Most important snack:
- The urban heat island effect makes the city temperatures around 1 to 7 ° F warmer than its surrounding natural environments, since the built environment is increased to absorb sun's heat. Higher temperatures increase health risks and electricity bills.
- The vegetation has a high solar ultraviolet -reflection capacity and releases water vapor through evapotranspiration. On a sunny day, the evapo transpiration of only one tree has a cooling effect that corresponds to at least 10 air conditioning systems.
- Environmental gentrification occurs when large-scale urban green projects or environmental improvements increase the surrounding real estate values, which leads to gentrification that displaces residents of lower incomes.
- The UsfS (United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service )'s urban and community forests program is the only federal program that focuses on maintaining and increasing urban banks, forests and green spaces by supporting local sustainable greening initiatives.
Today, over 80% of Americans live in urban areas, and this number only grows. Cities pursue this growth by expanding urban green spaces such as parks, municipal gardens, urban trees and green roofs. Urban Green Spaces offer the municipalities of economic, social and ecological advantages. For example, urban gardens offer the residents of the neighborhoods of healthy products, which is of crucial importance in food deserts in which people only have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods. Parks offer a common room for social and cultural activities and even reduce the depression rate in the surrounding communities. Trees offer shade, improve air quality, prevent flooding and improvement in the health of electricity, increasing the income from fishing, tourism and recreation industry.
In particular, trees contribute to the urban heat island effect, which increases the city temperatures by 1-7 ° F compared to their surroundings, since built environments have a high solar heat absorption rate. The centers for the control and prevention of diseases showed that the annual rate of heat -related deaths in large urban areas is highest compared to all other land types. By adding green rooms, cities can directly combat the heat island effect, since the vegetation has a high UV reflection capacity and releases water vapor through evapotranspiration. On a sunny day, the evapo transpiration of only one tree has a cooling effect that corresponds to at least 10 air conditioning systems. Speaking of cooling, higher urban temperatures also increase energy consumption through air conditioning, which leads to more greenhouse gas emissions of power plants.
However, the development of green areas can possibly have a negative impact on the surrounding populations. Modern urban greening projects are often country-intensive and are aimed at the demography of the upper class. In these cases, green spaces are not always distributed fairly and do not necessarily benefit all community members. “Environmental generation” occurs when large-scale urban green projects or environmental improvements increase the surrounding real estate values, which leads to gentrification by displacing residents with lower incomes.
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Tourists walk in the New York High Line Park. Credit: Dan Nguyen |
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Environmental genre |
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Environmental genre is not a new phenomenon. The famous New York City Central Park, one of the most comprehensive examples of urban green spaces, was designed in 1958 with the main purpose of increasing values and tax revenue for the city. The famous High Line of New York City, a 1.45 miles long railway line, is converted into a garden, opened in a garden in 2009 and attracts over five million visitors each year. As a result, the surrounding real estate values rose by 35%, displaced many residents and small companies with lower incomes and transformed the entire socio -economic character of the surrounding neighborhood. |
Environmental generation is not an inevitable result of urban green projects. If green spaces are developed carefully and fairly, they can not only avoid gentrification, but also promote a space for diversity and democracy in American cities. Instead of priorizing the public and tourist attraction, a more modest, smaller approach that includes the participation of the community in the decision -making is required to ensure the fair distribution of green spaces.
The U.S.'s urban and community forest program (United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service) is the only federal program that focuses on maintaining and increasing the community trees, forests and green spaces. Since 1978, this program has supported local initiatives that are used environmentally friendly spaces and other natural -based solutions to manage economic, social and ecological challenges in all 50 states. The urban and the Community Forest program was financed in 2023 in 2023 Inflation reduction of the law (PL 117-169) and was otherwise financed annually from $ 36 to $ 40 million.
The urban and joint forest program was used across the country, including, for example, in New Jersey. The state has a tree roof of 44%. This corresponds to over 152 million trees that remove almost a million tons of carbon and over 30,000 tons of harmful air pollutants each year. However, his tree baldachin is not distributed uniformly across the state. The urban areas of New Jersey such as Newark, Trenton and Camden have an average of 7.6%, 12.5%or. 8.1%tree banach. In addition, color areas have about half as much canopy as historically white communities with higher incomes. As a result, colored communities with lower incomes are susceptible to the consequences of a lack of urban forests such as higher disease rate and injuries from air pollution, floods and extreme heat.
The New Jersey Tree Foundation (NJTF) received a subsidy for urban and community forest programs of 4.2 million US dollars in 2023, with which the residents of the community are to be put at the center of the foundation's mission in order to increase the green rooms in marginalized communities. NJTF only plants trees where they are invited to ensure that the municipality supports the health of the planted trees. As soon as trees are planted, the residents of volunteers sign a two -year maintenance contract in which it is explained how they can take care of the trees, and NJTF offers free tools and training. NJTF works slowly and steadily and has planted over 257,000 trees across the state in his 17 -year work (that's more than 40 trees a day!).
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The New Jersey Tree Foundation Green Street Crew Members Plant Trees in Glen Ridge, NJ |
The urban and joint forest program has also achieved success in Detroit, Michigan. After his economic recession, Detroit experienced a massive tree dying, with more than half a million trees died since 1950. This loss of tree covering led to a reduced shadow and protection, increased floods and increased urban heat. With a financing of 9.7 million US dollars from the urban and joint forest program in 2023, the basic organization The Greening of Detroit worked to restore Detroits Green Spaces and at the same time provide jobs for the residents.
The green of the Detroit was founded to meet the needs of the neighborhoods that were most violated by the economic downturn, while the skills of people who had previously been confronted with socio -economic or racist obstacles to employment. The non -profit organization ensures that the advantages of green spaces within the municipalities remain the most urgently need the most urgent through its Green Workforce Development Program, which Detroit Conservation Corps urgently need. In this eight -week program, the participants receive a scholarship, the development of jobs, safety training and academic updates. So far, 50 program graduates have been hired by the City of Detroit General Services and hundreds of other work in the forest positions of private sector. Detroit's foundation deals with communities that need environmentally friendly spaces to ensure the sustainability and equity of their green projects.
As the success of organizations such as the greening of Detroit and the New Jersey Tree Foundation shows, Urban Greening can be a powerful instrument to promote social, economic and ecological resilience if it is addressed with equity. By prioritizing joint participation, long-term responsibility and the development of the workforce, accordingly with long-term federal programs such as the USDA program for urban and community forestry skills, green spaces have permanent advantages instead of causing their displacement.
Author: Whitney Orloff