FOREWORD AND PREFACE

ISHS Acta Horticulturae 643: International Conference on Urban Horticulture

FOREWORD AND PREFACE

Authors:

J.-B. Bächtiger, R. Junge, The ISHS Board of Directors

Abstract:
FOREWORD
The International Conference on Urban Horticulture was organised by the University of Applied Sciences Waedenswil (UASW) under the auspices of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) and took place from September 2 to 6, 2002.
The program included over 80 presentations on the relationship “People - Plants - Quality of Life”. The working hypothesis was “the creation of gardens and open spaces together with the way plants are used as reliable indicators of a permanently changing understanding of nature”. This hypothesis resulted in five main topics which were organised into five one-day-sessions: plants and society, public green, plant use and garden design, assortment development, and ecological engineering and urban agriculture. In the morning of each session invited speakers presented recent advances in each field. Afternoons were dedicated to workshops and poster exhibitions. The contributions covered a wide range of topics from the aesthetics of plant combinations, through the philosophic, psychological, and social aspects of gardening, to ecotechnologies.
The objective of the conference was to share the diverse experiences, perspectives and results. The participants and contributors came from different fields of urban horticulture and contributed a wide variety of perspectives. In this regard, some contributions in this volume are not strictly scientific papers, they, nevertheless, provide an insight into the diversity of the new developments in the field.
The broad range of results of the ICUH showed that modern horticulture is receiving interdisciplinary input from varied areas of science and practice and plays a pivotal role in creating the modern urban environment. Gardens are more than just the sum of nature and design, they are a social necessity!
We would like to express our thanks to the members of the Scientific Committee, the editors and the reviewers who helped with the editing of the submitted papers. Special thanks are due to all participants who made the symposium a fruitful and successful one.

J.-B. Bächtiger (convener) and R. Junge (editor)

PREFACE
The papers contained in this volume of Acta Horticulturae form the proceedings of the International Conference on Urban Horticulture. Keynote speakers and authors of selected contributed oral and poster presentations were given the opportunity to submit a manuscript for publication.
These manuscripts were reviewed by the conference editors and members of the Editorial Committee. Only those papers judged suitable for publication following the authors consideration of reviewer suggestions appear in this volume of Acta Horticulturae.
The ISHS acknowledges and appreciates the contribution of the editors and the reviewers. They have made a significant contribution to improving the quality of this publication.

The ISHS Board of Directors