Urban greening for natural hazard mitigation: benefits and trade-offs

Cities are increasingly implementing urban greening to mitigate natural hazards such as extreme heat and flooding. However, greening strategies can involve trade-offs with other hazards and climate adaptation goals, and poorly designed or managed greenspace has the potential to exacerbate rather than reduce risk. Evidence-informed practice is critical for effective urban greening.

This session draws on systematic literature reviews and stakeholder workshops, conducted for an industry-focused project on resilient urban greenspaces in Australian cities. We present current knowledge on designing and managing greenspace for the mitigation of heat, fire and flood. For each hazard, we outline the relationship between greenspace and risk, and the proposed design and management recommendations for practitioners.

The session will highlight that the nature and scale of effective interventions differs across hazards, with effective interventions ranging from park-scale design to landscape-scale planning. We conclude by discussing trade-offs when managing greenspace for multiple hazards simultaneously, and identify priority directions for future research.