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Lying at the heart of Europe is a city otherwise known as the City of a Hundred Spires, renowned for its abundance of gothic architecture and UNESCO world heritage stamp. But one thing you may not know about the Czech capital of Prague is that it has fast become a trailblazer in establishing a l ...
The idea of transforming cities from concrete jungles to urban forests is a popular one, and there have been some truly inspiring, exemplar projects in recent years. The transformation of a Seoul freeway to Cheonggyecheon parkland, exposing the historical river that once flowed there, is one cel ...
In building cities, we have created some of the harshest habitats on Earth—and then chosen to live in them.Temperatures in cities are typically 2-3 C warmer than those of the surrounding landscape. Pollution levels and noise can reach levels seen few other places on Earth.
In the midst of a massive, global loss of nature, cities around the world are finding ways to protect and expand open spaces and "rewild" their communities.
Their cries are most commonly associated with the seaside, but as their natural homes come under threat, will gulls increasingly move inland to take up residence in our cities?
Many people have developed stronger relationships with urban nature during the pandemic. Some have enjoyed views of nearby trees and gardens during periods of isolation, taken walks after Zoom-filled days or socialized at a distance with friends in local parks.
Newswise — Cities and nations around the globe are shooting for carbon neutrality, with some experts already talking about the need to ultimately reach carbon negativity. Carbon footprint declarations are used to ease product selection for low carbon building, but these standards don’t yet exist ...
London’s royal parks are urging visitors to stop feeding bread to ducks because it is causing overcrowding and bullying among birds, the Guardian can reveal.
Biodiversity – all living organisms, including plants, animals and microorganisms – is essential for human existence. Yet when we think about biodiversity, we rarely picture a city in our minds. Nature has often been associated as purely a feature of rural landscapes, when in fact urban areas ar ...
Habitat change, for example through urbanisation, is one of the most important causes of biodiversity decline. By 2050, settlements and cities across the globe are predicted to increase by two to three million square kilometres - about half the size of Greenland. Natural and semi-natural habitat ...
With Chandigarh’s growing reputation as nature’s paradise, every aspect of this man-made creation, originally spread over 47 blocks of 246 acres each, vindicates the visionary thinking of the early planners. Surely, Le Corbusier, Dr. M.S. Randhawa and others must be smiling at the evolution of C ...
After gaining popularity across Asia, small, dense ecosystems are taking root in Europe's urban areas. Advocates say they improve biodiversity, air quality and even our well-being. But do they live up to the hype?
The name, which is Arabic for “The Shade Park,” is a nod to the park’s use of nature-based design solutions to reduce the area’s warming through trees and shrubs. According to the Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport, it’s the first urban park in the UAE to use biodiversity to en ...
A herd of wild boar surrounded a woman who had just come out of a supermarket near Rome and stole her shopping, rekindling a debate about the presence of the animal in Italian towns and cities.
Copenhagen-based studio EFFEKT has presented plans for a residential development that forms part of its contribution to the upcoming venice architecture biennale. Titled ‘naturbyen’, a name that translates as ‘nature village’, the project will see a field in denmark transformed into a completely ...
Calgary has been named one of the country's four bird friendly cities by the group, Nature Canada. The designation came into effect in Calgary on May 7 — along with Toronto, Vancouver and London, Ont. — one day ahead of World Migratory Bird Day.
The former industrial shipyard Western Harbour boasts a heavy concentration of green roofs and a heat pump plant that provides residents with heating and cooling. The neighbourhood of Augustenborg is known for its focus on climate adaptation and social and green regeneration initiatives.
Worldwide, cities produce about 70% of the CO2 present in the atmosphere, while forests and woods are able to absorb 40% of it. Increasing wooded areas within and around cities would multiply the resilience capacities of urban areas and would drastically reduce the production of CO2, thanks to p ...
Bee hotels, bee stops and a honey highway are some of the components of a national pollinator strategy that the Dutch are crediting with keeping their urban bee population steady in recent years, after a period of worrying decline.
Kermit the Frog once lamented that it wasn't easy being green. Large-scale developers who for years have been trying to reconcile their economic and environmental concerns would agree.
The city’s Biodiversity Action Plan will safeguard plants, species and their habitats. One of Helsinki’s greatest attractions is its beautiful and diverse nature. According to the municipality, over a third of the city’s area consists of forests, meadows, and parks. What is more, it is also well ...
The City of Cape Town will open several of its nature reserves to the public and has arranged free guided walks between April 30 and May 3. Residents have been urged to get out and explore nature to capture as many wild plants and animals as possible and help the city win this year's City Nature ...
Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed that the United Nations Organization for Science, Education and Culture (Unesco) has awarded the city of San José the Netexplo Linking Cities 2021 Award, in the category ‘Zero Carbon Objective’.
Our cities are dominated by glass-faced edifices that overheat like greenhouses then guzzle energy to cool down. Instead, we could have buildings that are intimately connected to the living systems that have evolved with us, that celebrate the human-nature connection that is central to our wellb ...
