Category: Uncategorised

Urban environments are among the most important environments in Australia. More than 90% of the Australian population – or around 22.6 million people – lives in cities. This is where we experience the environment on a daily basis, from the air that we breathe to the park where we walk, the frogs we hear calling or the green roof we may see from our office window. As our cities continue to grow, how can we make them better places for people and other urban dwellers?

The Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub has released a free e-book, Cities for People and Nature. The e-book showcases the hub’s findings following six years of research. It follows five key themes: cities are Indigenous places, air quality, urban greening, urban biodiversity and future cities. It also explores the impact that the Hub’s research has made on the sustainability and liveability of our urban environments.

Readers can interact with the multimedia elements, including video and audio, and find links to useful resources, such as apps, factsheets, reports and more. It also features beautiful illustrations by Dixon Patten of Bayila Creative.

The launch of the e-book follows an exciting month of activities for the hub. The hub hosted a series of #CitiesPeopleNature events, including a panel discussion at the MPavilion and a showcase webinar featuring its e-book authors.

Urban green (and blue) spaces, such as parks, waterways, wetlands, street trees, gardens and nature reserves are essential elements of resilient and liveable cities. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, these spaces provide many functions and benefits for people and the other species that call our cities home. They cool our cities, treat air and water, provide space for recreation and connection, and habitat for biodiversity.

There are many different types of green-blue spaces in cities – and many different models for their governance, planning and management. Hub researcher Dr Judy Bush has investigated new approaches to governance and policies to support the creation and retention of healthy, multifunctional green-blue spaces.

The hub has released a series of new factsheets that provide an overview and definitions of ‘governance’, and how governance and policy for green-blue spaces can contribute to retaining and maximising resilient nature in cities.

Photo: Merri Creek, Melbourne by Judy Bush

Spring has arrived and the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub has a new booklet to inspire your garden plans. The new Indigenous plant use booklet, by Barkandji woman Zena Cumpston, explores the cultural, nutritional, technological and medicinal use of indigenous plants.

Chocolate Lily (Arthropodium strictum) is one of more than 50 indigenous plant species featured in the booklet. Chocolate Lily gets its name from its purple flowers (appearing in spring), which on sunny days emit a smell of chocolate and sometimes also smell much like vanilla and caramel. Chocolate Lily has grass-like leaves with edible root tubers, which are white inside and are roasted before being eaten.

The plant information in the booklet is displayed on labels that you can print, laminate and use in your own garden. These labels provide an opportunity for people to learn on Country and connect with Aboriginal knowledge of plant use. It has been designed for any individual or group interested in indigenous plant use, including schools, community groups, greening practitioners, home gardeners and their families.

Creating a greener and ultimately cooler Melbourne is a priority for the Victorian Government. Plan Melbourne 2017-2020 will enhance the city’s urban forests to create more liveable and climate-adapted communities. To support this work, the Clean Air and Urban Landscape Hub partnered with the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, RMIT University and the CSIRO to map and analyse vegetation and assess its relationship to land use and urban heat.

As cities grow and change, tree, shrub and grass cover are often lost in the process. These maps will allow planners to precisely measure the area of vegetation at a local level, understand the relationship between urban vegetation cover and urban heat island effects, and track changes over time.

This evidence can inform greening targets, identify areas where investment is needed most, and provide a baseline to track the progress of greening strategies. Researchers also produced a vulnerability assessment to identify the areas with communities most vulnerable to heat waves.

Image: Urban greening in Melbourne CBD, photo by Briena Barrett.