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Urban Transformation


CITIES ARE USING NATURE TO CUT URBAN TEMPERATURES – BY 2°C IN ONE CASE

Jan 2, 2024

Cities around the world are turning to natural solutions to try and reduce
temperatures.

Image: REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

EWAN THOMSON

Senior Writer, Forum Agenda

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This article is part of: Centre for Nature and Climate
 * Cities around the world are turning to natural solutions to try and reduce
   temperatures.
 * This includes Medellín in Colombia, which has cut temperatures by 2°C by
   developing a network of green corridors.
 * The World Economic Forum’s Nature-Positive Cities initiative aims to help
   urban areas and businesses unite around common principles to build their
   relationship with nature.

For a cost of just $6.50 per person, the Colombian city of Medellín has cut its
average temperature by 2°C.

It has done this using “green corridors” – lines of trees and plants that cost a
total of $16.3 million to put in place and $625,000 a year to maintain.

And Medellín is not alone – other cities around the world are turning to natural
solutions to reduce temperatures, which have been driven higher by the climate
crisis and a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect, where city areas
heat up more than rural ones due to building and road materials retaining heat.


Plants and trees help reduce heat levels by introducing water vapour into the
environment. Image: World Economic Forum


MEDELLIN'S "GREEN CORRIDORS"

Medellín has a relatively constant temperature all year round of about 22-24°C,
aided by its position in a valley surrounded by mountains. But, like many
built-up areas across the globe, Colombia’s second-largest city has been warmer
than surrounding rural areas.

A reduction in green areas and an increase in buildings and roads was partly to
blame. A number of other issues including increased air pollution also played a
part.

Solving the issue in a sustainable way was a key consideration for urban
planners.

Discover

How does the World Economic Forum encourage biological diversity?

Show more


In the last 100 years, more than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared
from farmers’ fields, and all of the world’s 17 main fishing grounds are now
being fished at or above their sustainable limits.

These trends have reduced diversity in our diets, which is directly linked to
diseases or health risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and malnutrition.

One initiative which is bringing a renewed focus on biological diversity is the
Tropical Forest Alliance.



This global public-private partnership is working on removing deforestation from
four global commodity supply chains – palm oil, beef, soy, and pulp and paper.

The Alliance includes businesses, governments, civil society, indigenous people
and communities, and international organizations.

Enquire to become a member or partner of the Forum and help stop deforestation
linked to supply chains.




Green corridors – areas that are landscaped to promote more biodiversity –
provide natural shade for urban areas. They also reduce heat levels through a
process called evapotranspiration, which introduces water vapour into the
environment.

The green corridor initiative in Medellín not only helped reduce temperatures by
2°C but also cut air pollution. These combined effects are making nature-based
solutions increasingly popular among urban planners.




STRATEGIC DESIGN IN SINGAPORE’S AND DÜSSELDORF

Singapore has a land shortage and high population density, but despite its
limited space it has developed a system of roads called Nature Ways that are
lined with a diverse range of trees and shrubs, mimicking the structure of
rainforests.



As well as reducing temperatures, the tree canopies protect animal species and
cut air pollution. Singapore is now the second-highest ranked city on
Treepedia’s Green View Index, which measures tree canopy cover in urban areas.

Over in Germany, Düsseldorf is home to a building covered with 30,000 plants
that is helping to improve the city’s environment. Kö-Bogen II has hedges across
its surface that were selected because of their ability to alter heat levels in
the surrounding area.


THE GROWTH OF "NATURE-POSITIVE CITIES"

The World Economic Forum recently launched the Nature-Positive Cities
initiative, which aims to help urban areas and businesses unite around common
principles to build their relationship with nature.

The Forum is partnering with five “champion cities” to provide guidance on the
implementation and delivery of nature-based interventions.

Barranquilla in Colombia is one of these cities. Its government recently
published a long-term urban development plan called Barranquilla 2100 that
outlines plans for nature restoration and biodiversity-centric urban
revitalization.

Another of the champion cities is Incheon in South Korea, which has a target of
cutting heatwave casualties to zero. It aims to achieve this with a four-pillar
strategy that includes the installation of natural shading.


RISING HEAT RISKS FOR URBAN POPULATIONS

Summer 2023 was the hottest on record, and even higher temperatures are expected
in future. Of the world’s 576 largest urban areas, more than 70% – home to 1.4
billion people – are deemed to be at high or extreme risk from issues including
extreme heat, according to the World Economic Forum’s BiodiverCities by 2030
report.

Cities are where 80% of global GDP comes from today, so future-proofing these
areas is a vital part of our long-term ability to thrive, says the report.



The report calls on cities around the world to see the opportunities to embrace
nature and live in balance with it, or face further natural ecosystem collapse.
By measuring and highlighting the value of nature, urban planning can reflect
the true value of nature-based urban solutions, it says.


Multiple stakeholders must work together to help cities tackle extreme heat.
Image: World Economic Forum

“Nature-based solutions for urban infrastructure can provide 28% greater value
than grey infrastructure alternatives in terms of positive environmental
externalities and more resilient jobs, while costing 50% less, using today’s
measures of economic cost,” it adds.

But cities can only truly change if governments, the private sector, investors
and those living in these areas come together to make things work. Organizations
such as the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance are also helping by providing
knowledge-sharing opportunities and policy recommendations for key decision
makers.

HAVE YOU READ?

 * HOW LEANING ON NATURE CAN BEAT URBAN HEAT

 * FROM BANGKOK TO BUENOS AIRES, HERE'S HOW 12 GLOBAL CITIES ARE TACKLING
   EXTREME HEAT

 * DISCOVER HOW SWELTERING URBAN HEAT ISLANDS ARE BEING COOLED DOWN



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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public
License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the
World Economic Forum.

RELATED TOPICS:

Urban TransformationNature and Biodiversity

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