urban green areas
    Ramiro Flores-Xolocotzi, Noé Santacruz García (presenter)

                     Session H: "Open Space for Miscellaneous Meetings"

14:15 – 15:00   Plenary Session IIIb "EFUF 2012 and beyond"

  • Award of Young Urban Forester of the Year 2012
    Cecil Konijnendijk
  • EFUF 2013 – Milan, Italy
  • EFUF 2014 – Lausanne, Switzerland
  • EFUF 2012 Closing address
    Clive Davies

15:00 – 18:00  Fieldtrips in 4 tours (max. 20 participants per tour)

  • Tour 1: The "Green Promenadenring" - Germany’s oldest inner-city landscape park
  • Tour 2: The "Green Arc" of Paunsdorf – a city urban nature safari
  • Tour 3: New urban forests: "Stadtgärtnereiholz" - model area for an action research project
  • Tour 4: Green places for remembrance: Leipzig’s South Cemetery & Etzoldsch’s Sand Pit

20:00 – 23:00  Dinner at KIWARA-Lodge of the Zoo Leipzig

Saturday 12 May: Excursion to Leipziger Neuseenland

09:00 – 09:45 Bus transfer from Leipziger KUBUS to Leipziger Neuseenland
09:45 – 10:15 Viewpoint Neukieritzsch with vista into the open pit mining area TB Schleenhain
10:15 – 12:00 Bus transfer to Lake Bockwitz (170 ha) and visit to nature conservation activities
12:00 – 13:00 Bus transfer to Lake Markkleeberg (252 ha) and visit to the Kanupark am Markkleeberger See
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch at the “Wildwasser-Terrasse im Kanupark”
14:00 – 15:00 Bus transfer to Lake Zwenkau (914 ha) and visit to the harbour construction site at Cap Zwenkau
15:00 – 16:30 Bus transfer to Lake Cospuden (436 ha) and visit to the area around the look-out Bistumshöhe
16:30 – 17:30 Bus transfer to Leipzig Main Station and Leipziger KUBUS

Poster Session 

Posters will be displayed during conference day 2 and 3 in the Leipziger KUBUS and will be awarded:

  • Sustainable Forestry Concept in The Gambia
    Hatab Camara, Ebrima AK Sanneh
  • Distribution of Armillaria species along a purple beech (Fagus sylvatica L. atropunicea) tree line as an aid to management decision
    Bruno Campanella, Sophie Schmitz, Valérie Decoux
  • Allelopathic Effect of Ailanthus altissima on seedling growth of Fraxinus chinensis and Robinia pseudocacia
    Bing Cao, Lihua Song, Quanxiong Jiang
  • Incorporating Climate Change into Urban Tree-Species Selection: The Case of Halifax, Canada
    Peter Duinker, Maliheh Rostami
  • Aggressive Urban Tree Planting for Carbon Sequestration: The Case of Burnside Industrial Park
    Peter Duinker, Alison Walsh
  • Aesthetic Value of the Young Forest
    Marina Golivets
  • Combining basic research, modeling and GIS techniques to maximize pollution mitigation by urban trees
    Arianna Morani, David Nowak, Fabio Recanatesi, Carlo Calfapietra
  • Trend of Urban Development and its Impact on Urban Forestry (Case study: Rasht city, Iran)
    Farid Kazem Nezhad, Maryam Kasalinia Moghadam, Farshad Yazdyan
  • MEDways: State of the art and a new networking strategy for Mediterranean Urban and Periurban Forests
    Fabio Salbitano, G. Sanesi, C. Basnou, P. Carinanos Gonzales, J. Choumert, K. Gazoulit, S. Krajter, D. Pearlmutter, S. Sağlam, M. Sanchez, M. Santos-Reis, K. Tzoulas,  A. Verlic
  • Satellite Monitoring of  Vegetation Cover of  Lal Bagh Botanical Gardein,  India
    Malini A Shetty, Somashekar R.K
  • Ljubljana's urban forest management for safe and quality recreational experience
    Andrej Verlič, Nataša Đurić4, Milan Kobal, Lena Marion, Krištof Oštir, Primož Simončič, Janez Pirnat
  • Urban Forests and the Needs of Visitors: Case Study of the Park-Forest Košutnjak
    Andrijana Vukadinović, Ivana Gudurić, Tomićević Jelena

Direct link to the:

 Registration form


A mosaic of garden plots in LeipzigA mosaic of garden plots in Leipzig.

Boat tripsWater canals cross the City.

Riparian forest beside the city.Riparian forest beside the city.

Riparian forest beside the city.A green ring around the city center.