Trees are widely used to help adapt cities to climate change. At the same time, trees are also affected by increasing temperatures.

Climate Assessment Tool

In conjunction with the Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, we have developed a tool that assesses the known climate suitability of 59,000 species of trees at any location in the world, under different climate scenarios.

The interactive Climate Assessment Tool can be used by botanic gardens, urban tree managers and anyone interested in planting trees to understand where trees are known to be planted.

Urban Forest Species Climate Database

We have completed climate suitability assessments for urban forest species (including trees and other commonly planted shrubs and flowers) in many cities in Australia and New Zealand, including the City of Melbourne’s Future Urban Forest project, the City of Auckland’s future urban ngahere tree species, and a study of the risks to urban trees from climate change and urban heat in 27 cities across Australia. We have also conducted an assessment of 8000 species in the living collection of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

We have now refined the algorithm to assess the climate suitability of commonly planted species in cities around the world, at every possible temperature. The database can be downloaded here. Find the species (in rows) and the known distribution at the desired temperature (in columns).

Scientific papers and reports

Kendal, D., Dobbs, C., Gallagher, R.V., Beaumont, L.J., Baumann, J., Williams, N.S.G., Livesley, S.J. (2018) A global comparison of the climatic niches of urban and native tree populations, Global Ecology and Biogeography 27(5):629-637

Kendal, D., Farrar, A., Plant, L., Threlfall, C., Bush, J., Baumann, J. (2017) Risks to Australia’s urban forest from climate change and urban heat. Clean Air and Urban Landscapes hub of the National Environmental Science programme

Kendal, D., Baumann, J. (2016) The City of Melbourne’s Future Urban Forest: Identifying the vulnerability of trees to the City’s future temperature, City of Melbourne, Clean Air and Urban Landscapes hub of the National Environmental Science programme

Kendal, D., Farrar, A., (2017) Assessment of the climate change vulnerability of the living plant collections in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, report prepared for the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

Kendal, D. (2018) Climate risk assessment of potential threatened species for the living plant collections in the Melbourne Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Clean Air and Urban Landscape hub of the National Environmental Science Program