India’s cities are growing at a remarkable pace. New infrastructure, expanding transport networks, increasing density, and rising expectations for urban quality of life are reshaping how cities function.
In this context, urban trees are gaining renewed attention, not only for their environmental value, but for their role in the daily operation of cities. Across the world, cities are beginning to treat urban trees as infrastructure that requires the same operational oversight as roads, bridges, or utilities.
At the 2nd International Arboriculture Conference – Vriksh Vardhan (https://arbindia.com/events/2nd-international-arboriculture-conference) in Mumbai, this shift became visible in conversations among arborists, municipal leaders, urban planners, researchers, and visitors from across the urban forestry community. The discussion increasingly moved beyond planting and preservation toward a broader question:
How can urban trees be managed with the same operational discipline applied to other forms of infrastructure?
→ How cities manage urban forests with data
India’s Urban Context
India’s urban environments combine several characteristics that make tree management uniquely complex.
Cities are dense. Infrastructure corridors are crowded with utilities, transport networks, and buildings. Public space is shared by pedestrians, vehicles, services, and greenery.
Seasonal climate patterns, particularly the monsoon, add another dimension. Heavy rainfall and strong winds can place sudden stress on urban trees and surrounding infrastructure.
In states such as Maharashtra, where economic growth and urban development are especially dynamic, cities are managing this complexity every day. Urban local bodies balance canopy expansion, environmental priorities, public safety, and budget realities across large metropolitan systems.
Urban forestry therefore becomes not only an environmental topic but also an operational one.
From Greening to Stewardship
India has long recognized the importance of trees in cities. Public planting initiatives, conservation programs, and community engagement around urban green spaces have played an important role in many municipal strategies.
What is becoming increasingly important now is how cities manage their urban forests over time and at scale. As cities grow, tree populations grow as well. Managing tens or hundreds of thousands of trees across diverse neighbourhoods requires more than periodic inspections or isolated inventories. It requires consistent visibility of the urban forest as a system.
That visibility allows cities to ask practical questions:
- Where are potential structural risks emerging?
- Which areas require maintenance first?
- How can interventions be scheduled earlier rather than later?
- How can budgets follow measurable priorities?
These are operational questions about safety, efficiency, and accountability.
A Perspective Shared in Mumbai
At the conference in Mumbai, Gabor Goertz, CEO and Co-Founder of greehill (www.greehill.com), spoke about the importance of managing urban trees as infrastructure.
His central message focused on three elements that become critical as cities grow:
Risk and safety visibility
Cities benefit from identifying structural risks early, particularly in environments where weather events such as monsoon storms can amplify small weaknesses.
Operational efficiency
When maintenance is guided by reliable information, municipalities can prioritise interventions and reduce high-cost emergency responses.
Data-driven decisions at city scale
Large urban forests require consistent, citywide visibility so that maintenance, budgets, and operational planning can be coordinated across districts.
This shift moves urban forestry from reactive response toward structured management.
From Inventory to Intelligence
Many cities maintain tree inventories, which are an important starting point. But as urban systems grow larger and more complex, cities increasingly need information that supports operational decision-making.
In his presentation, Gabor discussed how street-level LiDAR scanning combined with specialised AI can create consistent, objective data for trees across entire urban areas.
This allows cities to generate a digital twin of their urban forest, enabling them to monitor structural conditions, identify patterns, and prioritise maintenance more effectively.
The aim is not simply to collect more data.
The aim is to support better timing and better decisions, including:
- identifying structural risks earlier
- prioritising maintenance where it matters most
- reducing costly emergency interventions
- aligning budgets with measurable needs
When reliable information is available across the entire city, municipal teams can act earlier and with greater confidence.
A Growing Global Practice
Approaches to data-driven urban forest management are already being implemented by cities across multiple continents, providing municipalities with the operational visibility needed to manage large urban tree populations with greater confidence.
The conversations with visitors and participants in Mumbai showed strong interest in how similar approaches could support Indian cities as they continue to grow and modernise.
Urban trees are essential assets for cooling, biodiversity, climate resilience, and urban liveability. Managing them effectively requires systems that match the scale and complexity of modern cities.
Looking Ahead
Events like Vriksh Vardhan show how the field of urban forestry is evolving. Across India and globally, cities are exploring new ways to manage their tree populations not only as environmental resources but also as living infrastructure systems that require structured oversight and long-term stewardship.
The conversations in Mumbai demonstrated that this perspective is gaining momentum, because as cities grow at scale, urban trees deserve the same level of operational attention as every other critical part of the urban environment.
As India’s cities continue to grow and modernise their infrastructure systems, managing urban trees with clarity, consistency, and reliable data becomes increasingly important.
greehill welcomes conversations with cities, researchers, and urban forestry professionals interested in exploring how city-scale tree intelligence can support safer streets, more efficient maintenance, and resilient urban forests.
FAQ
Why are urban trees considered infrastructure?
Urban trees provide cooling, stormwater regulation, air quality improvement and biodiversity support. Because these services directly influence how cities function, many municipalities increasingly manage trees as infrastructure assets.
What is urban forest management?
Urban forest management refers to the planning, monitoring and maintenance of trees in cities to maximise environmental, social and safety benefits.
Why do cities need better data about their trees?
Large cities often manage hundreds of thousands of trees. Reliable data helps municipalities identify structural risks, prioritise maintenance and allocate budgets more efficiently.
How can cities monitor large urban tree populations?
New approaches combine street-level LiDAR scanning, artificial intelligence and digital twinsto create detailed, citywide visibility of urban forests.
What is a digital twin of an urban forest?
A digital twin is a virtual model of a city’s tree population created from high-resolution data. It allows municipalities to analyse tree conditions, risks and maintenance needs across the entire city.
