As extreme weather intensifies, cities are using trees to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce energy consumption.
Rather than seeing trees simply as a form of beautification, writes Joss Fong, it's time to acknowledge their role as "a living form of infrastructure, providing services that include stormwater management, air filtering, carbon sequestration, and, most importantly for a city like Phoenix, Arizona, they cool the environment around them."
With extreme heat waves happening with increasing frequency, Sun Belt cities like Phoenix are exploring a variety of ways to cool their urban cores and reduce energy demand during the summer months. "Phoenix recently pledged to reach 'tree equity' by 2030, under an agreement with American Forests, a national tree organization."
This video from Vox uses drone imagery and thermal cameras to show "how the urban design of the city contributes to extreme heat, and what it can do to cool down."
Read the full story: How America’s hottest city is trying to cool down
Copenhagen is losing its cool
In a city long designed to maximize light during dark Scandinavian winters, climate change is forcing the Danish capital to rethink its relationship with the sun.
Planting for Change: How Trees Are Powering Climate Action
"Combating Climate Change with Trees" highlights how Southern California communities are strategically planting and nurturing urban forests to cool neighborhoods, improve air quality, and advance environmental justice.
LA’s Trees Absorb More Carbon Than Expected, But Can’t Do It Alone
A USC study finds that Los Angeles’ urban trees absorb more carbon than expected, but while they provide crucial environmental benefits, they cannot replace the urgent need for systemic emissions reductions.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Judges permit Denver to divert 77,000 acre feet from the Colorado River for reservoir expansion
Overuse and climate change have caused the Colorado River’s water levels to plummet.
Boston has spent millions making the Green Line more accessible — and there’s no end in sight
While the city has invested millions into expanding and adding platforms to the Green Line to make it more accessible, new train cars set to arrive next year will be too tall for disabled passengers to board without raising the current platforms.
Idaho may see an 18% drop in federal surface transit funding — the largest estimated cut in the US
Transit systems in rural communities are much more reliant on federal funding to provide their services.
How ‘post-disaster gentrification’ alters neighborhoods after natural calamities
After hurricanes, fires or other calamities, the original residents of a community are often replaced by younger, wealthier residents.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello