Pohang City Creates Premium Tree-Lined Street with 'Design Pruning'

Pohang City will introduce a design concept to the pruning of street trees to resolve citizen inconveniences caused by street trees and improve the city's image.

Street trees are trees planted along major city roads to absorb roadside dust, reduce noise, and provide shade. In modern cities where abnormal weather and heatwaves have become commonplace, their role is emphasized as a solution to major urban problems such as mitigating the heat island effect and reducing fine dust. However, issues such as damage to pavement blocks and underground buried facilities caused by root growth, pollen allergy triggers, and obstruction of signboards have also been pointed out.

The plane tree, known as Yangbeojeumnamu, grows rapidly in its early stages and has excellent air pollutant absorption capabilities. Since the 1970s, when industrialization was in full swing, it has been planted mainly along major roads in downtown Pohang such as Jungang-ro, Posco-daero, and the steel industrial complex. Currently, a total of 3,294 trees, accounting for 5.7% of all street trees, are growing.

The city plans to carry out a pilot project of design pruning (Topiary) on 128 plane trees along a 900m section of Jungang-ro (from Ogeori to Yukgeori) to create a premium street tree avenue.

Design pruning is a sculptural pruning method that adds aesthetic elements by shaping irregularly and densely grown street trees into standardized forms such as circles, triangles, and squares while preserving the characteristics of the tree species. The Champs-?lys?es in Paris, France, is a representative example, and local governments in Seoul, Daegu, Incheon, Suwon, and other cities are increasingly adopting street tree design pruning.

A Pohang city official said, “We will do our best to not only resolve various complaints caused by street trees along Jungang-ro from Ogeori to Yukgeori, such as signboard obstruction and pavement block damage, through this design pruning but also contribute to enhancing the public functions of street trees.”

Paris Champs-?lys?es Street (Tree-lined design pruning view). Provided by Pohang City

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