Workshop Description
Climate change is happening all around us. This session discusses the importance of urban greening and how trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers, creating an urban forest in our built environments and bringing benefits for both climate change mitigation and climate adaption.
This session introduces participants to climate change and the role vegetation plays in cooling our urban environments. Explaining the urban heat island effect and identifying ways this can be reduced, this session will discuss what we all need to do to make our urban communities more resilient in a warming climate. We saw how humans gravitate towards green spaces during COVID19 pandemic. But imagine living, working, playing in green spaces all the time as we go about our daily lives. That’s what an Urban Forest is. We all have a role to play in creating it and this session will explain how.
Delivered as a webinar or a workshop the session will provide tips on tree and plant selection, garden layout and design, water smart gardening and gardening for wildlife.
Topics Covered
- How the climate is going to change. What that means for our urban environments (Urban Heat Island Effect) and gardeners.
- Why greening our cities and creating an Urban Forest will reduce further climate impacts and help humans and wildlife adapt to a changing climate.
- The value of vegetation / green infrastructure in urban spaces, economically, socially, environmentally and for our health.
- The urban forest’s role in urban sustainability and liveability
- What we can do collectively as a society to green our urban spaces by gardening for wildlife and climate.
- What gardeners can do practically to support this in their own gardens and in their wider community.