What is it all about?

This program is developing practical resources to model how urban greenspaces can play a part in mitigating the impact of an increasingly variable climate and variable weather events.

Challenge

Cities in Australia are facing increasingly complex sustainability challenges as a result of natural disasters, including extreme weather events.

Urban green spaces are crucial for mitigating and adapting to these challenges and creating resilient cities, providing a multitude of environmental and health benefits such as flood mitigation, microclimate regulation and cooling, and support for mental and physical wellbeing in residents without increasing the flammability of neighbourhoods.

As urban challenges continue to grow it is imperative that urban green spaces are managed to improve their performance and resilience to these pressures and natural hazards.

Response

This program is developing 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.

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.

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.

Benefit

This program will enable a strong, sustainable and economically viable future for nursery and turf products by establishing formal and accepted planning guidelines on urban green space design, planting and management in future greenfield residential developments to provide multi-functional spaces that are resilient to multi-hazards.