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Technical and economic aspects of Stone Pine (Pinus pinea L.) maintenance in urban environments
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1  CREA Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria

Abstract:

The Italian Stone Pine (Pinus pinea L.) is one of the most employed ornamental trees in towns with Mediterranean climates. For example, in the city of Rome, according to Rome municipality, Pinus is the most common genus, with more than 51,000 trees. Due to several reasons (size of plants, historical importance of some trees, wrong plantation sites, etc.) the maintenance of this species may constitute a serious issue for the owners, both private and public subjects. Pruning and felling are the most frequent management operations of trees in towns and this study analyzes the technical and economic features of these operations carried out in 14 work sites (with a total of 25 trees observed). The operations were carried out either with aerial platforms (19 trees) or ascending the crown by tree-climbing (6 trees). The operations were sampled with time studies (12 trees for pruning and 13 for felling). Work time was measured from the beginning of operations to the transport of the residual biomass to the collection and loading point, using centesimal stopwatches and video recording. Total observation time amounted to 63.1 hours. Moreover, the total residual biomass was weighed or assessed. The evaluation of the costs of each work site considered the fixed and the variable costs and the costs for the labor force. A Multiple Linear Regression modelling was adopted to predict the total operation cost. This paper can contribute to optimize trees maintenance methods in urban sites and to assess the potential residual wood biomass attainable from urban forestry maintenance.

Keywords: Urban forestry; work analysis; residual biomass; pruning, costs; shade trees
Comments on this paper
Rodolfo Picchio
Session Chair comment
Dear Authors,

your study case represents a topic of great interest in this period, mainly in the Mediterranean area. The analysis carried out in the city of Rome combines the identitary and ornamental prestige of the Italian Stone Pine with its most consistent weak point, related to the management operations, especially in urban areas. In this regard, several work sites operating pruning and felling with different techniques have been investigated under multiple aspects, providing data with the aim to optimize trees maintenance methods and ensuring at the same time their cost-effectiveness. I congratulate with you and I hope to read further developments of this research soon.

Session Chair

Rodolfo Picchio
Marcello Biocca
Dear Professor
on behalf of all co-authors I wish to congratulate with you for the success of the conference and for your kind support during the organization phase.
This is our first participation to a total on-line conference and, despite the fact that I prefer the traditional meeting in presence, I was surprised from the interesting formula.
The presented research has been realized in the ambit of the national project "Agroener" that is a project we are still working on. SSo, in the next future we will present new and more comprehensive results.
Regards
Marcello Biocca



 
 
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