Wildlife and greenery aren’t Mexico City’s calling cards. But while the world’s fifth-largest metropolis is home to more than 21 million people, it’s also grounds for nearly 4,000 species of flora and fauna, and some 15 percent of its total area consists of national parks and other protected areas.
Parks and green spaces in cities provide health and wellness benefits to human inhabitants, but they’re not necessarily beneficial for other urban dwellers – like insects. Researchers are investigating urban biodiversity with approaches such as ‘bee hotels’ to see how cities can better foster in ...
London's Somerset House, a well-known historical arts center in the middle of the capital, will soon be home to a forest of 400 trees.
The village of Okere Mom-Kok was in ruins by the end of more than a decade of war in northern Uganda.Now, just outside Ojok Okello’s living-room door, final-year pupils at the early childhood centre are noisily breaking for recess and a market is clattering into life, as is the local craft brewe ...
The residents of Chennai will now breathe in cleaner air as the municipal corporation is mulling the setting up of 1,000 urban forests. The Greater Chennai Corporation commissioner G Prakash said that the government will set up more forests in vacant places across the city.
Millions of birds travel between their breeding and wintering grounds during spring and autumn migration, creating one of the greatest spectacles of the natural world. These journeys often span incredible distances. For example, the Blackpoll Warbler, which weighs less than half an ounce, may tr ...
It’s not often that the City of London’s police horses are asked to trample on someone’s garden. But when the request came, it wasn’t made by a spiteful neighbour but a group of community wildlife gardeners who wanted divots in their grass.
Dr Caitlin von Witt's message is clear: 'If you want to support the most biodiversity, you should support local biodiversity.' Through the FundaFynbos project, she is educating Capetonians about indigenous plants and encouraging them to plant them at home.
Paris is set to remove half of its 140,000 on-street car parking spaces as it seeks to make the city greener and more people friendly.
"If we adapt our cities at an early stage and make them resilient against future crises, we stand a much better chance and there are also economic gains," says Johan Colding, Director of Urban Studio at University of Gävle.
After a year-long competition, the city of Montreal unveiled the winning design for the transformation of McGill College on Oct. 15. The City of Montreal announced that Et Sillon, which was pitched by Civiliti, Mandaworks, and SNC Lavalin, was chosen for the upcoming pedestrianization and renova ...
We asked Guardian readers living in cities and towns across the world to share their images of the wildlife they can see from their homes. You answered in your droves, from Canada to Cardiff, and here are some of the best.
“Pollinators were the key,” says Edgar Mora, reflecting on the decision to recognise every bee, bat, hummingbird and butterfly as a citizen of Curridabat during his 12-year spell as mayor.
“Pollinators were the key,” says Edgar Mora, reflecting on the decision to recognise every bee, bat, hummingbird and butterfly as a citizen of Curridabat during his 12-year spell as mayor.
Empty streets and skies let the birds be heard and leave animals free to roam as well as allowing scientists to examine how humans change urban biodiversity.
Now that we are finally taking a breather from water scarcity and rationing, we are confronting increased flood risks brought by the south-west monsoon, as evidenced by the recent floods in Petaling Jaya, Penang and Kedah. Echoing Sahabat Alam Malaysia president Meenakshi Raman’s call to create ...
A pause has been forced on urban life. Quiet roads, empty skies, deserted high streets and parks, closed cinemas, cafés and museums—a break in the spending and work frenzy so familiar to us all. The reality of lockdown is making ghost towns of the places we once knew. Everything we know about ou ...
Birds have two alternative strategies for coping with the difficulties of humanity’s increasingly chaotic cities. They need to either have large brains or breed many times over their life in order to thrive in urban environments, according to a new study involving University College London (UCL).
There was literally a frog orgy in that one. There is no other way to describe it,” says Jules Waite, from the London Wildlife Trust, pointing at a pond in the Barbican wildlife garden, one of the few areas of London’s Square Mile whose inhabitants are not in lockdown.
The spread of the coronavirus and the need for social distance is seen by some as a fundamental challenge to globalism, population density, and urban life. The virus is both a challenge and a catastrophe, but it does not change the basic appeal and benefit of our way of life.
As the coronavirus pandemic forced lockdowns in many parts of the world, cities from Amsterdam to Singapore are unveiling measures to improve sustainability, food security and living standards that urban experts said would soon become the norm.
The pursuit of greener urban areas in NSW will bring us resilience to climate change and increased liveability but if we’re not careful, urban greening policies could be the kindling for future bushfire events that destroy lives and property.
As the UK enters it fourth week of lockdown, conservationists say they have seen some hidden benefits of the restrictions in the natural world.
Leading a coalition of museums and wildlife organisations, the Natural History Museum’s Urban Nature Project will not only transform its London gardens into a biodiversity hub, but critically it will create an urban nature movement through a UK-wide learning programme for young people, families ...
To thrive in urban environments, birds need to either have large brains, or breed many times over their life, according to a new study involving UCL.
Cities and their surrounding areas are expanding. And this dramatically affects ecosystems. Urban areas are often perceived to have lower biodiversity than the countryside, but some recent studies suggest that urban land can support pollinator populations.