City parks have long been a place for urban residents to get a small amount of green. As cities increasingly feel the impacts of rising seas and temperatures, people are rethinking the roles of urban parks.
All of the dark-gray asphalt (沥青) in cities collect heat. Dallas is one of the country's fastest-warming cities thanks in part to its extensive impervious (不透水的) surfaces, but with a new $312 million bond package, the city is hoping to change that. Using satellite data, the city is able to see what neighborhoods most need the cooling effect of green spaces.
Cities are increasingly flooding and city planners think parks can help with this issue too. A report published in February by The Nature Conservancy looked at the best ways to deal with flooding in Houston, a city with many neighborhoods built on floodplains and regularly flooded by rising waters. Offering affected homeowners buyouts and transforming homes into green spaces would save more money than installing infrastructure (基础设施) like pipes, they found.
Brendan Shane, a climate program director, says parks can create opportunities for people to exercise and play, in addition to cooling neighborhoods and absorbing floodwater. "The stronger the bonds are from neighbor to neighbor, the better they are able to react to a shock," he says.
"Not a single solution by itself will avoid the climate crisis. We see parks as an important part of it, but there isn'ta silver bullet," says Diane Regas, CEO of The Trust for Public Land. "Parks are an example of what we in the environmental community need to do to reach solutions that address climate change at the same time and make people's lives better."
