Smarter ecosystems for smarter cities? A review of trends, technologies, and turning points for smart urban forestry

•Cities are increasingly data-driven, and it is timely to explore how the management of urban forests and green infrastructure can be integrated into smart city planning.•We propose an approach for conceptualizing smart urban forests and smart urban forest management, with examples and cases to date.•Digital technologies can be jointly used as tools to improve the delivery of forest benefits and enable stakeholder participation and engagement.•Current cases and “smart” urban forest projects reveal a focus on open data and citizen engagement.•There are promising lines of research and application using sensor networks, big data analytics, robotics, and augmented/virtual reality.