Heat, flood and fire: How urban greenery can better protect our cities

Cities in Australia are facing complex sustainability challenges due to an increasingly variable climate and extreme weather events, and efforts are underway to demonstrate and model how urban greenspaces could hold the key to mitigating these impacts. 

Delivered through Hort Innovation and led by Western Sydney University, the program will develop practical guides for urban planners, emergency management organisations and local and state government agencies on how to plan, design and manage public urban green spaces to reduce the impacts and risks associated with extreme heat, flood and fire events. 

Hort Innovation chief executive officer Brett Fifield said the program would equip urban decision-makers with guidance on nursery and turf products' social, environmental and sustainability credentials. 

"Green spaces are crucial for mitigating and adapting to climate challenges and creating resilient cities, providing many environmental and health benefits such as flood mitigation, microclimate regulation and cooling, and support for mental and physical wellbeing," Mr Fifield said. 

"Urban green spaces have the potential to deliver in a myriad of ways, and this program puts the needed information into the hands of those who make urban green space decisions." 

Western Sydney University professor Sebastian Pfautsch said the suite of practical resources will bolster our understanding of how to reduce impacts from severe weather events and how to respond and recover. 

"There is a need to carefully consider the competing functional demands placed on the green spaces in our cities and to rethink their design, engineering support, and management to better fit current and future challenges," Prof Pfautsch said. 

"The research team will develop three best-practice guides that contain accessible planning guidelines on urban green space design, planting, and management to provide multi-functional spaces that are better equipped to handle the impacts of natural hazards, such as fire, flood and extreme heat." 

"Later in the project, following simulation modelling, a comprehensive fourth guide will be developed on design and management in preparation for multiple weather events, including information on trade-offs and compromises that may need to be made." 

Australasian Green Infrastructure Network president Gail Hall said a strategic and collaborative approach is needed for effective green space management, and the guides will give the multiple practitioners involved the necessary insights and understanding on how to do that. 

"Green spaces are already experiencing the impacts of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. Tailoring guidance for the three key mitigation functions of cooling, reducing flooding impacts and fire risk in the right places is an essential adaptation measure," Ms Hall said.  

"Cooling will be a key function for our metropolitan areas, whereas flood mitigation will be more important near waterways, within floodplains and in highly impervious areas. Fire risks will dominate in the outer suburbs where relative vegetation cover is higher than urban areas." 

“By planning climate and disaster-ready green spaces we can create safer, more resilient, healthier and greener places for people.”