Evaluation of diversity, vegetal structure and health status of urban woody settlement of Plateau municipality (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)

Trees of alignment, private and public gardens are becoming essential to maintaining and improving the quality of life for urban populations. It is with this in mind that the present research was initiated in the Plateau municipality. An itinerant and linear inventories were carried out on avenues and boulevards in order to obtain up-to-date information on tree populations. The objective was to assess floristic diversity, study vegetal structure and determine the health status of trees of alignment in the municipality of Plateau. A total of 42 species were recorded on boulevards, compared to 38 species on avenues. The Shannon-Weaver diversity indices are average, at 2.649 and 2.726 for boulevards and avenues respectively. The horizontal structure shows that, at both sites, high numbers of individuals are concentrated in the class above 100 cm in diameter. As for the vertical structure, at both sites, the height class between 0.5 and 5 m and 5 and 10 m are the class with the highest number of woody individuals. The health status of woody plants reveals that at both sites, more than half of the woody plants at each site are healthy. However, parasitism rates are observed in both environments. These are 21.2 % and 30.06 % of parasitized individuals on boulevards and avenues, respectively. As a result, good urban forestry practices prove effective through the careful selection of diverse tree species and by considering trees as essential infrastructure for sustainable planning and management.