Authentic sense of place and human comfort

NatureCulture sets high standards for placemaking and landscape architecture. Combining the principles of authentic sense of place and human comfort, NatureCulture has carved a niche as one of the Gulf region’s most innovative design practices. We embrace cultural authenticity, functionality, creating spaces that resonate with culture and history and enhance the day-to-day lives of those who use them. NatureCulture’s designs stand out for their thoughtful balance of past and present, ensuring trees and plants thrive to create cool, green spaces sustainably.

Demonstrated success

The Founders Memorial in Abu Dhabi exemplifies this ethos. With its minimalist detailing, restrained material palette, and monolithic forms inspired by the historical Qasr Al Hosn, the space offers visitors a reflective sanctuary that honours Emirati heritage. NatureCulture again delivered a culturally sensitive landscape with the Majlis Oman project in Muscat. The austere elegance of traditional Omani architecture informs the design, where falaj water features and gridded date palm groves evoke agricultural traditions, integrating human-scaled spaces within this monumental austerity. NatureCulture’s design for the Sohar University Campus demonstrates mastery of integrating modern functionality with historical context. Gridded layouts reflect the surrounding farm allotments, phytoremediation systems nod to traditional crop cycles, and oversized architectural details echo the grandeur of Omani vernacular structures, delivering a contemporary landscape that echoes the surrounding landscape character.

The Power of Trees

Central to NatureCulture’s philosophy is the transformative power of trees. Trees are not mere design elements; they are central characters in the story of each space. From providing shade and cooling to creating a sense of connection, trees anchor urban environments and foster healthier, happier communities. NatureCulture’s designs turn these green giants into living infrastructure, shaping spaces that are as functional as they are beautiful.

Raising the Benchmark

Through projects like the Founders Memorial, Majlis Oman, and the University Campus at Sohar, NatureCulture has established itself as a pioneer in Gulf region placemaking.

Consider—designing urban thermal comfort with landscape. Yes, that’s right. With our ethos of designing for experience, urban thermal comfort is central to our landscape approach.

NatureCulture’s unique approach to urban thermal comfort means that we use quantitative data to design  landscapes that actively reduce heat stress and enhance usability, with every intervention measured for real-world performance. Our thermal comfort analysis directly informs landscape design, ensuring outdoor spaces remain comfortable by integrating shading, planting, and material selection to mitigate heat and improve usability. This targeted process quantifies how landscape interventions improve comfort levels.

Our studies are conducted according to user types, considering both passersby and those who stay for longer periods. We identify key locations for detailed thermal simulations, focusing on two distinct but equally important areas: cooling for transportation—reducing heat along pedestrian circulation routes, and cooling for recreation—enhancing comfort in spaces where people gather and linger.

We define and design to meet recommended comfort levels, enhancing microclimates through strategic planting, shading, and materials. Landscape designers work closely with simulation specialists, integrating performance-based strategies to create outdoor spaces that are visually compelling and thermally optimized for real-world use.

So, you hire a designer to do a planting design, and what do you get? A plan full of plant names and symbols, but no insight into why they were chosen. The process is a black box, leaving you none the wiser. What if you had a tool that allowed you to replicate, adapt, and improve upon the planting logic again and again?

NatureCulture’s Rules-Based Planting Manuals document a structured approach to planting design, capturing the decision-making process in a clear, repeatable format. Each manual ensures planting decisions can be consistently applied, modified, and adapted. We can provide manuals for our planting designs or create them to guide other designers. The Planting Design Manual is an indispensable tool for design-build tenders, ensuring clarity and consistency.

The manual follows a structured framework that considers plant characteristics, site conditions, performance requirements, and design geometries. Designed for ease of use, it serves as a practical tool for designers, facility managers, and landscape teams to maintain and adapt planting strategies over time.

Investing in Longevity

Planting a tree is a significant investment, and the goal should always be to ensure that trees achieve their full lifespan in their specific location. Achieving this requires careful planning, informed decisions, and an understanding of past challenges. By analysing previous projects and addressing what went wrong, we can avoid the waste of resources—often referred to as “greenwasting”—and ensure sustainable, successful tree establishment.

Our Services

NatureCulture provides expert support to enhance the success of tree planting initiatives by leveraging data and proven methodologies. Our services include:

• Tree Establishment Analysis: Using data from recent planting projects, we conduct inventories to assess how well trees have established. Our evaluations identify factors that have positively or negatively impacted establishment.
• Comprehensive Reporting: Findings are compiled into detailed reports, complete with actionable recommendations for improving future tree establishment. These reports highlight practical measures to mitigate risks and enhance outcomes.
• Tailored Specifications: We develop precise descriptions for key aspects of tree planting projects, including species selection, planting size, ground cover, and maintenance strategies. These tailored specifications ensure each project is designed to meet its unique challenges and goals.

By combining data-driven insights with practical expertise, NatureCulture helps clients maximise the success of their tree planting efforts. Our approach not only ensures healthier, longer-living trees but also delivers greater environmental and societal value.

The Importance of Tree Inventories

A comprehensive tree inventory serves as a crucial foundation for developing tree plans and care strategies, ensuring cities can manage and grow their urban forests sustainably. By understanding the existing tree population, decision-makers can plan for greener, healthier cities while maximising the ecosystem services trees provide.

Our Services

NatureCulture offers extensive expertise in all stages of tree inventories, guided by the Swedish Tree Inventory Standard for Conducting Tree Inventories. Our approach ensures precision and practicality for data collection, management, and application. Services include:

• Preparation Before Inventory: We define the specific aims of the inventory, select relevant parameters, and ensure compatibility with digital tools like TreePlotter and i-Tree Eco for data integration.
• Data Collection and Analysis: Using advanced hand-held devices, we gather key parameters such as species, location (geographical coordinates), trunk diameter, and health assessments. This process enables us to identify ecosystem services, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Risk and Safety Assessments: We evaluate potential hazards and assign risk levels, ensuring public safety and effective tree management.
• Maintenance Recommendations: Our team provides actionable recommendations for pruning, irrigation, and other care measures, supported by urgency classifications.
• Centralized Database Management: We maintain detailed records, including tree IDs, maintenance history, and future plans, ensuring transparency and consistency across projects.

Avoiding Pitfalls in Tree-Related Work

In the Gulf region, the lack of qualified arboricultural expertise among labour and management often results in long-term damage to trees, reducing their health and lifespan and ultimately impacting landowners’ investments. Whether it involves new planting, pruning, or construction near existing trees, poor planning or execution can lead to costly mistakes. By reviewing plans at an early stage and preparing accurate documentation, these risks can be significantly reduced, ensuring higher-quality work and better long-term outcomes for urban greenery.

Our Services

NatureCulture provides expert technical advice for tree-related projects across diverse environments, from traditional parklands to innovative spaces like green roofs, courtyards, and paved areas. Our services include:

Planting Bed Design We design planting beds tailored to specific project needs, ensuring optimal soil conditions and space for tree growth and development, reducing the risk of root failure in the region’s extreme climate.

Plant Selection Our guidance ensures the right species and plant quality are chosen for each project, considering factors such as climate resilience, soil conditions, and project goals to prevent tree losses caused by unsuitable species selection.

Stage-Based Checks We advise on necessary checks to be conducted at every stage of the planting process, from preparation to post-planting maintenance, ensuring trees are given the best chance to thrive and meet the long-term expectations of landowners.

Care Instructions We develop detailed care instructions to guide establishment and follow-up maintenance, ensuring trees receive proper irrigation, pruning, and protection from common regional threats, such as soil compaction and inadequate watering.

Construction Document Review We review construction documents to identify potential issues, such as incorrect planting depths and conflicts with infrastructure, and provide expert recommendations. Additionally, our team offers professional advice during construction meetings to prevent mistakes that could lead to long-term tree damage.

