#Green cities

[solacene]

Little vision for a more beautiful, sustainable, tactile future.

[howamidrivinginlimbo]

A boat tour in Bruges, Belgium

[useless-catalanfacts]

A little bridge and a fallen tree over the Colombrers stream in Sabadell (Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Catalonia). Photo by SBA73 on Flickr.

This tiny stream of Colobrers runs through a quite narrow gorge in the hills north of Sabadell (which is a big industrial city by the way; so the contrast is great). Due to the narrowness of the gorge, the environment is much more green and humid than the plains surrounding it.

[tatersgonnatate]

Hi friends! Everyone was so helpful in the past when I asked for help about my mom volunteering and I was wondering if anyone else here in the Tumblr soup might be able to help my partner and I in our upcoming move. Our goal is to move not just out of our city (currently we live in Milwaukee *shrug* but quite possibly out of our state). We're actively looking at and have already visited (at various times) the following -

Madison (the capital city of my own state)

Minneapolis

Chicago

Portland (visited a couple years back)

If there's anyone in the soup who could offer me information, positive or negative (!!!), that a local might know that I wouldn't find via a Google search (because lbvs it's all come visit this lovely city here's a list of our top 10 attractions and historic monuments, when you search it) I would be eternally grateful! Any and all reblogs help. I will absofuckinglutely read all the tags 💚💚💚

TLDR: help a queer couple find out some info (good or bad!) about the above-mentioned cities so they can move to a green progressive safe(r) city before shit gets worse please and thanks

[bansuvs]

a mobile green space - could be handy to block a few parking spaces ...

[prose2passion]

Dusseldorf the way I like it ...

that's the kind of picture I wanted for my #GreenCities feature back in Feb and struggled to find, so when I came past this spot in May I took lots of photos to be sure to have one for the next time ...

[lunaiz4-misc]

TRAMS CAN GO ON GRASS. Or grass can go on tram tracks? Unclear. But grass and trams can coexist LOOK:

You could probably put another groundcover on there, too. Like clover or moss or whatever happens to be native and also short enough.

[raffaellopalandri]

Earth Day 2023

Let’s celebrate the 2023 Earth Day! This year, we rally behind the theme “Invest In Our Planet”, which highlights the importance of dedicating our time, resources, and energy to solving climate change and other environmental issues. Investing in our planet is necessary to protect it and the best way to pave a path toward a prosperous future. Every April 22nd, stakeholders of all backgrounds…

[ai-dream]

[reasonsforhope]

"With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.

In the face of a rapidly heating planet, the City of Eternal Spring — nicknamed so thanks to its year-round temperate climate — has found a way to keep its cool.

Previously, Medellín had undergone years of rapid urban expansion, which led to a severe urban heat island effect — raising temperatures in the city to significantly higher than in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Roads and other concrete infrastructure absorb and maintain the sun’s heat for much longer than green infrastructure.

“Medellín grew at the expense of green spaces and vegetation,” says Pilar Vargas, a forest engineer working for City Hall. “We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate. It became obvious that had to change.”

Efforts began in 2016 under Medellín’s then mayor, Federico Gutiérrez (who, after completing one term in 2019, was re-elected at the end of 2023). The city launched a new approach to its urban development — one that focused on people and plants.

The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometers of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths.

These plant and tree-filled spaces — which connect all sorts of green areas such as the curb strips, squares, parks, vertical gardens, sidewalks, and even some of the seven hills that surround the city — produce fresh, cooling air in the face of urban heat. The corridors are also designed to mimic a natural forest with levels of low, medium and high plants, including native and tropical plants, bamboo grasses and palm trees.

Heat-trapping infrastructure like metro stations and bridges has also been greened as part of the project and government buildings have been adorned with green roofs and vertical gardens to beat the heat. The first of those was installed at Medellín’s City Hall, where nearly 100,000 plants and 12 species span the 1,810 square meter surface.

“It’s like urban acupuncture,” says Paula Zapata, advisor for Medellín at C40 Cities, a global network of about 100 of the world’s leading mayors. “The city is making these small interventions that together act to make a big impact.”

At the launch of the project, 120,000 individual plants and 12,500 trees were added to roads and parks across the city. By 2021, the figure had reached 2.5 million plants and 880,000 trees. Each has been carefully chosen to maximize their impact.

“The technical team thought a lot about the species used. They selected endemic ones that have a functional use,” explains Zapata.

The 72 species of plants and trees selected provide food for wildlife, help biodiversity to spread and fight air pollution. A study, for example, identified Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellín at absorbing PM2.5 pollution — particulate matter that can cause asthma, bronchitis and heart disease — and surviving in polluted areas due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms.”

