Hotter pavements also damage the water cycle. This expands our energy consumption, which in turn intensifies fossil fuel consumption, increasing pollutants in the air and harmful smog on our streets. Increased temperatures in summer leads to an increased demand for cooling. This can bring the temperature in urban areas up 3-4☌ higher than the surrounding countryside, and with that comes a vicious cycle. The heat generated by people, transport, shops and industry is trapped in the narrow roads and concrete structures, unable to escape to the atmosphere. The urban heat island effect appears in towns and cities as a result of human activity. Green spaces in cities mitigate the effects of pollution and can reduce a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect, which refers to heat trapped in built-up areas. In return, the benefits to our health would be huge.'
'We have a responsibility as human beings to take care of nature in our cities. We need nature as our neighbour all the time.' We need trees in our streets, plants in our gardens and flowers on our balcony. 'Research shows really clearly that we need nature in our surroundings. He studies the role of nature and green spaces in cities and towns, and how we can use the natural world to make urban environments healthier and more liveable. Why do we need nature in urban areas?Īs our cities grow and more people move into already crowded spaces, what do we need to do to transform our urban areas into healthy places to live? An increasing body of research tells us that we should be letting nature back in.ĭr Cecil Konijnendijk is a Professor of Urban Forestry at the University of British Colombia (UBC).
In London, two million people - of which 400,000 are children - are living in areas with toxic air. Researchers estimate that nine million people die every year as a direct result of air pollution. In Europe, three out of four of us already live in urban areas, and the consequences of that are becoming clear. That's 2.5 billion more people than today. By 2050, 68% of the global population will live in cities.
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