By addressing the region-specific challenges of tree management, NatureCulture helps protect investments in urban greenery, ensuring trees provide lasting environmental, social, and economic benefits.

The Concept of Plantable Spots

In the Gulf region, retrofitting trees into existing urban spaces is a low-cost and highly effective method to enhance livability. Plantable Spots is a strategic approach to tree planting, focused on selecting the right trees for the right places with clear, goal-driven purposes. By identifying opportunities to enhance ecosystem services in specific locations, this concept complements existing tree stands with a targeted understanding of both the broader area and the individual site. It highlights how trees can be used to enrich the environment, foster biodiversity, and meet key urban goals such as climate adaptation and increased canopy cover.

Our Services

NatureCulture offers a comprehensive range of services to implement the Plantable Spots concept effectively:

Goal-Based Species Selection We clarify the purpose behind tree planting, aligning species selection with clear goals such as climate adaptation, biodiversity enhancement, or tree canopy cover expansion. By articulating these goals, we ensure that each tree planted serves a specific purpose.

Site-Specific Species Knowledge Our expertise in site-specific data collection provides a detailed understanding of existing species, highlighting those that should be avoided due to issues like disease susceptibility, overuse, or undesirable growth habits. With our regional knowledge, we guide you in selecting species that are sustainable and suitable for Gulf environments, ensuring resilience to extreme heat and water scarcity.

Site-Specific Species Selection On-site assessments ensure that species selection is tailored to the unique conditions of each location. We provide customised recommendations for tree species that will thrive in Gulf urban environments, ensuring the right tree is planted in the right place to provide maximum shade, cooling, and aesthetic benefits.

Presentation Clear communication is key to successful tree planting projects. We create digital visualisations, GIS layers, and order lists, presenting each tree with a detailed justification for its selection and its expected contribution to the site. These tools facilitate collaboration between clients, contractors, and the public, ensuring transparency and understanding.

Control To ensure long-term success, we help establish control instruments for planting, irrigation, and tree maintenance. These measures increase the likelihood of project success and help trees develop into healthy, long-lived individuals. Our strategies include water-efficient irrigation and maintenance plans suited to the Gulf’s arid conditions.

By combining scientific expertise, tailored planning, and effective communication, NatureCulture helps bring the concept of Plantable Spots to life, enriching Gulf urban environments with trees that make a meaningful impact.

Adapting Urban Forests to a Changing Climate

The Gulf region faces extreme climatic challenges, including rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and increased soil salinity. These factors demand a proactive approach to urban forestry. To ensure the longevity and health of urban forests, the tree species planted today must be resilient to future climatic conditions. By analysing the natural distribution of species and integrating climate modelling, NatureCulture develops forecasts to predict how various tree species will perform in the Gulf’s urban environments.

Our Services

NatureCulture provides comprehensive analysis to assess how future climate scenarios will impact the most common tree species in the region. Using advanced climate projections and multiple future scenarios, our analysis offers actionable insights to guide species selection and planting strategies. This ensures that urban greenery remains sustainable, thriving under evolving climate conditions while continuing to deliver essential ecosystem services for generations to come.

We focus on species that can withstand the Gulf’s harsh conditions, ensuring effective cooling, dust mitigation, and water-efficient urban forestry strategies. Our approach supports sustainable development goals, enhancing outdoor livability while conserving resources.

With this forward-thinking approach, we help cities and organisations create climate-resilient urban forests, safeguarding their benefits for the future.

The Role of Urban Greenery

A high proportion of greenery in urban environments significantly enhances well-being while preserving and developing essential ecosystem services. By utilising advanced methods, NatureCulture analyses tree canopy cover to provide valuable insights into its impact on the urban climate and residents’ quality of life. Tools such as i-Tree Canopy offer average values for specific areas, while satellite data provides a detailed and nuanced picture of canopy coverage. Historical maps and aerial photographs further enrich our analysis, revealing the historical development of green spaces and how changes over time have influenced the provision of ecosystem services.

