Green space and habitat

Climate change has become the day-to-day struggle for this nation - an island nation that faces serious sea-level rise implications should the problem remain uncurbed. The impacts seen are related to rising temperature, sea-level rise (coastal erosion), and changes in rainfall (flooding). To reduce the vulnerability of the population of two regions next to its capital (Victoria), the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Seychelles initiated in 2012 a project aiming at improving the quality of life for the people of Seychelles and restore coastal zones as well as the ecological habitat related to them through nature-based solutions. The project will reduce these vulnerabilities by spearheading ecosystem-based adaptation as climate change risk management—restoring ecosystem functionality, and enhancing ecosystem resilience and sustainable watershed and coastal processes, in order to secure critical water provisioning and flood attenuation. (1)

Mauritius is a biodiversity hotspot, which has been declared by IUCN as a “Centre of Plant Diversity”. 39% of plants, 80% of non-marine birds, 80% of reptiles, and 40% of bat species on the islands are reported as endemic. (4) Nevertheless, human activity keeps threatening this endemicity in Port Louis, a port city and the capital of Mauritius. The city is surrounded by a semicircle of mountains on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. In 2006 a local NGO started implementing an initiative that focused on restoring native vegetation to the hill that harbours the capital and it's also the place of an important historical heritage, the Fort Adelaide. (2)

A multi-purpose green belt (12 km in length of Batticaloa Municipal Corporation coast) was established to protect the lagoon and coastal areas, restore mangrove ecosystems and improve coastal biodiversity. The project comes under activity 1.3 of the overarching project Climate Resilient Action Plans for Coastal Urban Areas in Sri Lanka (CCSL). The project focuses on the most urgent and immediate needs of the Sri Lankan coastal cities in adapting to climate change, and mitigating risks and the severity of impacts through Disaster Risk Management (DRM). The green belt plantation was done with Casuarinas plantation in 400 ha (out of which 75% by Mandru and 25% by the Forest Department), mangrove forest redesigning and protection of the existing vegetation. [1, 2, 6]

The Gangxia 1980 green roof, a pilot of the Green Cloud project, was launched by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in collaboration with key partners, including: Zhubo-AAO; Glocal Estate Management; and Urban Planning & Design Institute of Shenzhen (UPDIS) [1]. Located on an old building in Gangxia village in Shenzhen, the project utilizes three-dimensional light steel structures that are simple to construct and have the capacity to hold over 420 plant containers, filled with plants mostly native to Southern China [1, 2]. The original concrete rooftop is transformed by vegetation, which is capable of absorbing and preserving rainwater, creating a nature-based stormwater management system for the residential building, achieving a 65% of run-off control rate [1, 2]. As a result, a living “green cloud” is formed on a rooftop of Gangxia village, showcasing “a model to improve the urban village’s stormwater management system and its living environment” [1. p.33].

Hatirjheel area development project is a wetland restoration project that explores the possibility of reintroducing water edge elements into the city of Dhaka. The project includes both engineered infrastructure and NbS. The restored jheel (wetland) and Begunbari khal have improved storm-water management of Dhaka and made aquatic biodiversity better. It also increased green and open space in the busy capital. The intended objective of the project was to create a bridge between the densely developed old part of the city on the south and the new organised north part of the city. Spreading over 311 acres, this project has endeavoured towards improving connectivity between major urban corridors as well as acting as a retention pond to mitigate the flash flood-prone densely populated part of the area. [1,2]

The Kok River which runs through Chiang Rai City is in the process of being ecologically restored (Ref. 1). Having previously been a "lifeline for the city and various communities along its banks", sections of the river ran dry 20 years ago due to the construction of a large scale diversion channel and dredging by a major hotel (Ref. 2). In addition to reestablishing the river flow, restoration efforts are focusing on the opportunity to provide additional water storage, flood reduction and urban greening (Refs. 1 & 4). These improvements are considered particularly important given that the city of Chiang Rai is "expected to be affected by climate-induced drought as a result of changing rainfall patterns; rain which may also be heavy at times leading to excessive runoff into such channels; and flooding" (Ref. 4). To date, wetlands have been restored, and community benefits, such as a walking path, created (Ref. 3).

Improved water circulation and quality are further going to minimise the occurrence of breeding grounds for disease vectors (Ref. 4). Whilst already recognised as a problem, vector-borne and waterborne diseases are anticipated to become more prevalent due to increased temperatures associated with climate change (Ref. 4).

In 2014, a rooftop farming project was initiated in the informal settlements of the Greater Cairo Region to address challenges brought by climate change and to empower the local community. The project was initiated by the German Corporation for International Cooperation and a local NGO with the objective to "reduce ambient temperatures (microclimate) in a densely populated area through green spaces on rooftops, and reduce the impacts of the urban heat island effect and increasing heat." (1) The initiative also addressed four of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets by tackling biodiversity loss, encouraging sustainable agriculture practices, fostering ecosystem services and developing local knowledge (1,11)
Besides environmental benefits, the project and its scaled-up project in 2017 brought several socio-economic benefits by reducing vulnerability to food price changes and by developing the local community. Rooftop Farming Hubs were also established to foster the training and knowledge sharing of rooftop farmers in Cairo (1).

The redevelopment of the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park (Singapore) saw the naturalisation of the previously channelised Kallang River, as well as the installation of wetland cells as water cleansing biotopes and creation of butterfly habitats (Ref. 1).

The Kallang River was previously confined to a concrete canal that ran to the southern edges of Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park (Ref. 1). The channel segregated the two residential areas situated on either side of the park, with the river's 2.7km continuous concrete channel being crossable at only certain defined points (Ref. 3). Following its naturalisation, culminating in 2012, the now 3.2km meandering river is considered the park's highlight, "merg[ing] seamlessly with the park's greenery" (Refs. 1 & 6), and creating a "blue-green recreational network which is well-integrated with nearby residential areas" (Ref. 2).

In 2019 at the Gullele Botanical Garden in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian government launched a historic tree planting campaign. Over 350 million trees were planted in an ambitious move to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change. The Gullele Botanical Garden was selected as one of the 1000 sites all over the country involved in the Green Legacy Initiative, a national campaign against the effects of climate change. The United Nations estimates that Ethiopia’s forest coverage has declined drastically to a low of just 4 per cent in the 2000s from 35 per cent a century earlier. (1,2) The Botanical Garden was not selected aleatory as it is Ethiopia's only botanical garden and it is a nursery for various indigenous plant species. Its mission is to conserve and promote the Ethiopian diverse plants and tree population and it is a conservation initiative located at the northwestern tip of the Addis Ababa City Administration. The site covers an area of 1000 ha which is representative of the central plateau of Ethiopia. (3)

This intervention was initiated in 2014 in Agege, a slum and a city in itself belonging to Lagos. Agege is one of the 7th most populated low-income communities in Lagos with a total population of around 1,033,064 people. Climate change in Nigeria led to seasonal droughts and floods, causing pressures in terms of food security as well as high temperature and humidity levels which affect directly the economically disadvantaged population in the slums of Lagos. In 2014 a research team at the University of Cardiff alongside community leaders of a Yoruba community in Agege implemented a study on vertical gardens in residential areas with the purpose of alleviating local temperatures and enhancing biodiversity. The implementation started with a study and was continued with the introduction of practical gardens maintained by the local community of 3 residential buildings (one in Suru Street, another in Lagos Street in Agege, and a third in Abeokuta Street). (1,2,3,4)