Technology & Trees: The Data-Driven Future of Urban Forestry
The Future of Urban Forestry is Here: How GIS and LiDAR Are Transforming Tree Management Urban forestry is experiencing a technological revolution. While traditional methods relied on clipboards and measuring tapes, today’s arborists and landscape architects have access to sophisticated digital tools that solve real problems in urban forest management. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and […]
The Size of Soil Cells: Why Soil Volume Matters More for Urban Trees
When selecting soil cells for urban tree planting projects, there’s a common misconception that deeper cells are inherently better. But is depth really the most important factor? At GreenBlue Urban, we believe it’s time to shift the conversation from cell dimensions to what truly matters: usable soil volume. Container vs. Content We’ve all experienced […]
Rethinking Risk, Responsibility and Design in Urban Green Infrastructure
Urban trees are widely acknowledged as difference-making infrastructure; vital for climate resilience, biodiversity, public wellbeing and placemaking, and also potentially a useful element in expediting a smoother planning process. Yet their inclusion in new developments still remains fraught. Despite mounting evidence of their ecological and social value, trees – in particular those located in or […]
How to Design for Urban Trees That Thrive (Part 3)
In this article: Soil Selection Irrigation & Drainage Aeration Root Management Support Above & Below Ground Ongoing Maintenance After selecting the right location, species, layout, and planting medium for your urban tree pit design, it’s time to focus on the critical finishing elements that will determine its long-term success. Soil selection, maintenance planning, irrigation, […]
Road Salt Damage: A Tree-Friendly Guide to Winter Protection
Every winter, cities face a challenging trade-off: maintain safe roads and sidewalks with deicing salts, or protect the long-term health of urban trees and infrastructure. While road salt effectively keeps surfaces ice-free, its environmental impact—particularly tree damage—raises serious concerns for urban forest management. UNDERSTANDING THE DAMAGE Road salt’s effects on trees extend far beyond […]
Who Will Maintain Green Infrastructure, and at What Cost?
Maintaining green infrastructure (GI) involves several stakeholders and can vary significantly in cost depending on the type and scale of the infrastructure. Here are some key points: WHO MAINTAINS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE? Local Authorities: Often responsible for public spaces, they rely on tax-payer dollars or donors to cover long-term maintenance costs. Private Developers: In some cases, […]
How to Avoid Root Heave & Pavement Damage Caused by Urban Trees
It’s important to have trees in cities for so many well-proven reasons. Without adequate consideration, however, urban trees can cause costly damage to surrounding infrastructure. Pavement damage is among the most common issues, caused by the occurrence of root heave. What is Root Heave? Root heave, sometimes called pavement heave, is triggered by tree roots […]
How Much Do Soil Cells Cost?
It can be frustrating for landscape architects and designers not knowing the approximate cost of soil cells before specifying the system. This can lead to designs exceeding budget constraints, potentially resulting in value engineering later in the project. While the importance of proper tree planting techniques is widely recognized, balancing this with client budgets remains […]
Reducing the Risk – Successful tree establishment, every time!
Over the past 30 years, urban tree mortality levels have fallen dramatically, and GreenBlue Urban is proud to have been involved in this transformation. But the levels are still too high – in some places almost half the trees planted in hard surfaces fail to reach their first birthday, and far too many do not […]
Open Planting Areas for Urban Trees: Not What They Seem?
While soil cells are most often installed under pavement when there’s a lack of green space, we’ve lately seen an uptick in projects specifying soil cells under grassy areas as well. Leading to the question, are there advantages to using soil cells under open planting areas? Historically speaking, open planting areas have been regarded as […]
Are We Providing Mature Street Trees for Future Generations?
The canopy cover of many cities across Canada and around the world is made up of large, mature trees. In North America, most of these trees were planted in the late 1800s to early 1900s, making them well over 100 years old. Thankfully, our grandparents and great grandparents understood the value of trees and had […]
Maximizing Your Return on Investment in Urban Trees
Money doesn’t grow on trees. Or at least, it doesn’t grow on trees that are planted haphazardly and die in the first year. Trees are well-known for providing many amazing economic and social benefits in urban areas. However, when planted without proper knowledge of best practices, the costs can far outweigh the benefits they provide. […]
Comprehensive Testing of RootSpace Airform®, Enhancing our Urban Infrastructure
As part of GreenBlue Urban’s commitment to continually improve products and solutions, we recently commissioned Lucideon, an independent material testing and analysis laboratory, to investigate the structural properties of the RootSpace Airform® soil cell system. For testing, Lucideon was supplied with RootSpace Airform® soil cell components assembled into various module sizes, as outlined in Table […]
Comparing Tree Planting Media: A Comprehensive Overview
Tree planting is a crucial aspect of urban development, offering numerous environmental, aesthetic, and health benefits. However, the success of tree-planting initiatives heavily depends on the choice of planting media. In this blog, we will delve into various tree planting systems, including soil cells, gravel-based structural soil, and sand-based structural soil, comparing their features, advantages, […]
The Story Behind GreenBlue Urban
It’s hard seeing something that you have planted die; many of us have experienced the disappointment of losing a house plant, but how much worse when the plant is a tree; a tree which has been carefully propagated, grafted, trained, formatively pruned and grown in a nursery? What about if we lose a number of […]
There’s more to managing stormwater than ‘pipe to pond’
Looks all too familiar, doesn’t it? Far too often we are seeing images across our news channels on localised and global flooding. According to the UK Environment Agency, over 5 million homes are at risk of flooding in England alone. The average cost of flooding to a home is £30k and the mental health impacts […]
Multi-Functional Blue-Green Developments
The 25-year Environmental Plan (2018) and more recently The Environment Bill (2020) has been a clear driver to connect more people to our environment, improve health and well-being and to ensure we leave future generations with improved air and water quality, create richer habitats for wildlife and of course omit wasteful pollution from landfill and […]
Urban Tree Planting Constraints
As soon as tree planting is proposed in our congested urban areas, the full plethora of challenges quickly become obvious. With over 30 years of experience in getting trees established in what can be very hostile conditions for what are essentially forest plants, GreenBlue Urban have unrivalled experience in every scenario. When planning urban tree […]
Not all Super Heroes wear Capes. (Some wear Leaves).
Trees are the heroes of our landscape. A bold claim you think? Possibly. But look at the list of benefits they bring to our lives: ecology, beauty, cooling, shade, Oxygen, removing pollutants from the air, providing homes and food for wildlife and conkers! Let’s face it, who doesn’t have a favourite tree? For National Tree […]
Introducing 9 Trees
9 Trees, as a concept, was formed in 2018 by Michael Cunningham, an experienced habitat and business manager. He was joined by Michelle Kent, in 2019, an experienced countryside and habitat manager. They are now joined by an amazing team of volunteers! The vision of 9 Trees is to tackle climate change by creating new […]
Urban Gardens Assisting in our Canopy Growth
A report in the BBC at the weekend indicated that urban tree canopy cover is surprisingly consistently higher in urban areas than in rural ones. In fact, the areas in the UK with the highest percentage of land covered by trees are all in the South of England, Midlands and in South Wales, including some […]
Who is responsible for Maintaining our Public Trees?
During times of economic crisis, budgets for local authority landscape maintenance have always been under threat. Viewed as a “nice to have” rather than a critical necessity, many local councils facing funding cuts year on year have had to reduce maintenance to testing to minimise future liability claims – but little or no money for […]
Are you Celebrating Clean Air Day?
Back in June 2019, communities came together to ensure Clean Air Day was a huge success. Over 600 events were organised by schools, universities, volunteer groups, businesses, families and friends; thousands of people stood up and spoke out to educate and build awareness on the damaging effects air pollution is having on our health. With […]
