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Environmental Business Review | Friday, January 28, 2022
Bringing greenery into our cities via green roofs, walls, or pocket parks, helps support biodiversity.
Fremont, CA: Bringing greenery into our cities via green roofs, walls, or pocket parks, helps support biodiversity.
Here are the Edges Of the City-Greening
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1. It makes us happy!
Spending time in nature is good for our well-being. Near nature can help you feel comfortable or less anxious, experience positive emotions, and enhance your mental well-being. As half the universal population lives in cities, building sustainable and healthy places is more crucial than ever.
2. It's good for wildlife
Conveying greenery into our cities with green roofs, walls, or pocket parks aids support biodiversity. We've undergone this: where we work in Paddington, a green space on the working campus hosts a profusion of wildlife, like insects and birds.
Another great instance is the Natural History Museum garden, where over 3,300 species have been detected since it opened 25 years ago, most of which have contributed to scientific studies. Green spaces for wildlife don't look essential to be big; even a single plant can serve as a stepping stone as several small, but strong creatures navigate a concrete jungle.
3. In the fight against climate change, it's a future-proofing measure
The proper amount of tree cover in cities can reduce temperatures by 10 degrees Fahrenheit! In addition, shading homes and streets break up urban 'heat islands' (caused by the heat generated by houses, shops, industrial buildings, vehicles, and people nearby), and trees release water vapor through their leaves. As we experience hotter summers, these benefits will be gradually important.
Increased extreme weather cases will also include heavier, more frequent rainfalls. Green spaces can support awaited increases in heavy downpours to evade flooding. Sustainable drainage (SuDS) incorporates nature-based solutions to slow the rate at which stormwater enters piped drainage systems, involving rain gardens and street trees.
Turning grey, impervious surfaces into green, permeable ones decreases the risk of flash flooding, as some water can drain into the ground instead of running over it.
4. It can help endorse our food system
City-Greening can also signify growing food! While this won't replace large-scale farming, growing this way can help us reconnect with food and shorten supply chains for certain products. Private gardens, community gardens, allotments, & urban farms all have a function to play in building a more resilient food system.
Currently, 84% of fruit and 46% of vegetables consumed in the UK are imported, so growing in towns and cities can only enhance our resilience to any shocks in the supply system. Vertical and indoor growing is also more resilient to pests and extreme weather, and the conditions are much simple to control than out in a field.
5. It can reduce air pollution
Now considered the greatest global environmental health threat by the World Health Organisation, green spaces can play a role in tackling this issue. Plants can enhance air quality through good old photosynthesis! They absorb damaging gases and produce clean oxygen.
A bonus is that plants deflect radiation from the sun, meaning that leaves soften the rays and reduce UV exposure, decreasing eye and skin damage and dehydration from overexposure. It's a win-win.
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