#urban green spaces

[reasonsforhope]

"A recent World Meteorological Organization report called heat waves the “deadliest meteorological hazard” from 2015 to 2019, affecting people living on all continents, and setting new national heat records in many regions.

‍Canada’s top weather event in 2021 was British Columbia’s record-breaking heat, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. The temperature in Lytton, B.C., hit 49.6 C on June 29. The following day a wildfire destroyed 90 per cent of the town, killing two people and displacing 1,200 others.

Heat waves also exacerbate existing health issues, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease. They’re associated with increased hospital admissions, psychological stress and aggressive behavior, as well as excess mortality.

During heat waves, the highest temperatures are often found in urbanized areas. Urbanization is almost always associated with an increase in paved, impervious areas, and often a decrease in greenery. Concrete and asphalt roads, and other built materials readily absorb, store and release heat, raising city temperatures, a phenomenon called the urban heat island.

Many studies have shown that urban forests can reduce the urban heat island, and many policies focus their attention on large green spaces.

Small green spaces, such as yards, rooftops and small parcels of undeveloped land, can make impressive contributions to lowering urban heat, but they are often overlooked when developing strategies for urban cooling.

The effect of small green spaces

Cities rarely have the opportunity to add large green spaces to help counter the effects of heatwaves. Smaller vegetated spaces, however, can still meaningfully decrease local land temperatures.

Small green spaces, such as yards, rooftops and small parcels of undeveloped land, can make impressive contributions to lowering urban heat, but they are often overlooked when developing strategies for urban cooling.

A recent study in Adelaide, Australia, found that tree canopy cover and, to a lesser extent, grass cover decreased local daytime surface temperatures by up to 6 C during extreme summer heat conditions. Further inland, suburban yards and gardens can decrease local surface temperatures up to 5 C.

At a quite small scale, on the order of tens of square metres, trees reduced daytime surface temperatures twice as much as grass cover. But grass and other small, low-lying plants, grow relatively quickly, compared to trees.

Cities should adopt short-term and long-term strategies to respond to extreme heat, including the replacement of paved and impervious surfaces with grasses and turf, and increasing tree plantings to boost canopy coverage.

Amplifying the cooling effect

Furthermore, when managing small green spaces, city planners and foresters can select tree species based on their ability to cool the environment. Green spaces with a high diversity of tree species have a greater cooling effect in spring, summer and fall. They also have a larger maximum drop in temperature in the summer, compared to spaces that are less diverse.

For example, tree canopies with large leaves and high transpiration rates — the evaporation of water from plants occurring at the leaves — could provide more cooling.

Planting a variety of species, of different heights, can have a larger cooling effect than tall trees alone.

The structure of green space may also influence its cooling efficiency. In summer, a plant community with multiple layers of trees, shrubs and herbs can further decrease air temperature by 1 C on a sunny day and 0.5 C on a cloudy day, compared with an area only dominated by tall trees...

But overall, trees usually have a stronger effect on cooling than grass. Planting trees in groups, not individually or in lines, is recommended for regulating the microclimate (local climate conditions near the Earth’s surface).

Small green spaces can offer a lot of summer cooling in cities. And cities can learn to manage the configuration of small green spaces better to get more cooling benefits and minimize the trade-offs."

-via GoodGoodGood, July 4, 2024

[thestudentfarmer]

2 28 2025

Hello hello,

Been a bit busy round the homestead with the weather change, but being busy seems more common than not being busy lol

The month olds hot moved outside, to make way for the new chicks inside

Given everywheres been sold out consistently and that nature will do as nature does, we'll likely continue hatching out through the summer.

Onwards to the garden,

I uppoted these melons and some zuchinnis so they can get just a lil bit bigger before full transplant. Any extras I'm gonna try to sell this year for garden funds.

Very little growth on the tomato and pepper seeds, I had hoped I'd be lucky with the weather but I guess I'll have to wait on having either and hope the one si left to overwinter start producing soon.

Not much in the new strawberry bed. The peas are producing a decent snack amount now, so I'll need to figure a way to double the size of pea/bean areas.

Did some dye work on some pants. They went from olive green, blue and khaki to as black as I could. Also hemmed them for summer wear.

I used rit dye and idye poly. Currently I would recommend both. Idye poly took a looong time to run clear before I could give them a run in the washer, they 100% covered the thread and buttons the rit dye did not.

Their not dark enough for the wearer yet, so I'm on the hunt for another dye to try. If anyone has suggestion the fabric is cotton and I believe a polyblend of some sort for the thread.

Also we got a composter, as we are pretty certain the city's recycling/green program hasn't been back to normal since the virus closures reopened, and ive seen both barrels picked up by the same truck more than once since. While we can't do much on that (except call up, complain/explain and take action), we decided it was time to learn composting to close and lesson our waste stream more if we can.

On the bonus side, when its done we'll have fresh dirt for our garden which is always a win 🏆. The worst so far has been figuring out a good collection and take out system for the daily bits 😂.

