A new national project – planning the green city in the global change era: urban tree species function and suitability for predicted future climates (TreeCity).

The alleged climate change may threat the survival of trees and urban green in the cities, at least in the present form, compromising the related services and benefits. With a proactive management strategy (i.e. acting in advance of a future situation), however, vegetation greening and belts of periurban forests have strong potentials to mitigate the impact of global warming phenomena such as extreme heat waves. In this context the research is called to produce solutions for the selection and choice of better adapted tree species and the most appropriate kind of management. The national project TreeCity, that involves eight different scientific institutions, plays a key role in delivering knowledge and services useful to policy makers and urban planners to address global change effects on urban environments. It aims to fill critical knowledge gaps by combining and connecting climate-related scientific multidisciplinary approaches. TreeCity comprises 4 sub-projects with specific purposes: 1. Urban plant systems as open air laboratory to evaluate the quality of the urban environment and stress conditions; 2. Potential contribution of the urban ecosystems to the quality of life; 3. Evaluation of the resistance of tree species to stress by simulating an urban climatic future scenario (2050); 4. Integrated modeling. The presentation shows the structure of the project and its achievements