Germany's stock of avenues recorded - only one in ten streets still has avenues
A research project funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) has recorded the previously lacking data on avenues in Germany for the first time on the basis of geodata with the aim of protecting them in the long term.
The importance of avenues in Germany is undisputed. They enrich the landscape and are an important element of biotope connectivity. They make an important contribution to climate adaptation, as they increase the proportion of trees and shrubs in the open landscape and reduce wind erosion.
Nature conservation organisations have been complaining for decades about the creeping decline of avenues in Germany, which are falling victim to road expansion or are continuously declining due to traffic safety measures. The results of the HNEE study confirm this. The number of avenues on German roads and paths has fallen by 30 per cent to around 20,000 km over the past 17 years. Estimates from 2005 were still based on 27,500 kilometres of avenues. This means that only one in ten roads in Germany still has an avenue. The clear north-south divide is striking: The federal states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg have around ten times as many avenues as Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
Project manager Prof Dr Jürgen Peters recommends: "Existing obstacles to the creation of new avenues must be reduced. Technical regulations in road construction, which were supposed to serve road safety since 2006, have proven to be a serious problem for replanting. Since then, hardly any avenue trees have been replanted on federal and state roads. Regular monitoring of avenues could help to track the development of the population in the long term."
The data collected is now to be handed over to those responsible in politics and administration. The nature conservation organisations can also access the data pool.
At the same time, HNEE has developed guidelines for mapping, maintaining and planting new avenues. This is intended to provide suggestions for planting more avenue trees on municipal roads and thus making a contribution to climate protection and the landscape.
Note on image material
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