Our Services

NatureCulture employs a range of methods to measure tree canopy cover and assess its significance for the area. These analyses highlight the benefits of trees, such as reducing air pollution, mitigating stormwater runoff, and improving urban climate conditions. We also calculate the monetary value of these ecosystem services, clearly demonstrating their contribution to societal well-being.

Our assessments not only showcase the current state of tree canopy cover but also identify opportunities for improvement. We develop tailored strategies to enhance ecosystem services, improving urban environments for residents. Additionally, we offer historical analyses that highlight trends in tree canopy cover over time. In many cases, our findings reveal a decline in coverage, underscoring the importance of proactive measures to reverse this trend and restore the invaluable benefits trees provide.

By combining cutting-edge tools, historical context, and actionable insights, NatureCulture helps cities and organisations make informed decisions to preserve and enhance their urban greenery, fostering healthier and more resilient communities.

Understanding Ecosystem Services with i-Tree

NatureCulture utilises i-Tree, a suite of advanced tools designed to quantify the benefits that trees provide to urban environments. Among these tools, i-Tree Eco stands out as a comprehensive platform for analysing ecosystem services—the functions of ecosystems that improve well-being and living conditions. These services include carbon dioxide storage, particle absorption, stormwater management, and the reduction of property cooling and heating costs. By leveraging i-Tree Eco, we provide actionable insights into how trees enhance both environmental and societal value.

Our Services

NatureCulture offers i-Tree Eco services tailored to the Gulf region. We can conduct a complete tree inventory incorporating an i-Tree Eco survey or deliver a stand-alone i-Tree Eco analysis if an inventory has already been completed. These surveys provide a detailed understanding of the composition and condition of the tree population, as well as quantified data on the ecosystem services they provide.

For international projects, we advise project employers to facilitate the procurement of city location data, hourly pollution levels, and precipitation records. Our team ensures that this information is accurately validated and incorporated into future versions of i-Tree Eco, allowing cities and organisations worldwide to optimise their urban forestry planning with precise, data-driven insights.

Using this data, we produce economic analyses that highlight the tangible value of trees as societal assets. Our reports not only demonstrate the environmental contributions of trees but also offer compelling evidence for the financial and social benefits they provide, empowering clients and communities to make informed decisions about urban forestry and green infrastructure.

Transforming Urban Spaces with the 3-30-300 Rule

The 3-30-300 Rule is a concept gaining traction globally, championing greener and healthier cities. It is a simple yet powerful guideline that aims to improve urban liveability by ensuring every resident can see three trees from their home, live in a neighbourhood with 30% tree canopy coverage, and be within 300 metres of a green space. Advocates argue that meeting these criteria not only improves environmental quality but also enhances mental and physical well-being, reduces urban heat, and fosters a sense of community.

NatureCulture is a leader in implementing this transformative approach for cities in the Gulf. Our service begins with a detailed assessment of neighbourhoods to provide a clear snapshot of the current state, identifying gaps in tree coverage and green space accessibility. Designed to engage local authorities and stakeholders, the reports serve as a foundation for collaborative planning to meet the 3-30-300 guidelines.

Following the assessment, NatureCulture develops tailored plans to achieve these targets. The firm’s expertise extends from masterplanning and design to the preparation of detailed documentation for tendering. Once tenders are assessed, the team supervises on-ground implementation to ensure the work aligns with the vision. To improve long-term success, NatureCulture monitors growth and the peformance of continued care strategies (maintenance).

For large landholders and authorities focused on creating livable spaces for residents, NatureCulture offers a public relations and marketing program. This includes social media campaigns to highlight the benefits of the 3-30-300 Rule, celebrating progress and inspiring broader action. By sharing stories of transformation, NatureCulture extends the impact of their work well beyond the project boundaries.

Through this comprehensive approach, NatureCulture not only helps communities meet the 3-30-300 targets but also transforms urban spaces into thriving, sustainable environments. The result is a greener, healthier, and more liveable future for all.