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This study presents an integrated qualitative and quantitative assessment of street trees in a medium-sized Brazilian city, aiming to evaluate species composition, tree health, infrastructure conflicts, spatial heterogeneity, and ecosystem service provision. The street-tree community exhibited strong dominance by a limited number of species and a high prevalence of exotic taxa, indicating low structural evenness and long-standing limitations in urban planning practices, which increase vulnerability to pests, diseases, and management failures. Most trees were classified as healthy or in good condition; however, biotic stressors such as fungal infections and insect activity significantly reduced the probability of individuals reaching higher health categories. Conflicts between trees and urban infrastructure were widespread, particularly those related to root exposure and interference with overhead utilities, and displayed clear spatial variation among neighborhoods, suggesting unequal planning strategies and maintenance efforts across the urban landscape. Although direct human damage to trees was generally low, its uneven distribution among species highlights species-specific susceptibility and management challenges. Ecosystem services, including carbon storage and microclimatic regulation, were disproportionately concentrated in a small subset of species, reinforcing the structural fragility of the system despite its current functional importance. By integrating health assessment, conflict indices, spatial analysis, and biomass estimation within a unified analytical framework, this study advances urban forestry practice by offering a replicable approach for diagnosing vulnerabilities and prioritizing management actions. The findings emphasize the importance of coordinated municipal planning that explicitly incorporates species diversity and spatial equity as core elements for developing more resilient and sustainable street-tree systems in medium-sized cities.
Morais et al. (Sat,) studied this question.