PAYS0011-1 : Plants and towns

University of Liege | Version française

Study programmes 2012-2013

Last update : 18/06/2013

PAYS0011-1

Plants and towns

Duration :

Number of credits :

Master in Landscape Design, 2nd year		6

Lecturer :

Bruno Campanella, Roger Paul, André Toussaint

Coordinator :

Roger Paul

Language(s) of instruction :

French language

Organisation and examination :

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Course contents :

The module plant and city (6 ECTS - 72 h) is divided in three parts :
1. Plant eco-physiology - 12h Prof R Paul
General intro: why is it important to study plants in cities? What are their specificity and functions? 1.1.Principal threats. Pure culture, vandalism, physical and chemical stresses. Examples in Belgium and foreign countries. Tools for stress evaluation and remediation. 1.2. Water and salt stress. Soil anaerobic conditions. Morpho-physiological mechanisms (reminders). Prevention and possible remediation. 1.3. Air pollutants (SO2, NOx, O3, etc). Soil pollutants (heavy metals). Morpho-physiological mechanisms (reminders). Species sensitivity. Importance in towns and trends. 1.4. The use of plants as bioindicators of air quality. Principle, examples of networks, advantages and limitations.
2. Tree diagnosis methodology - 12h theory 12h application Dr B Campanella 2.1. Tree physiology (reminders) and general methodology. Tree development, CODIT theory, VTA bases. 2.2. Tree environment. Soil, air and site conditions. Targets identification and risk management. 2.3. Tree vitality. Symptomatology, tools for vitality and vigour measurement and improvement. 2.4. Tree diseases. Tree rots visual identification. Complementary tools in the lab (ELISA, DNA analysis). 2.5. Tree stability. The two major approaches (VTA and SIA). Tool demonstration on trees and discussion. 2.6. Software used in urban tree management. Databases, SIG, city planning.
3. Plant in cities. 12h Prof A Toussaint 3.1. Plant status and function in cities. Socio-cultural roles of green landscapes. 3.2. Plant as a management tool. The association of plant and city management gives the keys to understand some concepts of current urban projects. 3.3. Urban arboriculture. How to know the tree heritage? Tree inventories, amenity value determination, protection acts. Tree plantation, care and unusual works. 3.4. Plant in city as a tool for agriculture. Green landscapes are valuable for their visual aspects and for biodiversity and conservation programs, but also for food production. 3.5. Research projects. Questions emerge from new urban constraints: are plants able to furnish some original answers?

Learning outcomes of the course :

Urban plant eco-physiology
Urban plant status and functions. Their use in past and recent urban planning.
Urban arboriculture
General tree diagnosis
Urban strategies for horti- agri- food production

At the end of these lessons, the student must be able to :

identify and understand major threats that urban plants have to face with.
choose technical answers to prevent or remediate those threats.
present the urban plant status and functions
create landscape management projects associating urban structures and living plants at affordable costs.
manage and plan urban plants care
draw a first tree diagnosis and propose a survey planning
understand the bases of tree risk management
write research projects aiming at answering new problems in urban arboriculture.

Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :

en cours

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

en cours

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

face-to-face