The Great Transformation: from Grey Cityscapes to Green Urban Edens
How can we revive our streets and cities to boost our mental, physical & spiritual well-being and become more climate resilient?
A lot of us reconnected with nature during Covid. A lot of us could also appreciate the many benefits of it. New ideas and businesses flourished during that period as a result of it, such as the Golden Leaf of London, aiming to build a new urban legacy.
Sometimes the greatest ideas are the simplest and infusing greenery to our grey cities feels like a breath of fresh air in response to some of our most critical and pressing challenges, making the vision of a more harmonious world an attainable reality.
Today, 56% of the current population (4.4bn) live in cities, projected to be 7 of 10 people by 2050. In the meantime, the effects of climate change are becoming more and more palpable. 2023 was Earth’s hottest year on record. 2024 is expected to be even warmer.
When cities suffer, we suffer. Our elders suffer. Our children suffer. Our most vulnerable suffer. But what if we could reconnect our cityscapes, our neighbourhoods, our streets, our homes with the natural intelligence of plants? Discover some of that botanical vision brought to life in the streets of London… and be inspired to start planting!
Transforming London: before & after greening
Like all megalopolis, London is a growing city. By 2050 it is expected that up to 3 million more people will live here on top of the current 10. How to keep the city healthy and liveable as the population becomes larger? How to make the city more resilient as the climate changes and we experience hotter, dryer summers and more extreme downpours?
The pressure on land means that London must become greener whilst also becoming denser. The Golden Leaf of London created striking before/after visual simulations of what the city could like if we were to meet these challenges.
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As the world warms, extremely hot days are becoming more frequent and intense. Temperatures above 50°C / 122°F would have been extremely rare or impossible in the pre-industrial world, but under human-induced climate change their likelihood is rapidly increasing. Implementing ‘climate change adaptation’ strategies is becoming paramount for our well-being.
In this vision of a greener London, healthy streets become better places to walk and cycle, reducing Londoner’s exposure to poor air quality. Regreening a city can help decrease temperatures by up to 12°C / 55°F and make a drastic difference for our well-being when the weather gets hotter.
Plants and trees also absorb gaseous pollutants through respiration and capture particulate matter as deposits on their leaves. They not only clean the air for us, they also supply us with fresh oxygen to breathe.
Green roofs and walls revive those areas which have historically had a deficiency in parks and green spaces. They create greener public zones above and within busy streets, help store stormwater, and provide additional wildlife habitat.
Turning grey areas of impermeable surfacing to green reduces the risk of flash flooding by intercepting and slowing down the flow of rainfall to our sewers and waterways.
The installation of rain-gardens, street trees and other ‘nature-based solutions’ slow down the rate at which stormwater enters the piped drainage network for a more sustainable system overall.