In the kitchen,

Ive been saving every citrus peel i can (using a veggie peeler to make strips) and drying them out. Some ive used for tea, some for dry seasoning flavor (super excellent btw, I cannot believe i ever enjoyed the dusty stuff in the cheapo bottle.) And fresh in sauces. I'm also saving seeds to give a try at sprouting them. Figure why not, it's good practice 🌱

Alright, ive got to get my day started so I'm heading off.

🌱 🥕 Happy Gardening 🥕 🌱

[where-light-catches]

Dublin urban greenery

[cusaqphotos]

[surr0unds]

manhattan

[quinnfrankephotography]

Beautiful morning before it got hot. Activity and drama everywhere with the little critters.

[rob604designs]

Vancouver BC

-Rob604

[laurenkmoody]

Okay, I cried a little. I love reading about all the ways we're learning to live WITH the natural world, the slow breaking down of the separation between human and nature. We are PART of nature. We need this as much as that songbird does. 100 acres of restored riparian (river edge) ecosystem will help mitigate the urban heat island effect, will give LA residents somewhere to walk and play and see green, will shade the river and encourage the return of more species like fish that need cooler water.

Plus, this is the sort of thing that's nearly always going to be local-driven. With national politics going the way they are, this is a heartening reminder that getting involved locally can make a big difference.

We can do this!

A least Bell’s vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) sings at Taylor Yard on March 22. California placed this songbird on its endangered species list in 1980, but this rare vireo has recently returned to central L.A. thanks to habitat restoration and the return of the natural riparian ecosystem along a section of the Los Angeles River. Alecia Smith / Audubon California

Excerpt from this story from the Smithsonian Magazine:

Along a gentle bend of the Los Angeles River, in a stretch of land called Taylor Yard, a sound like a high-pitched record scratch can just be heard above the cacophony of city life. This is the call of the least Bell’s vireo, an olive-gray songbird that is only five inches from tip to tail. The riparian species native to Southern California has lived an endangered existence for more than 40 years. Now, the small bird’s return here symbolizes a new future for one of the country’s most maligned waterways.

Before the concrete tide of urbanization washed over the Los Angeles River Basin, the river-fed wetland that was here represented the perfect habitat for this rare species. But for the past century, this area was one of the largest rail yards in the region, and as an expanding city grew right up to the river’s now concrete-laden banks, the vireo all but disappeared.

Until, suddenly, it returned. The 2007 creation of Rio de Los Angeles State Park, which is itself part of the sprawling rail yard, set the stage. In the early 2010s someone reported hearing the vireo’s memorable call. A few years later, a photo captured a vireo mid-song, and in 2022 a nesting pair took refuge in a tree. This year, the news was even better.

“We actually saw fledglings,” says Evelyn Serrano, the director of the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles. “We saw the nest and we saw the babies, so we were very excited. It’s tough to survive in an urban environment when you’re a little bird like that, but it’s definitely possible.”

The return of the least Bell’s vireo shows what’s possible along a more natural Los Angeles River, and Taylor Yard represents the city’s largest opportunity to create vital habitat for many of its vulnerable endemic species. For years, a partnership of government groups and nonprofits has pushed to make the remaining 100 acres of the abandoned rail yard the “crown jewel” of L.A.’s river restoration project. The resulting collective, known as the 100 Acre Partnership, hopes to complete the restoration by 2028, which is just in time for the L.A. Olympic Games. The project is just the latest effort to create a new vision of Los Angeles that’s been in the works for nearly a century.

[neosciencehub]

The Importance of Urban Green Spaces: A Case Study of Kancha Gachibowli Forest @neosciencehub #Kancha #GachibowliForest #UrbanGreenSpaces #CaseStudy #neosciencehub

[marwan214]

Lithuania: The European Green Capital of 2025

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[thestudentfarmer]

12. 28. 2024

This year is now almost to an end already!

Small garden and going on post today~

Have 2 big carrots in the current grow and a ton of new started sprouts. Guess it got too cold on one side and they've been napping for a bit. May need to see about a small hedgerow cover to trap heat at night. Probably could make that from old clear shower curtain and some small peices of wood.

I believe this is a praying mantis eggcase. Not quite sure which variety. In honesty I figured we lost out on them due to heat, not enough cover/food and the surplus of the assassin bee eaters I kept finding.

The one tomatoe is now begging to be well covered in the fruit, I'll need to get a cover on them soon as the wild birds keep pecking them out as they jsut ripen. I don't mind sharing a few, but it's been everyone this year :(

Some floral blooms 🤩 their prettier each year.

Been working on making noodles and crackers. so far I've got plain pumpkin+wheat and pumpkin+wheat+ egg yolk down okay enough, i feel

I did unfortunately over startch the boil water (which burned the noodles and flavored the sauce), so next time, I'll probably use a bigger pan and switch it out halfway so there's clean water.

Harvested and spread out the sunchoke tubers to grow more of them. Did not get to try them out yet. If anyone has, what was your thought on them?

They produced decently well in my opinion, little small the first year but the bigger and a deeper prepared bed probably would produce some good sized and number of them.

