Our cities need more trees and water, not less, to stay liveable

Williams, Nicholas Morrow; Coutts, Andrew; Livesley, Stephen J.

doi:10.1071/ec14026

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Whereas the developed world has a better understanding benefits of integrating urban vegetation and open space into the urban milieu for livability sake, emerging cities of Africa are rapidly expanding at the expense of urban vegetation. Williams et. al (2014) wrote on the topic "Our cities need more trees and water, not less, to stay livable".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of Urban Vegetation Abundance in Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana: A Geospatial Approach

Owusu

2018

Journal of Environmental Geography

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The essential role played by urban vegetation in making urban areas livable is often overlooked in many developing cities. This is the case of Ghana where its capital, Accra is developing at the expense of urban vegetation. This study was conducted at the metropolitan area of Accra to estimate how the extent of vegetation cover has changed in the period of 1986-2013, using remote sensing satellite data from Landsat TM and ETM+. Furthermore, views of key informants were assessed on changes in the livability of the city of Accra which may be attributed to loss of urban green vegetation in the city. It was found that between 1986 and 2013, 42.53 km2 of vegetation was lost representing 64.6% of total vegetation in 1986. The rate of change in vegetation cover between 1986 and 1991 measured around 2.14% of the total land area annually. This however, reduced in the subsequent years measuring 0.26% between 2002 and 2008. Key informants interviewed, also believe that the loss of vegetation in the city creates livability concerns relating to ecosystem functioning, temperature rise and air quality. It is therefore recommended for urban planners and decision makers to address three critical concerns of resilience, sustainability and livability, which are the missing links in the city development agenda.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of Urban Vegetation Abundance in Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana: A Geospatial Approach

Owusu

2018

Journal of Environmental Geography

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“…Fast forward 25 years, and with the advent and widespread diffusion and falling costs of high-speed public Internet, high performance computing, high-capacity storage, high-definition computer graphics, and high-quality videoconferencing, the stage was set for the creation of a national platform of networked urban research laboratories-a national urban collaboratory: the iHUB. Over this period, there have been increasing calls for better urban governance [31,32] and better urban planning [33][34][35]. Both are linked, and both require mission-scaled urban innovation capacity that a national R&D facility can deliver (see [36]).…”

Section: Ihub Concept Functionality Specifications and Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating a National Urban Research and Development Platform for Advancing Urban Experimentation

Newton

Frantzeskaki

2021

Sustainability

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Transformative changes are required for a 21st century sustainable urban development transition involving multiple interconnected domains of energy, water, transport, waste, and housing. This will necessitate a step change in performance goals and tangible solutions. Regenerative urban development has emerged as a major pathway, together with decarbonisation, climate adaptation involving new blue-green infrastructures, and transition to a new green, circular economy. These grand challenges are all unlikely to be realised with current urban planning and governance systems within a time frame that can mitigate environmental, economic, and social disruption. A new national platform for urban innovation has been envisaged and implemented in Australia that is capable of enabling engagement of multiple stakeholders across government, industry, and community as well as real time synchronous collaboration, visioning, research synthesis, experimentation, and decision-making. It targets large strategic metropolitan, mission-scale transition challenges as well as more tactical neighbourhood-scale projects. This paper introduces the iHUB: National Urban Research and Development Platform, its underlying concepts, and multiple layers of technical (IT/AV), software/analytical, data, and engagement, as envisioned and implemented in Australia’s four largest capital cities and five collaborating foundation universities.

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“…Refs. [5,6] agree that cities need trees and water to be habitable. They also articulate the public perception and impact of failed urban planning leading to the loss of urban vegetation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Sustainable Urban Drainage Planning? Geospatial Assessment of Urban Vegetation Density under Socioeconomic Factors for Quito, Ecuador

Ulloa-Espíndola

Lalama-Noboa²,

Cuyo-Cuyo³

2022

Geographies

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Natural or anthropogenic urban vegetation is an important resource for urban planning, risk assessment, and sustainable development of a city. Quito is a megadiverse city due to its location and topography, but the socioeconomic diversity generates more contrasting conditions of certain behaviors and habits related to urban infrastructure. The contrasts of vegetation and green spaces in the different sectors of Quito also reflect the diversity of the city. This study examines the effects of socioeconomic conditions on the loss or increase of urban vegetation. The exploratory regression method (spatial) and logit model (non-spatial) were used to explain the socioeconomic effects on urban vegetation density at the level of urban parishes. On the one hand, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated as the dependent variable based on the 2021 sentinel images. On the other hand, the independent variables were structured based on the socioeconomic level, the land valuation areas of Quito (AIVAS), and the quality of life index. This article contributes to establishing baseline information that helps structure the conditions, strategies, and investments to design and implement plans and programs for urban drainage, ecosystem benefits, and sustainable development in the city of Quito.

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Our cities need more trees and water, not less, to stay liveable

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

An Assessment of Urban Vegetation Abundance in Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana: A Geospatial Approach

An Assessment of Urban Vegetation Abundance in Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana: A Geospatial Approach

Creating a National Urban Research and Development Platform for Advancing Urban Experimentation

Toward Sustainable Urban Drainage Planning? Geospatial Assessment of Urban Vegetation Density under Socioeconomic Factors for Quito, Ecuador

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