Article Urban Forest Sustainability in Residential Areas in the City of Santo Domingo Solhanlle Bonilla-Duarte 1,2 ,Víctor Gómez-Valenzuela 1 , Alma-Liz Vargas-de la Mora 1 and Agustín García-García 2, *   Citation: Bonilla-Duarte, S.; Gómez-Valenzuela, V.; Vargas-de la Mora, A.-L.; García-García, A. Urban Forest Sustainability in Residential Areas in the City of Santo Domingo. Forests 2021, 12, 884. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/f12070884 Academic Editor: Carlo Calfapietra Received: 16 June 2021 Accepted: 29 June 2021 Published: 7 July 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Ave. de Los Proceres, Santo Domingo 10100, Dominican Republic; solhanlle.bonilla@intec.edu.do (S.B.-D.); victor.gomez@intec.edu.do (V.G.-V.); fama_yo@hotmail.com (A.-L.V.-d.l.M.) 2 Departamento de Economía, Universidad de Extremadura, Av. Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, Spain * Correspondence: agarcia@unex.es Abstract: Cities are territories vulnerable to climate change. An alternative to increase resilience and mitigate the effects of the climate context is urban forest planning to increase ecosystem services. This research constructed a forest cover sustainability index, based on 147 semi-structured interviews with residents of four residential areas of the city of Santo Domingo (Gazcue, Zona Colonial, Ciudad Nueva, and San Carlos), in which information was collected based on both benefit perception and tree management in their home and nearby public areas. The socioeconomic characteristics of the population and the information gathered from the measurements of the urban forest in both public and private areas of the city during the 2016–2019 period were considered, including these four residential areas, which established the ecosystem services provided by the urban forest. The results showed that Gazcue had a higher value in the forest cover sustainability index. The factors that influenced this result were: job stability, medium-high income, and property ownership. Likewise, the added value of the territory, whether in terms of tourism or the socioeconomic value of the population that inhabits it, is closely related to a greater attention to urban planning, prioritizing the conservation and landscape harmony that the arboreal component can provide. In conclusion, urban forest planning in cities should consider tree species, the design and structure of spatial arrangements, and a competent legal framework that can meet the challenges of territorial sustainability and contribute to the resilience and mitigation of climate change impacts. Keywords: sustainability; urban forest; ecosystem services; climate change; urban planning 1. Introduction According to the United Nations data, cities occupy 3% of the planet’s surface, are home to approximately 60% of the world’s population, and consume about 75% of the natural resources [1]. From the 18th century to the present day, the urban expansion model has been perpetuated, favoring industry and displacing new neighborhoods to the cities’ periphery, and absorbing new territories [2]; the continuous expansion and the demand for food increase competition for the natural resources of rural lands [3]. Cities are a social construction integrated by natural components such as water, soils, and trees, which are substantially modified due to city infrastructure; these actions put urban populations at risk in the current context of climate change, where rising tempera- tures, heat and cold waves, as well as disasters have more severe impacts in cities devoid of trees [4]. Urban forest influences urban environmental conditions, providing ecosystem services reflected in improved air quality, shade, microclimate, reduced atmospheric pollutants, which contribute to human well-being and increased property values in urban environ- ments [5–7]. Therefore, urban planning processes should focus on cities’ sustainability and present and future needs of services, infrastructure, communication, and green spaces [2,8]. Forests 2021, 12, 884. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12070884 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests