What was it all about?

The project demonstrated how residential streets can be redesigned with green infrastructure to improve resilience to heatwaves, drought and flooding, while creating safer and more liveable communities.  

Working with residents and stakeholders in three Melbourne streets, the project developed co-designed street retrofit plans and a range of practical resources to support greener streets. These included design reports, resilience assessments, a co-design guide and toolkit, case studies, videos and a guide to overcoming common barriers to street greening.  

The project used a community-led co-design approach to develop and test street greening solutions for three different neighbourhoods. Residents helped identify priorities, evaluate options and shape designs that increased tree canopy, biodiversity and green infrastructure while considering local needs and constraints.  

The project addressed the challenge of urban streets being dominated by roads, parking and hard surfaces, which can increase the impacts of extreme heat and flooding. It explored how greener streets can better support climate resilience while meeting community expectations for safety, accessibility and neighbourhood amenity.  

The project showed that communities can play an active role in designing greener and more resilient streets. The findings will help councils, planners and communities increase urban tree canopy and green infrastructure, creating greater demand for horticultural plants and services while supporting cooler, healthier and more resilient cities.

ACT NOW

The project produced several outputs, including:

• Co-designing streets with green infrastructure – a toolkit
• Greener together – a guide to engaging heat-affected communities in the co-design of resilient streetscapes
• Overcoming common challenges to street greening – a how to guide
• Co-designing streets with green infrastructure – case studies from Australia
• Re-imagining streets with green infrastructure – lessons from international case studies