Restoration of urban green environments based on the theories of vegetation ecology

Modern cities and industrial areas are standardized, built of non-biologica l materials such as iron, cement and petrochemicals. The most desirable lif e for citizens should be both mentally and physically sound, which are the basis of existence for all lives. A multistratal forest is estimated to hav e 25-30 times the green surface area monostratal grass. With underground or ganic compounds, multistratal forests also contribute to the reduction of C O2. Building facilities can be completed in short term with economic backin g. But it takes biological time to regenerate a multistratal forest using l iving green construction materials. It is urgent to start the restoration a nd reconstruction of native green environments immediately. To form green e nvironments of multistructure using plants, it is necessary to systematize the data from field investigations and to follow the scientific scenario ba sed on potential natural vegetation. We propose the restoration of native f orests, which function as disaster-prevention and environmental-preservatio n forests in urban and pre-urban areas. Native forests grow well with no ma nagement. With the ecological technique 600 sites have been successfully re vegetated in the Japanese Archipelago, in Malaysia, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, a nd Bangkok in Southeast Asia, and in Belem, Brazil, and Concepcion, Chile i n South America. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.