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There have been two main responses to the issue of climate change impacts on parks and green spaces.
Coping with changing conditions
The first has been to consider how changes in weather and climate will affect parks and plant-life with a focus on how well different plants and trees will withstand changing conditions – see for example Exeter City Council’s plans for helping parks to cope, or Birmingham Open Spaces Forum which is looking at the difficulties of dealing with trees suffering from heat stress and water logged roots.
Functional green space
The second response which arises from research carried out by Manchester University’s Centre for Urban Regional Ecology (CURE) as part of the Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change in the Urban Environment (ASCCUE) project – an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded scheme under the wider umbrella Building Knowledge for Changing Climate (BKCC).
This research suggests that urban green space has a cooling function that will only become more important for the future of our towns and cities as the climate changes. Green space can alter micro-climates moderating both temperatures and rainwater run off. The research suggests that increasing green space could help to reduce urban surface temperatures and help to retain water and therefore has implications for human comfort and health. The ASCCUE project has led to further work through the EPSRC SCORCHIO project.
The developing understanding of the function of green space to help reduce temperature and to regulate water run-off has implications for very local small scale urban management with green roofs, balconies and courtyards as well as spatial planning on a much larger scale such as the future for land-use planning. See Kate Barker’s Review of Land-Use Planning commissioned in 2005 by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
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