And did some cleanup of chicken alley. Thye got those hollyhocks nice and dusty back there lol. The clean up was mostly eeding out any grass and had material (both went to the chickens)

I got the seed table reset up and done.

Today I intend to do soem garden work, what kind yet I'm not certain. I do need to repot and clean up the vera plant. (The pot is falling apart) I'd also like to do some basic clean up to prepare for the new year and work on some goals towards a more successful garden and urban homestead this upcoming year.

Anyone started their new year resolutions with their goals of gardening, sustainability, homecookiny or otherwise? Care to share them?

That's it for today's post and update :)

🌲🌱Happy Urban Homesteading🌱🌲

[twelvebooksstuff]

This is amazing!! Many small solutions can help pave the way for a better future

"A recent World Meteorological Organization report called heat waves the “deadliest meteorological hazard” from 2015 to 2019, affecting people living on all continents, and setting new national heat records in many regions.

‍Canada’s top weather event in 2021 was British Columbia’s record-breaking heat, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. The temperature in Lytton, B.C., hit 49.6 C on June 29. The following day a wildfire destroyed 90 per cent of the town, killing two people and displacing 1,200 others.

Heat waves also exacerbate existing health issues, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease. They’re associated with increased hospital admissions, psychological stress and aggressive behavior, as well as excess mortality.

During heat waves, the highest temperatures are often found in urbanized areas. Urbanization is almost always associated with an increase in paved, impervious areas, and often a decrease in greenery. Concrete and asphalt roads, and other built materials readily absorb, store and release heat, raising city temperatures, a phenomenon called the urban heat island.

Many studies have shown that urban forests can reduce the urban heat island, and many policies focus their attention on large green spaces.

Small green spaces, such as yards, rooftops and small parcels of undeveloped land, can make impressive contributions to lowering urban heat, but they are often overlooked when developing strategies for urban cooling.

The effect of small green spaces

Cities rarely have the opportunity to add large green spaces to help counter the effects of heatwaves. Smaller vegetated spaces, however, can still meaningfully decrease local land temperatures.

Small green spaces, such as yards, rooftops and small parcels of undeveloped land, can make impressive contributions to lowering urban heat, but they are often overlooked when developing strategies for urban cooling.

A recent study in Adelaide, Australia, found that tree canopy cover and, to a lesser extent, grass cover decreased local daytime surface temperatures by up to 6 C during extreme summer heat conditions. Further inland, suburban yards and gardens can decrease local surface temperatures up to 5 C.

At a quite small scale, on the order of tens of square metres, trees reduced daytime surface temperatures twice as much as grass cover. But grass and other small, low-lying plants, grow relatively quickly, compared to trees.

Cities should adopt short-term and long-term strategies to respond to extreme heat, including the replacement of paved and impervious surfaces with grasses and turf, and increasing tree plantings to boost canopy coverage.

Amplifying the cooling effect

Furthermore, when managing small green spaces, city planners and foresters can select tree species based on their ability to cool the environment. Green spaces with a high diversity of tree species have a greater cooling effect in spring, summer and fall. They also have a larger maximum drop in temperature in the summer, compared to spaces that are less diverse.

For example, tree canopies with large leaves and high transpiration rates — the evaporation of water from plants occurring at the leaves — could provide more cooling.

Planting a variety of species, of different heights, can have a larger cooling effect than tall trees alone.

The structure of green space may also influence its cooling efficiency. In summer, a plant community with multiple layers of trees, shrubs and herbs can further decrease air temperature by 1 C on a sunny day and 0.5 C on a cloudy day, compared with an area only dominated by tall trees...

But overall, trees usually have a stronger effect on cooling than grass. Planting trees in groups, not individually or in lines, is recommended for regulating the microclimate (local climate conditions near the Earth’s surface).

Small green spaces can offer a lot of summer cooling in cities. And cities can learn to manage the configuration of small green spaces better to get more cooling benefits and minimize the trade-offs."

-via GoodGoodGood, July 4, 2024

[sunshine-tattoo]

To increase biodiversity in urban communities, i think that there should be a social rule that the only places that can have cut lawns are places specifically for children or pets to play.

A few common examples are playgrounds and dog parks.

This way they can run around and have a good time without trampling the wildflowers or worrying about ticks.

There also would be a minimum size limit to these spaces because kids and animals cannot play in a space that is super small.

So backyards that are tiny would be expected to have wildflowers and tall grass instead.

Or full on gardens with flowers and/or veggies.

"But what if I'm not good at gardening?!"

You don't have to be.

Most lawn care stores sell big bags of seeds that are native to your local ecosystem.

All you have to do is sprinkle em all over the yard, wait for some rain, and in no time you will have a mini meadow! Perfect for bees and other pollinators!

Lawns as big monocultures for walking around were never meant to be the norm in urban centers or anywhere.

They were created by European nobility and other rich people as a way to say "Hey look at me! I have all this land but don't have to grow anything useful on it!"

Don't be like the European nobility.

Make green spaces useful again.

[fehck]