And the urban planting continues to this day.

The groundwork is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners like Pineda, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialized forest engineers. Pineda is now the leader of a team of seven other gardeners who attend to corridors all across the city, shifting depending on the current priorities...

“I’m completely in favor of the corridors,” says [Victoria Perez, another citizen-gardener], who grew up in a poor suburb in the city of 2.5 million people. “It really improves the quality of life here.”

Wilmar Jesus, a 48-year-old Afro-Colombian farmer on his first day of the job, is pleased about the project’s possibilities for his own future. “I want to learn more and become better,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to advance myself.”

The project’s wider impacts are like a breath of fresh air. Medellín’s temperatures fell by 2°C in the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change. In turn, City Hall says this will minimize the need for energy-intensive air conditioning...

In addition, the project has had a significant impact on air pollution. Between 2016 and 2019, the level of PM2.5 fell significantly, and in turn the city’s morbidity rate from acute respiratory infections decreased from 159.8 to 95.3 per 1,000 people [Note: That means the city's rate of people getting sick with lung/throat/respiratory infections.]

There’s also been a 34.6 percent rise in cycling in the city, likely due to the new bike paths built for the project, and biodiversity studies show that wildlife is coming back — one sample of five Green Corridors identified 30 different species of butterfly.

Other cities are already taking note. Bogotá and Barranquilla have adopted similar plans, among other Colombian cities, and last year São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America, began expanding its corridors after launching them in 2022.

“For sure, Green Corridors could work in many other places,” says Zapata."

-via Reasons to Be Cheerful, March 4, 2024

[parwatisingari]

A Day to Embrace Our Environment

World Environment Day 2024 ‘morning all, ‘happy World Environment Day’ The theme of the year is combating desertification. It sounds huge doesn’t it. Well not actually. There is something that everyday people like you and me do. We can actually do it with Urban Reforestation and every I think an year ago I wrote about 52% of desertification of Goa, we have gone worse. The mangroves destroyed.…

[worldcitiesday]

Urban Forestry reduces air conditioning needs.

The Urban and Peri-Urban Forests.

[biglisbonnews]

Parks and gardens hold key to cooling overheated cities Nature in urban settings can have huge impact on temperature and human behaviour, study showsParks, trees, green roofs and gardens are what scientists call nature-based solutions to cooling overheated cities. Then there are the technical solutions, solar panels, heat pumps and other ways of cutting fossil fuel use. But even all these combined are not enough to reach the goal of net zero carbon emissions.This is partly because as climate change makes our cities hotter during the summer months, people tend to change their behaviour. For example, they may stop cycling to work and opt to sit in an air-conditioned car, making a bad situation worse. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/sep/01/weatherwatch-parks-gardens-cooling-overheated-cities-nature

[oiroegbu]

Green City

How would you design the city of the future? If I were to be an administrator, my city would be the greenest in the world. I would put pockets of forests in hubs, and every house would be encouraged to have a garden and at least two fruit trees. There would be a more expansive Park, right in the middle of town. The Park excludes all manner of vehicles. For every concrete building, a…

[actressplaygroundxxx]

Eva Green (34) in Sin City A Dame to Kill For (2014)

[itsbansheebitch]

Rants at the Hairdresser

her, behind me trimming my hair: "it's so wild how big cars are. Seems a bit dangerous, ya know?"

me, enjoying the smell of the stuff she sprayed in my hair: "Yeah, apparently that's because it's cheaper to have a car classified as a 'light truck' since you can get past safety regulations and they have different frames."

her, who has paused working on my hair: "Wait, are you serious?"

me: "Yeah, apparently it's a lot cheaper for companies to do that. And it really sucks since driving one of those cars is super dangerous, but it's even more dangerous for other people, especially if they're in a smaller car. Since it would be more safe to be another driver if they ALSO have a 'light truck,' everyone is caught in a cycle of getting bigger and bigger cars. All of which are extremely dangerous and have made being a pedestrian even more dangerous."

her: deep in thought, silent.

me, happy that someone is letting me rant about this: "Oh, the new Cadillacs are the size of tanks. That's not an exaggeration, by the way."

her, stunned: ???? "what the actual hell???"

we're silent for a bit

her, hesitantly, since I look like white trash and she has at least 10 piercings and pink hair: "I feel like America has been that way for a while... ya know?"

me: "Oh yeah, I totally get what you're saying, like, putting profit over people's safety?"

her, assured now that she knows we're both too commie pilled for this kind of conversation with someone else: "Yes! Exactly! It really sucks, right?"

me: "God, tell me about it"

I was very happy with my haircut, btw. She's so good at her job. :D