As urbanization continues, the need for cleaner and greener spaces has been emphasized. Both urban planning experts and environmentalists have pointed out that urban concrete forests are unsustainable and the decline of green spaces 🌳 is an indicator of bad city health.
GREEN SPACES FOR CITIES
Experts estimate that 68% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. The researchers also estimate that nine million people die each year from air pollution. As cities grow 🍀 and more people move into already crowded spaces, it is urgent to transform urban areas into healthy places to live. Therefore, green spaces are an integral part of a city for several reasons.
URBAN HEAT JUNGLES
This effect appears in towns and cities as a result of concrete structures. They have a tendency to absorb heat and cannot reflect it in the environment. This, along with the heat generated by people, transportation, shops and industry, is trapped and cannot escape the atmosphere, greatly increasing the city’s temperatures. This can cause an increase in temperature in urban areas of 3-4 ° C compared to the surrounding countryside, resulting in a vicious circle of increased demand for energy consumption.
Higher temperatures contribute to heat-related deaths and heat-related illnesses, such as breathing difficulties, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and non-fatal heatstroke. Heat islands can also exacerbate the impact of naturally occurring heat waves, which are periods of unusually hot and often humid weather 🌪.
Sensitive populations, such as children, the elderly and people with existing health problems, are particularly at risk during these events.
SMOG
The prolonged presence of pollutants causes a harmful smog that represents an environmental threat and dangerous to human health.
An example of this is the smog of Lahore, which has proved dangerous not only for people’s health, but also for agriculture and daily life. Haze disrupts transportation operations, affecting a chain of business activities in the region.
WATER QUALITY
For coastal towns or cities near natural water 💧bodies, higher temperatures can also disrupt aquatic ecosystems. This is a direct result of the urban heat jungles. The high temperatures from the concrete surfaces heat the draining rainwater 🌦, which,when discharged into the storm sewers, increases the temperature of the water as it reaches streams, rivers, ponds and lakes.
For these reasons it is important to have green spaces in cities. Development authorities in several cities have specified plans to build housing companies with allocated green spaces. These are important considerations that the Town Planning Department must take to ensure a healthy and sustainable city. Furthermore, green spaces are also essential for human health.
EFFECTS OF GREEN SPACES ON HUMAN HEALTH
Studies have shown that green spaces have profound effects on human health. Not only do people “feel” better when surrounded by greenery, it is a scientifically proven fact that people’s overall health improves. Studies have shown that cities with large numbers of parks fight obesity and diabetes. Relatively passive contact with nature, such as looking at it from a window, also reduces blood pressure and anxiety levels 🌲.
Furthermore, scientists claim that green spaces increase our ability to concentrate, both on the tasks at hand and in our environment seen unconsciously. As people feel better and, in most cases, feel that their governments care for them, crime rates also drop significantly.
HOW CAN GREEN SPACES BE CREATED IN CITIES
Green spaces 🌱 can be created by developing parks within each housing society, planting trees along roads, especially those considered to be the busiest, as well as leaving open “preserved” places in cities where local species can be planted. Unauthorized persons should not be allowed to venture into preserved or protected areas, as the saplings planted here can grow up to be dense forests in the future🌱.
City municipal authorities (TMAs) must also ensure that in cities with higher populations and more infrastructure projects, there is a good deal of land covered with vegetation. It is also essential that conservationists research and plant varieties of trees that belong to that particular area, rather than planting species that may not be suitable. TMAs can also interact with young people and organize regular planting campaigns. In this way, citizens will also feel included and will be informed of the importance of green spaces in their cities.
Do you host regular plantation 🌳 drives in your cities?
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