Connecting with nature in the city
How to increase our urban ngahere, create more green spaces and make our neighbourhoods more resilient.
In Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, where we can experience four seasons in a day from hot and sunny days to very wet days, with more of these events expected to occur regularly not only here in Tāmaki Makaurau, but throughout our towns and cities in Aotearoa New Zealand due to our changing climate.
Because of this, we need to find ways to cool down our urban environments during these hot summer days to reduce the urban heat island effects and make our neighbourhoods more resilient to major rainfall events. The importance of the latter was highlighted following the Auckland Anniversary floods last year, with 2023 being the wettest year in Tāmaki Makaurau, breaking that record within the first six months.
We’re also experiencing a biodiversity crisis, with the loss of habitats for local wildlife, birdlife and plants in our natural and built environments throughout the motu. Also, we need more green spaces in our neighbourhoods to improve community wellbeing, create areas to connect with nature and areas for sporting and recreational events, especially as our cities get denser.
What could be done to help fix these pressing issues in our cities is by implementing nature-based solutions. In this article, We look into what can be implemented to increase the number of green spaces in our cities and make our cities more resilient.
Street trees:
We’ll start with one of the most known ways to increase biodiversity, deliver shade on a hot day and improve resilience by planting more trees. Trees are important as they can improve air quality, store carbon, reduce stormwater runoff and create habitats and a food source for our birdlife.
Tree canopy in our cities in Aotearoa has been declining in our cities over the last few decades with tree canopy currently at low levels ranging from 8 to 30% across 16 local boards, with 11 local boards meeting the 15% minimum tree coverage target in Auckland Council’s Urban Ngahere Strategy. To mitigate the loss of trees on private properties for various reasons such as homeowners choosing not to keep the trees or private development. The best places to increase tree canopy in our neighbourhoods are within the public realm, such as along our road corridors.
Street trees create amenity for pedestrians as they deliver shade to cool down our streets and make them more attractive. Reallocating street space for trees and plantings can double as traffic calming by narrowing the streets, and making cars slow to make our streets more safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Similar interventions to help increase the amount of greenery and reduce stormwater runoff on our streets are rain gardens, bioswales, and planting shrubs and planter boxes.
Wetland restoration:
Embracing “sponge city” principles to managing stormwater such as restoring wetlands, especially in large-scale brownfield and greenfield developments to deliver flood protection, act as carbon sinks, and habitats for invertebrates, wildlife and birds. Also, to create amenity by improving access to green spaces for those who call the nearby neighbourhoods home.
Over the last 150 years, the number of wetlands has significantly declined in Aotearoa, as they were drained for agricultural activities and urban development. Today, wetlands are 0.9% of Aotearoa’s land cover, a drop compared to pre-human times when wetlands made up 9.2% of the country’s land cover. It’s important with climate change and to make our environments more resilient, that we protect the remaining wetlands and bring former wetlands back to life.
Restoration of wetlands has been incorporated into the master planning of brownfields and greenfield developments, such as the Maungarei Springs Wetlands in Stonefields, Hobsonville Point in Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Whāriki in Lincoln, south of Ōtautahi Christchurch to manage stormwater, create habitats of wildlife and green spaces with pathways around the wetlands that are well used by its residents.
As part of improvements to stormwater management were made in Roskill South neighbourhood as part of upgrades made at Freeland Reserve, which include restoration work to the wetlands to improve the volume of water allowed and new flood walls around the reserve to protect homes from flooding. As part of upgrades made to Greenslade Reserve in Northcote, the reserve was lowered to retain stormwater with improved drainage to prevent major flooding in the area. This was shown during the Auckland Anniversary floods last year as the reserve was flooded during the evening of 27th January and was completely drained by the next morning.
Greenways:
A great way to connect with nature and more walking and cycling connections around our neighbourhoods is creating more greenways. Greenways are common in towns and cities in Aotearoa and consist of a shared path either along trees-lined corridors, stream corridors, through wetlands and parks.
An example is Te Awa Awataha, a greenway through the Northcote Development led by Kāinga Ora. As part of the works for the greenway, The Awataha Stream, which had been undergrounded since the 1950s was daylighted to increase the capacity to move and treat stormwater overflow to prevent flooding and create habitats for wildlife like kōkopu and tuna (longfin eel). A shared path is located along the stream’s corridor, connecting the development with the town centre and local schools by walking, scooter and bike. A playground and seating areas are located along the shared path for children to play and for neighbours, and families to gather together.
Another example in Tāmaki Makaurau is Te Auanaga Oakley Creek Walkway, between Waterview and Mount Roskill, a shared path along the corridor of Te Auanaga, which goes through Underwood, Walemley and War Memorial Parks. The corridor underwent major restoration work in the mid to late 2010s for improved flood protection, creating more green space and community facilities to support the housing intensification occurring in the area. The shared path connects the Ōwaraika and Wesley neighbourhoods as part of Kāinga Ora’s Roskill Development, schools, kura, shops on Stoddard Rd, community centres and sporting areas. It also connects to the wider cycleway network with access to the Southwestern Path.
Living walls and roofs:
We now have a look at living walls on buildings, Despite something rarely seen in Aotearoa. There are several living walls used on buildings here in Tāmaki Makaurau such as the University of Otago Medical School, The Northern Club and the Fonterra Building. There are some very prominent examples of living walls used on buildings overseas such as The Central Park Development, with the use of vertical gardens adding a solarpunk vibe to this mixed-use development located in the heart of Sydney.
Living roofs are starting to pop up across Tāmaki Makaurau with a living roof installed on the Auckland Central City Library, Te Kaitaka also known as The Cloak near Auckland Airport. Also, Auckland Transport began trialling living roofs on bus shelters at Panmure and Manukau in 2021 and privately operated bus shelters also are trialling living roofs on shelters throughout the city.
Enabling perimeter block housing:
A way to integrate green spaces into high and medium-density housing developments is by changing our zoning rules to enable perimeter block housing.
Perimeter blocks are when apartments or townhouses are built on the street edges to create a private backyard in the middle of the block for the residents to enjoy. Perimeter block housing is a common typology in European cities. A similar typology that is commonly used in North American cities is point access courtyard buildings. Perimeter block housing can be enabled in Aotearoa by removing the minimum requirements for front and side yard setbacks in our zoning rules with Te Whanganui- a- Tara Wellington removing these requirements in their District Plan earlier this year.
If more councils follow Te Whanganui-a-Tara and remove these requirements as part of implementing the National Policy Statement for Urban Development (NPS-UD), Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), and in future reviews of district or unitary plans for councils. It will help create developments built at good quality to ensure density in our cities is done well by improving access to green space and improving community wellbeing by creating a communal area for its residents to come together.
Conclusion:
It’s important as part of climate adaptation works, in order to have more spots in our neighbourhoods to hear the songbirds of our favourite birds and to improve access to open spaces to have lunch and play a round of sport etc. That we need to create more spaces in our cities where we can interact with nature, cool down our environments when it’s very hot and protect our neighbourhoods during major storm events.
Implementing these solutions also helps us increase our tree canopy, restore our wetlands and deliver more green spaces while also delivering transport choices, building our cities up and making our streets safer. Overall, having more opportunities to connect to nature in our cities, helps us create a sustainable and resilient city.
Really like the idea of Terraced house fronts right on the road and creating a residents shared space with gardens and trees in the centre 👍
Have you come across the Miyaki forest - densely planted, tiny urban forest. This method is a fast way to pack a surprising amount of biodiversity into small corners.
https://thisnzlife.co.nz/environmental-legend-molly-melhuish-wants-new-zealand-to-fully-embrace-the-tiny-forest-movement/