The Turnbull Government has flagged its intention to increase the number of trees in Australian cities, in an effort to beat the heat and improve liveability.
Addressing the Sydney Business Chamber, Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt used his first speech since taking on the Minister for Cities portfolio, following the resignation of former minister Jamie Briggs, to call for greener, healthier cities.
“Early this year, the Turnbull Government will release a position paper that sets out issues and trends which affect Australia’s cities, and the opportunities and challenges they pose,” he says.
“This is an opportunity for the Australian community to engage in a collaborative discussion about what we want our cities to look like in twenty, fifty, and a hundred years’ time.”
Part of that vision includes increasing urban tree coverage, with Hunt promising to, “Work with Australian cities to set decade by decade goals out to 2050 for increased overall tree coverage”.
“Increasing urban canopy coverage decreases heat, which improves health and quality of life,” Hunt says. “People living in large cities can be especially susceptible to the effects of extreme heat.
“Air temperatures in cities are a number of degrees higher than in surrounding areas due to heat-absorbing properties of dark-coloured roads and other surfaces, as well as the effect of urban canyons trapping hot air.
“An effective way to reduce the severity of the heat island effect is to increase the greenery in our cities.
“Further opportunities exist in areas such as improving urban water systems, managing stormwater, addressing ocean outfall and improving energy efficiency in our cities.”
All signs point to rising temperatures becoming an increasing concern for governments and city planners. The global average surface temperature in 2015 broke all previous records by a strikingly wide margin, according to the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
In January, the WMO announced that for the first time on record, temperatures were about 1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial era, due to the combination of an exceptionally strong El Nino and greenhouse gas-induced global warming.
Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities urban climate researcher Professor Nigel Tapper, from Monash University, says there is strong evidence that a green, leafy park, tree-lined street or urban waterway could drop the local temperatures by several degrees.
“This cooling is extremely important for reducing heat-related deaths, particularly during the very hot days of the year, which we're seeing more often and for longer periods nowadays," he says.
“Just like households and industries, the vegetation in our cities depends on water. We need to make the most of what is a limited resource, and the Centre is identifying novel solutions to keep our cities green using new water sources and efficient water usage.”
During his speech, Hunt also flagged the government’s intention to increase the number of jobs in residential areas, “so that residents can access employment without travelling as far.”
“This option is perhaps best exemplified in the
'20 minute city’ model in Melbourne, where planners have proposed to change the mix of land uses in the city’s suburbs so that residents can access jobs, schools, shops and leisure facilities within 20 minutes of their home,” Hunt says.